Actually Breaking: Suspicious Toys at White House
Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:10:00 AM PDT
I haven't seen this in the media yet, but I'm looking out my window next door to the White House. The police have shut down several square blocks around the White House from car and pedestrian traffic. There's a bomb squad parked out front. The issue appears to be a few suspicious objects that have been thrown over the fence at the Old Executive Office building.
These objects include a grocery bag, a stuffed dog, and what appears to be either Elmo or a red Teletubby. So I'm not too worried (now, if it was a purple Teletubby, that would be a different story).
I'll update the diary if anything actually happens.
UPDATE: The cool robot is gone and has left awesome treadmarks all over the Old Executive Office building lawn. 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue have been reopened to traffic. Elmo has apparently been determined to be grating and annoying, but not technically a terrorist threat.
Second update below the jump...
Greenspan: No Real Estate Bubble. Or is there?
Fri May 20, 2005 at 01:02:23 PM PDT
CNN is reporting on a Greenspan speech in which our favorite objectivist assures us that there is no real estate bubble. CNN's headline:
"No Real Estate Bubble"
However, once you read the article, suddenly things don't seem so rosy
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday the booming U.S. housing sector shows signs of some "froth" but that the central bank does not see a national housing bubble.
"We don't perceive that there is a national bubble but it's hard not to see ... that there are a lot of local bubbles," Greenspan told the Economic Club of New York.
Since I live in one of those local real estate markets he's referring to, somehow I am not reassured.
More below the fold...
Depression-Era Mortgage Loans Make Comeback
Tue May 17, 2005 at 07:31:51 AM PDT
Lots of news today about the proliferation of interest-only mortgages. For the uninitiated, the borrower only has to pay interest on an i/o mortgage for a set period of time - usually five to ten years - after which the loan converts to a higher, amortizing payment:
For example, if a 30-year fixed-rate loan of $100,000 has an interest rate of 6 percent, the standard "fully amortizing" monthly payment is $599.56. This payment, if continued with the same interest rate, will pay off the loan at maturity. The interest-only payment, however, is only $500. The interest-only borrower saves $99.56; the borrower with the amortized loan puts that same amount toward repaying principal.
More after the jump...
Pat Buchanan: "Was World War II Worth It?"
Fri May 13, 2005 at 10:55:46 AM PDT
This is a couple of days old, so I apologize (and will delete) if it has already been diaried.
Xenophobic, homophobic, wingnut extraordinaire Pat Buchanan publicly wonders whether World War II was "worth it":
When one considers the losses suffered by Britain and France - hundreds of thousands dead, destitution, bankruptcy, the end of the empires - was World War II worth it, considering that Poland and all the other nations east of the Elbe were lost anyway?
If the objective of the West was the destruction of Nazi Germany, it was a "smashing" success. But why destroy Hitler? If to liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted Hitler in.
Um, Pat? Why destroy Hitler? Do 6 million Jews (among others) ring a bell?
More below the fold...
OT: Butthead Dinosaurs
Tue May 03, 2005 at 08:20:05 AM PDT
Okay, this is WAY off-topic, but it amuses me:
Discovery of skull shakes up dinosaur family tree
The buttheads have foiled the experts again. A dragonlike dinosaur skull unearthed in South Dakota last year may force paleontologists to rewrite the history of a dinosaur group beloved to children - the buttheads, more technically known as pachycephalosaurs.
Boulder dinosaur-digger Bob Bakker has confirmed that the dinosaur, found by three amateurs, is a new species in a rare family with a handful of known North American relatives.
"I saw this head and had two thoughts," he said. "One, I'm completely wrong about everything I knew about buttheads, and two, that's really nifty. ... This animal shouldn't exist."
Wild, Wild West - Mercs Run Amok
Mon May 02, 2005 at 07:12:34 AM PDT
The military's reliance on "contractors" (read: mercenaries) is going to hurt us badly. How can we win hearts and minds with
these guys running around?
LINK
Custer Battles LLC, a Rhode Island-based contracting firm [is] now mired in lawsuits and a criminal investigation by the Pentagon.
Custer Battles security guards have also been accused of firing at unarmed civilians. They have been accused of crushing a car filled with Iraqi children and adults. They have been accused of unleashing a hail of bullets in a Baghdad hotel, only to discover, when the dust literally settled, that they had been shooting at each other.
More below the fold...
Wedge: Bush to Jack Energy Costs in Red States
Wed Apr 27, 2005 at 10:33:38 AM PDT
A Bush administration plan to sell electricity based on market conditions rather than the cost of production would more than double electric rates in South Dakota and Nebraska.
Link.
In South Dakota and Nebraska, cost-based rates are charged by the Western Area Power Administration, part of the Power Marketing Administrations. Under the 2006 federal budget proposal, PMA rates would increase by 20 percent annually for five years and remain at the higher level starting in 2012.
Bob Sahr, vice chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, said the average family could expect their electric bills to rise by hundreds of dollars annually.
More below the fold...
