Chris Hayes on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)

Here's Chris Hayes on the Rachel Maddow Show discussing the Home Affordable Modification Program, abbreviated HAMP (which always throws me somehow). This is painful, the natural consequence of "partnering" with private entities to do public functions. Painful (h/t David Dayen):



Would you like some fries with that triangulation?

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Bizarre Chris Matthews interview in which he claims Breitbart showed entire Sherrod tape

Very weird. Read More......

Judicial confirmations plummet under Obama

Why do Republicans block Obama's judicial nominations? Because they can. From CAP:

Judicial confirmations slowed to a trickle on the day President Barack Obama took office. Filibusters, anonymous holds, and other obstructionary tactics have become the rule. Uncontroversial nominees wait months for a floor vote, and even district court nominees—low-ranking judges whose confirmations have never been controversial in the past—are routinely filibustered into oblivion. Nominations grind to a halt in many cases even after the Senate Judiciary Committee has unanimously endorsed a nominee.

Such tactics are completely unprecedented, and so are their results. Fewer than 43 percent of President Obama’s judicial nominees have so far been confirmed, while past presidents have enjoyed confirmation rates as high as 93 percent. And President Obama’s nominees have been confirmed at a much slower rate than those of his predecessor—nearly 87 percent of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees were confirmed.

The data could not be any clearer. As Figure 1 shows, judicial confirmations have fallen off a cliff since President Obama took office.

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Study: Smarter people go to bed later

He's got numbers to show it. And it may be true. The question is whether going to bed later makes you smarter, or whether smarter people choose to go to bed later, need less sleep, think too much and can't get to sleep, have more to do, or what. From Psychology Today:

Night Lights

Bedtimes and wake-up times for Americans in their 20s by IQ.

Very Dull (IQ < 75)

Weekday: 11:41 P.M.-7:20 A.M.

Weekend: 12:35 A.M.-10:09 A.M.

Normal (90 < IQ < 110)

Weekday: 12:10 A.M.-7:32 A.M.

Weekend: 1:13 A.M.-10:14 A.M.

Very Bright (IQ > 125)

Weekday: 12:29 A.M.-7:52 A.M.

Weekend: 1:44 A.M.-11:07 A.M.

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NY Times: 'Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper Cuts'

I can't say it any better than the NY Times headline writer — Industries find surging profits in deeper cuts. The article itself, from Sunday's Business section, is a great read, if painful. There's too much in it to clip cleanly, but the opening captures one of the main points. (By the way, the end of this post contains an action suggestion; the goal isn't depression, but information and motivation.)

And now the article. It seems Harley-Davidson, that staple of American symbology, as a tale to tell (my emphasis):

By most measures, Harley-Davidson has been having a rough ride.

Motorcycle sales are falling in 2010, as they have for each of the last three years. The company does not expect a turnaround anytime soon.

But despite that drought, Harley’s profits are rising — soaring, in fact. Last week, Harley reported a $71 million profit in the second quarter, more than triple what it earned a year ago.

This seeming contradiction — falling sales and rising profits — is one reason the mood on Wall Street is so much more buoyant than in households, where pessimism runs deep and joblessness shows few signs of easing.

Many companies are focusing on cost-cutting to keep profits growing, but the benefits are mostly going to shareholders instead of the broader economy, as management conserves cash rather than bolstering hiring and production. Harley, for example, has announced plans to cut 1,400 to 1,600 more jobs by the end of next year. That is on top of 2,000 job cuts last year — more than a fifth of its work force.

The article goes on to talk about management "leveraging its position" to make workers more productive. (Care to work there? You too can be "leveraged.") And because it's the business page, there's a handy link so you can add Harley-Davidson to your portfolio. America at work.

The whole piece is good, with lots of corporate examples.

But I'd like to close with the graph that goes with the article, a two-parter:



On the left, look first at GDP (light gray). Now Employee Compensation (dark gray). Now Profit (black). Now look at the last three dots on the graph. The amount of GDP that I didn't go to Employee Compensation — was added to Corporate Profit, almost one-for-one.

Now look on the right. That's corporate cash. Remember what we said about deflations — that cash was king and things were its footstool? The corps are sitting on a mound of cash, waiting for the price of what cash buys to fall to the floor. Wanna bet that wages are one of the things they're watching to fall?

The types who run these companies may be predatory and unpatriotic, but they're not stupid.

One way to fight this, by the way, is to organize the unemployed as a political force. They are both potent, large (unfortunately) and highly motivated — very much like draft-age students during the Anti-War Movement. If you're considering action, consider this.

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Saturday morning open thread

One of the neat things about being in Paris is walking. I have to admit that I was never much of a walker until I got my puppy earlier this year. And once I dropped 7 pounds as a result of our twice a day romps around the neighborhood, little Sasha had me hooked on the value of a good stroll around the block.

But walking in Paris is something entirely different than walking in Washington, DC. To wit, my walk home last night from the Marais, an old neighborhood in the center of Paris. It was around 10pm and I was about to hit the metro, but figured, why am I heading home? I had nothing to do, but still, it's early and it's Paris. So I walked. The entire walk took about 45 minutes (not including a ten minute ice cream break at my favorite Italian gelato store, Amorino - they're a chain throughout Paris, and the best damn ice cream I've ever eaten - equal to the best stuff in Italy).

Anyway, so my walk started with the usual Marais night life, which can be a bit overwhelming unless you take a less traveled street, which I did. Then it's quite quaint. I headed down to the Tour St. Jacques, which was recently (relatively) renovated, and was standing in all its glory, bathed in green light, oddly.

I looked down the block and caught a glimpse of the Hotel de Ville, or city hall. And it's such a gorgeous building, even by day - but at night, with the lighting, it's simply stunning. So I took a detour so I could walk by it. As I got closer, I heard music. There was some kind of concert going on, and the crowd seemed to be liking it. So I headed on over.



Here's a quick video of the concert:



I have no idea who the band was, but they were speaking French with a heavily English, I think, accent. As I cut through the crowd, there were a slew of bikes just standing there, and I realized - it's 10 o'clock on a Friday night in Paris - it's the city-wide bike ride! Every Friday night, in summer at least (not sure about the rest of the year), at around 10 o'clock at night, they close some of the streets in Paris and have either a big bike ride, or a big roller blade ride. It's just great. I need to try it some time, at least the bike ride.



So I left the bike ride before it began, cut across the river and caught a glimpse of Paris Plage, or Paris Beach. Every year they truck in tons of sand and dump it along the roadway along the Seine. Probably a mile's worth. They then put up beach umbrellas, bring in vendors, water sprays, chairs, music, and voila! - it's a beach in the middle of the city. It's quite the popular event, takes place, more or less, from July 20 to August 20. You can get a glimpse of Paris Plage in the right side of the photo below.



Then more trekking south until I approach, of course, Notre Dame cathedral.



Honest to God, this is what it's like walking home in this city. You just walk by the most incredible things. I stopped for a moment and looked up at Notre Dame, a sight I've seen probably dozens of times, but just had to look again. Then headed south, across the river (Notre Dame is on an island, basically), and heard music playing, again. This time it was a guy with a guitar serenading a pretty large crowd along the Seine. He was playing Gloria Gaynor, I think, then swung into full blown Madonna.

Here's a quick video of the guy playing - I'm pretty sure he's singing "Like a Prayer." I love seeing the people just sitting along the Seine, 1030 at night, couples, friends, lovers, without a care in the world. I can't imagine sitting in any big city along a river late at night, and surviving.



From there, I walked through the Latin Quarter, heading down past St. Sulpice, and then hit Amorino, and walked the final minutes home in chocolate bliss. Read More......

CREW corrupt candidates update: Jeff Greene

We talked here about the CREW 2010 Crooked Candidates site. They've just added another, Democrat Jeff Greene — and he's, yep, a Floridian. (Is it the water?)

Jeff Greene (U.S. Senate, Florida): Mr. Greene is a business man and a Los Angeles real estate mogul.

While self-financing his Senate campaign, Mr. Greene appears to be skirting Federal Election Commission regulations by not giving complete information regarding vendors used by his campaign. Mr. Green is financing his campaign, in part, through a series of in-kind contributions, but the campaign has not revealed the names of the vendors providing services. . . .

In 2005, a multimillion dollar yacht owned by Mr. Greene dropped anchor on an environmentally sensitive coral reef off the coast of Belize causing major damage. . . . Mr. Greene also has been criticized for amassing his wealth through credit default swaps and subprime mortgages. In fact, Mr. Greene was likely the first individual to trade credit default swaps. . . . Finally, Mr. Greene paid Democratic National Committee member Jon Ausman $4,000 for political consulting and strategy six days before Mr. Ausman endorsed Mr. Greene for Senate.

Busted up a coral reef with a yacht anchor? Sheesh. And I think that Ausman guy got seriously taken — $4000 looks like pin money to me.

Click through to read about Ron Howard's dealings with Greene. Again, sheesh.

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X Prize Challenge finalists: Create the car of the future

The X-Prize Foundation offers prize money and awards for innovative technology that meets socially important technical challenges. From their blurb (my emphasis):

The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit organization whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity thereby inspiring the formation of new industries, jobs and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck.

The Foundation's latest challenge — technology that cleans oil off water surfaces. Previous challenges range from space travel to genome sequencing.

The following Rachel Maddow clip highlights their "dream car" challenge — create an automobile that gets the equivalent of 100 mpg, has a 200-mile range, is safe and producible. The contest is down to nine finalists. Chris Hayes, subbing for Rachel, in a fascinating segment:



One reservation — I'm not a fan of public-private partnerships; I think the public gets screwed most of the time. The beast is still the beast, after all. Despite (or because of) their non-profit status, X Prize's challenges seem to have lots of corporate and foundation "partners". The auto competition is "partnered" with Progressive Insurance. The oil challenge is "partnered" with Wendy Schmidt, president of The Schmidt Family Foundation, and co-founder of the Schmidt Marine Science Research Institute.

Both of these orgs have naming rights to their competition — it's officially the "Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE" for example. Kind of like the "Frito-Lay It's-All-in-the-Wrist Olathe Kansas Bowl".

So this may be wonderfully generous and unselfish, but still, color me questioning. There's a lot of patent money on the table. (Mm, money...) Still, great stuff technically.

Technically yours,

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Film a cop, face 16 years in jail

That's what a Maryland man is looking at — 16 years if convicted, for filming police at his own traffic stop and then posting the video on YouTube. All of this according to Ray Sanchez of ABC News (h/t Scott Horton).

The arrestee is charged with violating the state's anti-wiretapping laws. The ABC News story is here. The YouTube video is here. (Don't let the Maryland police catch you watching it.)

Sanchez says these arrests are more and more common, with an obvious purpose:

"The message is clearly, 'Don't criticize the police,'" said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who is part of Graber's defense team. "With these charges, anyone who would even think to record the police is now justifiably in fear that they will also be criminally charged."

Click through to the news story; there are lots of other instances. Horton agrees this is a "growing trend." He concludes:

This is an extreme example of the arrogance of power, in which a Maryland cop exercised bad judgment, was embarrassed when he was publicly exposed, and got his colleagues and prosecutors to exercise still worse judgment.

As Aristotle teaches us, in a democracy the people are entitled to throw light on the dealings of public officials to keep them honest, whereas the private dealings of the people are to be sheltered from unreasonable intrusion. In a tyranny, the officials of the government are enshrouded in secrecy but constantly invade the privacy of the common citizens. Which model does this bring the people of Maryland closer to?

The cop was filmed with a gun in his hand at a traffic stop. Rules of engagement?

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Eric Cantor's donations from the financial sector catch up with him

House GOP whip Eric Cantor has seen a sudden 32% increase in donations from the financial sector. Why imagine that. Read More......

The ADL thinks religious freedom exists only if bigots don't find you icky

What kind of BS is this coming out of the ADL? You'd think a Jewish civil rights group might appreciate the irony of caving to bigots simply because they find your religion uncomfortable.

From the ADL, about that new mosque being discussed for construction near Ground Zero.

We regard freedom of religion as a cornerstone of the American democracy, and that freedom must include the right of all Americans – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths – to build community centers and houses of worship.

We categorically reject appeals to bigotry on the basis of religion, and condemn those whose opposition to this proposed Islamic Center is a manifestation of such bigotry.

The controversy which has emerged regarding the building of an Islamic Center at this location is counterproductive to the healing process. Therefore, under these unique circumstances, we believe the City of New York would be better served if an alternative location could be found.

The healing process? It's been 9 years. Just how long do we ban Muslim-Americans from participating in our democracy, before we're all well and healed? Is ten years enough? How about twenty? And does the same rule apply to synagogues? After all, Israel makes some people mighty uncomfortable too. Should we ban synagogues in, say, Detroit - you know, for that healing process thing.

This is disgusting.

J Street responds, God bless them:

The principle at stake in the Cordoba House controversy goes to the heart of American democracy and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.

As Mayor Bloomberg has said, proposing a church or a synagogue for that site would raise no questions. The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so. We would hope the American Jewish community would be at the forefront of standing up for the freedom and equality of a religious minority looking to exercise its legal rights in the United States, rather than casting aspersions on its funders and giving in to the fear-mongerers and pandering politicians urging it to relocate.

What better ammunition to feed the Osama Bin Laden’s of the world and their claim of anti-Muslim bias in the United States as they seek to whip up global jihad than to hold this proposal for a Muslim religious center to a different and tougher standard than other religious institutions would be.

UPDATE: Krugman agrees. Read More......

Fewer people moving to find a new job, economists worry this could set the economy back

From the Wash Post:

Labor mobility has nearly ground to a halt in the past two years, and policymakers are increasingly worried that the slowdown is not just a symptom of the nation's economic struggles but also a barrier to overcoming them.

With many people locked in homes by underwater mortgages, only 1.6 percent of Americans moved between states in a one-year period that ended in March 2009 -- a labor stagnation not seen in half a century. Though household mobility has gradually declined for more than two decades, the recent sharp downturn has caused economists to worry that it could harm the already struggling recovery.

"In the past, people tended to move to where the jobs are," said Assistant Treasury Secretary Alan B. Krueger, who oversees economic policy for the department. "Now it is necessary to have more of a strategy to move the jobs -- and create new jobs -- in areas where the people are."

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Environmentalists say pollution makes baptism at sacred spot in Jordan River unsafe

A scary sign of the times, even though Israel denies it. Read More......

Obama & the Embeds (DEA edition)

Tell me again why it's called the "Obama administration"?

Last October (almost a year ago, if you're counting) Eric Holder called a halt to DEA raids on medical marijuana patients and facilities (my emphasis):

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. directed federal prosecutors Monday to back away from pursuing cases against medical marijuana patients, signaling a broad policy shift that drug reform advocates interpret as the first step toward legalization of the drug.

The government's top lawyer said that in 14 states with some provisions for medical marijuana use, federal prosecutors should focus only on cases involving higher-level drug traffickers, money launderers or people who use the state laws as a cover. . . .

In a statement, Holder asserted that drug traffickers and people who use firearms will continue to be direct targets of federal prosecutors, but that, on his watch, "it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana."

Seems clear enough. So why is the DEA raiding legal California marijuana facilities? Steve Elliott at Alternet (h/t Michael Whitney):

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has flouted Mendocino County, California’s newly enacted medical marijuana ordinance by raiding the first collective that had applied to the sheriff’s cultivation permit program.

A multi-agency federal task force descended on the property of Joy Greenfield, the first Mendo patient to pay the $1,050 application fee under the ordinance, which allows collectives to grow up to 99 plants provided they comply with certain regulations.

July 2010 raids were also conducted in San Diego county.

Sounds like an Embed. Let's see. DEA, Acting Administrator, Michele Leonhart. Bingo — Bush-nominated as Deputy Administrator of the DEA in 2003, confirmed in 2004. Bush-nominated as DEA head in 2008, but never confirmed. Re-nominated by Obama in February 2010.

And it seems Ms. Leonhart doesn't much like medical marijuana. Alternet again (all you need is the headline, though click if you like):

Obama Wants a Bush Crony Appointed as a Top Drug Enforcer

Jeez. Come on, Mr. President. If you can post up Reggie Love, you can block this nomination — all by yourself.


The Marijuana Policy Project has a petition, if you're so inclined. Jane Hamsher has some thoughts as well.

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How to lose an 11 point lead in seven weeks?

We love Sharron Angle:

Throughout Angle's primary campaign, the conservative candidate touted a wide range of controversial views as she took to the campaign trail to sell her candidacy.

From expressing her desire to "phase out" social security to appearing to advocate for an armed insurrection if "Congress keeps going the way it is," Angle didn't fail to raise eyebrows in communicating her positions.

The Tea Party-backed hopeful has made visible efforts to soften the language she uses to communicate her views since securing the Republican nomination; however, her statements have nevertheless been well-documented.

Here are a few examples of stances Angle has taken that have led her to face criticism and scrutiny:

- Calling the BP oil spill an "accident" and suggesting to "deregulate" the oil industry

- Offering advice to victims of rape considering abortion: 'Lemons can be made into lemonade.'

- Advancing abortion-causes-breast-cancer myth

- Expressing a desire to abolish Social Security

- Raising the possibility of an armed insurrection

Yeah, armed insurrection against the government was my personal fav. Read More......