letter from new albany

2010-09-27T15:23:00.003-04:00

2010-06-30T18:00:00.000-04:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education

June 29, 2010

Waldorf Education

My mother died in 1953 and my father’s second wife was a German woman whose family was deeply committed to anthroposophy, the world system that had been devised and promoted by the Austrian-born seer and philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Our family was Quaker, my parents had joined the Society of Friends just after the Second World War, and by the time my step mother came along I was away at a Quaker boarding school, then university, and off to Canada in 1962. Thus I never really got much exposure to anthroposophy; but in the 1960s my father gave up his job as a bursar at a Friends’ school and went to become bursar at a large Steiner School, or as they are known, Waldorf School, where he remained until he retired (and died shortly thereafter) in the early 1990s.

Continued...

Happy Earth Day

2010-04-22T10:11:00.002-04:00

Big Trees make Good Neighbors

2010-04-20T20:51:00.002-04:00

Asphalt plant protesters threaten lawsuit against Jeffersonville

"Barrow said the problems posed by the plant were amplified when a buffer of mature trees between Quarry Road and the neighborhood was removed to make way for a proposed new road through the area."

All I can think is, when Mac Construction and Excavating is run out of Jeff, will the city of NA offer them our Linden Meadows or CCE. inc. sites? Pre-stripped of all life, pre-polluted, free waste disposal services from NAMU, if they promise to use tons of it.

Happy Pollen Days

2010-04-14T15:53:00.004-04:00

Accolade® Elm purchased at Walnut Ridge Nursery April 2008. It doubled in size the first year and we suppose this year as well. What a fine tree! This cultivar was developed at the Morton Arboretum in Chicago to be resistant to Dutch Elm disease. New Albany, like most America cities 100 years ago, was heavily planted in Elm, considered the quintessential American urban tree then. Not only is it's towering vase shape appropriate for cities, but it is very LOW POLLEN. When we replace the hardwood canopy that used to keep the ground cool here, even in summer, we'll want lots of Elms. Oh, one last thing. This particular tree cost me $125 and it was small enough I planted it myself! Check out the newspaper clipping below to get an idea of what our tree will look like in 200 years.

240-year-old elm tree ‘Herbie’ to get the chop

101-year-old man has cared for sick ‘friend’ for more than half a century

	Frank Knight, 101, stands in front of an elm tree known as "Herbie" in Yarmouth.
Steven Senne / AP

2010-04-03T14:35:00.001-04:00

April 2, 2010

New Albany still hasn’t received response to Hoosier Panel offer

By DANIEL SUDDEATHDaniel.Suddeath@newsandtribune.com

This is a follow-up, I think, to earlier stories about possible redevelopment deals the city administration is promoting. It's hard to tell when the only people interviewed for the article work for the local gov't body that wants to do the deals. It could be just another Mayoral "press release" as transcribed by the "newspaper". Other than the city and the commercial interests involved, there is no community reaction reported. Just like it's always been, the only parties involved in deal-making are the mayor's office and his friends with commercial interests.

I hope someday New Albany becomes a town for residents too, not just the commercial interests and their friends.

Indiana City, Ex-Manager Sentenced Over Pollution.

I did not know it was a criminal offense to pollute!

"Linden Meadows Ghetto"...that has a nice ring to it, eh?

2010-04-02T15:31:00.001-04:00

Linden Meadows: File under - ghetto grows: lawlessness of property owners continues apace with new “hood joining the older more established “hoods where anything goes.

PNC is our newest "slumlord", welcome! Since they have absolutely no incentive to do anything but let the new Linden Meadows ghetto take it's course, how soon will the latest "magical developer" step in to save the city.

“The only risk theoretically they’re taking on by waiting, is the risk that the real estate market continues to deteriorate according to Mike Hynes, vice president of The Housing Partnership, Inc. in Louisville."

Stark Raving Math chapter 14 - NAMU

2010-03-23T12:30:00.003-04:00

I have in the past tried to make this point on my own. Without local government doing it's part to incentivize responsible stewardship of our eco-system, we stay a poisoned ghetto. Recently another resident protested the rate structure for our Wastewater Utility on NAC. I was curious and looked at our household bills and saw we were one of those conservation-minded homes where we were actually subsidizing the big users. So what NAMU is saying is - don't use low-flow toilets or rain barrels or plant trees, just keep the tap running, it gets cheaper as you use more! Wow, I've never used a municipal utility that discriminates against the most conservative users.

But then I received this email from Kathleen and she asked me to post it. The only math I can handle this week involves the IRS, so I'm happy to pass this on, just the save me time. I think the local discussion on sewer rates can and should expand to include amending the rate structure so it is fair for the environment and conservationists, not just industry.

from kat330 3/24/10

Graphically explaining the issues of discrimination and conservation disincentive within New Albany Municipal Utilities wastewater charges

SAMPLE FROM NAMU's CURRENT WASTEWATER RATE CHART

Wastewater Charge Units Used = Rate Per Unit

20.16 4 5.04

15.12 3 5.04

10.08 2 5.04

10.08 1 10.08 [5.04 + 5.04 surcharge]

Leaving 0-unit usage out of the sample for the moment (since you can't divide or multiply by "0"), it's crystal clear from the above how any "base access" or "minimum use surcharge" -- whatever you dub it -- is currently the burden only of NAMU customers who strain our city's pipes and system the very least. Every billed customer at a usage level of 2 units (plus) pays only in parity with exact usage except for the bottommost tier of zero and 1-unit users. This constitutes a completely regressive and discriminatory billing system, which piles all additional costs onto one group of highly responsible consumers (1-unit) and on vacant properties (0 units).

The argument presented by Skomp at a sewer board Mtg. on 3/11/10, and repeated by others, is (to paraphrase) "NAMU [and/or EMC] requires this extra minimum revenue to help pay for the system." That's precisely why a connection / access fee shared by every customer from the very beginning would have resulted in far more revenues collected, obviously, from the full 17,000 customer base instead of 2-3,000 customers at most. More importantly, this much more common base fee billing system would have been non-discriminatory over all these years and, more importantly, the current dire need of a 36% rate hike would be mostly, if not entirely, nullified. A simple computer algorithm would probably reveal that nothing more than tiny increments in unit rates above a shared access fee would have been needed in 2010 if a fair system had been put into place from the beginning.

Now over on the NA Confidential blog, we observed a number of 3-unit users wrote in their comments how "fair" and perfectly reasonable 15.12 was for their wastewater charges. That's because it is for you! If in this city you use 2, 3, 4, 5 and on up to whatever ceiling of unit usage exists, your costs match up exactly to what you consume and not a penny more. So let's graphically show a switch up on the current NAMU sample above by removing that 5.04 surcharge from the 1-unit users and instead tack it onto you 3-unit users. It would look like this:

Wastewater Charge Units Used = Rate Per Unit

20.16 4 5.04

20.16 3 6.72

10.08 2 5.04

5.04 1 5.04

This new rate chart points up several interesting facts. First off, the surcharge added at the 3-unit level divides out to far less of an overcharge per unit (6.72) than how it currently divides for usage of 1-unit (10.08). Also, since the NAMU customer base contains many more billings of 3 units than it does of 1 unit, the collected 5.04 from each in the above group would be a tremendous boost to revenues over what's currently collected on the backs of 1-unit users. And again, a simple spreadsheet program could pinpoint which usage group is the most prevalent in any given month from among the 17,000 total and randomly stick that 5.04 surcharge onto that most common usage billing. After all, if it is not being considered discriminatory when it's added to the bottom usage tiers, then how could it be considered unfair when tacked onto 3- or 4- or 5-unit users?

Here is what else this "walk in our shoes" surcharge switcheroo can demonstrate. Okay now, all of you "happy what you pay" 3-unit users out there: How happy would you be to pay 20.16 for your 3 units of usage when you know the guy next door uses 4 units and pays exactly the same as you do for wastewater? Do you think he would wash his car more efficiently or wait for full dishwasher and laundry loads in order to conserve down to your 3-unit level when he knows he'll pay exactly the same for 3 as he already does for 4? Unless he’s the greenest of the green and among the most responsible, conscientious citizens the city has, of course not. On the other hand, do you think you might develop more wastrel behaviors since you wouldn't pay any more for consuming that additional unit?

Fact is, citizens, I couldn't find another example on the Internet of a comparably-sized municipal utility with a "minimum use" billing system in 2010 that places extra charges solely on the bottom tiers of the customer base. Duke, Vectren, AT&T and Indiana American Water all use a base fee after which customers pay equitably for their usage on 1 for 1, 2 for 2, 3 for 3, etc., basis. Does an access / connection fee system still burden the lowest consumer of any service? Yes, it does. But at least these other utilities don't charge the customer who uses 1 unit twice as much for that unit as the customer who uses 2 units, which NAMU currently does. Our Indiana American Water bill, et al, is not identical when consuming 0, 1, or 2 units in any given month -- it's progressive in costs -- but our NAMU bill is identical in those three different usage groups.

If you want to see a 21st century wastewater billing system that wisely, progressively and greenly goes several steps beyond even the base fee system we're advocating, then check out this URL for Minnetonka, MN (comparable in size to what New Albany was before further losing population).

http://www.eminnetonka.com/news.cfm?story_id=MunicipalUtilityFeesChanged

And at this URL, you can see what class action sewer suers can accomplish against rate discrimination:

http://www.ucan.org/water/city_sewer_department_settlement_brings_long_overdue_refunds_to_residents

Take and give care, and try always to be fair.

2010-03-22T19:01:00.001-04:00

The formerly Green Valley

2010-03-22T17:24:00.000-04:00

Speaking of sewers...

Let's all take a progressive moment to ponder this day, World Water Day, and focus on the larger civic goal of a greener home and planet. Water and wastewater, stormwater, flooding, these are big challenges for all human civilization.

New Albany, yeah, big challenges too. Not the least of which is the fact of living in a "flood plain". Human activity over the last 200 years here has literally, completely, destroyed everything that nature had built for eons.

I'm ashamed and shocked by the total destruction of our shared eco-system. I'm embarassed to say I'm from New Albany for several reasons, but a big one is it's sheer ecological hideousness. I've seen more beautiful urban canopies in third world war zones. Trash is strewn from one end of town to the other. Our historic urban cemetery is desecrated by the people we pay to take care of it. I'm outraged the primeveal forest is gone and all the benefits that would have accured to us had it been managed for the benefit of all generations instead of one or two.

Ecological restoration of this place will take super human will and courage. So, when a resident speaks in public to the need to incentivize conservation, as well as spread the costs of our pollution equitably, and she is humiliated and basically shouted down, well I'm sure I understand why this valley is poisoned. But it doesn't make the challenge go away.

Personally, I think the sewer billing system is retarded. It does in fact discriminate against me for conserving water, et al. Why? It seems like a fair question.

Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness

2010-02-20T21:11:00.000-05:00

duh!

2010-02-20T21:10:00.002-05:00

Aaahhhh, we can all breathe easier.

2010-01-03T13:19:00.001-05:00

Duke settles air violations at southern Ind. plant

By RICK CALLAHAN (AP) – Dec 22, 2009

"Under the proposed settlement, the EPA said Duke Energy will spend $85 million to cut sulfur dioxide emissions at its Gallagher plant near New Albany, Ind., by nearly 35,000 tons per year. Duke said the upgrades will cost about $80 million."

...related to our local discussion of Historic Preservation.

2009-12-08T14:00:00.003-05:00

The Duck House in the Fens was built about 1897. Designed by architect Alexander M. Longfellow, it was constructed as a “shelter house.’’ (Wendy Maeda/ Globe Staff)

City spurred to tend to historic Fens structure.

By Megan Irons

Globe Staff / December 8, 2009

full text of article

and not just 'cause I like it when people make the word FiSh look funny.

2009-12-03T17:35:00.001-05:00

HARBESON: Columnist goes FIsHing for an explanation

2009-12-02T13:27:00.002-05:00

CASH LEAKAGE AT CITY/COUNTY

MONEY SIEVE

BLOWS A NEW HOLE.

City Officials call meeting with wet residents - promise to bring city cash drawer.

Mayor: I’ll rip the last copper pipe off the Tabernacle building if I have do,

people are hurtin’. They got sewer water in their basements.

“FEMA - NO”

“City’s insurance provider also turned down about 25 tort claims.”

“New Albany meeting set for discussion over city aid for flood victims"

By DANIEL SUDDEATH

Daniel.Suddeath@newsandtribune.com

City officials will meet with New Albany residents affected by the Aug. 4 flood Wednesday to discuss the possibility of tax dollars being allocated toward repair costs. ...

... In fact, it would be the first time the city has voluntarily paid residents for disaster-related damages, Coffey said.

Another reason to support your local merchants this season!

2009-12-02T13:17:00.000-05:00

The Wal-Mart in Clarksville had to be partially evacuated early Sunday morning after a man wearing only boxer shorts reportedly carried a gun inside the store.

FresH off the Bulletin Board!

2009-12-01T18:58:00.001-05:00

Deep Sea Invertebrates can now be safely housed in Floyd County.

Techshot awarded $400,000 contract

"Techshot, Inc., has earned a $400,000 two-year contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to advance the company’s system for retrieving animals from as deep as 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) under the sea and safely bringing them to surface laboratories for study. It is the second contract within a year awarded to Techshot for such work.

“For more than 20 years we’ve been developing custom laboratory equipment for earth, air and space research,” said Techshot Executive Vice President and COO John Vellinger. “This project represents our first significant step into providing research equipment for scientists studying marine life.”

The physiology of deep sea fish and invertebrates is poorly known due to the difficult challenges of bringing up live specimens from high-pressure environments. Animals that thrive far below the surface cannot survive in the relatively low-pressures available in research laboratory enclosures.

When completed, Techshot’s high pressure specimen chamber is expected to be the only one of its kind capable of capturing and hosting creatures of the deep in conditions that sustain life and maximize research laboratory data gathering. Some of the first prototypes will be delivered to the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory for evaluation. Established by NOAA and the University of Hawaii, its mission is to study deep water marine processes in the Pacific Ocean.

Founded in 1988 in Greenville, Techshot engineers, scientists and technicians specialize in providing integrated mechanical, electrical and software solutions to the technical needs of a diverse spectrum of industries.

— Contributed"

As a scientist and lover of deep sea invertebrates, this is one tasty news nugget. First time I've heard of this outfit, hopefully not the last...

“To err is human, to forgive, canine” ~ Anonymous

2009-11-27T16:43:00.001-05:00

AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER INVOLVED IN INCIDENT WITH CHILD AT AKC EVENT

PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST

AP NEWS: BERRYVILLE , VA APRIL 5 2007

AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER INVOLVED IN INCIDENT WITH CHILD AT AKC EVENT

Police were called today to the Clarke County Fairgrounds to investigate an incident involving an American Stafforshire Terrier dog and a 9 year old child. The American Kennel Club sanctions the event, held by the Clarke County Kennel Club annually. Thousands of exhibitors and spectators attend yearly.

According to witnesses, the child was walking near the show rings unsupervised when she suddenly came face to face with the 70 lb American Staffordshire Terrier dog. The child threw her arms around the dog’s neck, reports say, when the unthinkable happened. The dog began enthusiastically licking the girl’s face as his tail wagged briskly.

“It was awful”, said one bystander, “there was nothing we could do. That dog was just giving that child every ounce of love he had and no one did a thing to stop it”.

Another witness, who took video of the event, said “This happens all the time, I don’t know how it hasn’t made the news before now”. One spectator, who declined to be named in this interview, told reporters, “The sounds were just heart wrenching, all that laughing and giggling. It made me smile so hard my face hurts. I plan to sue for pain and suffering”. The handler of the dog admits this is not the first time such an incident has occurred, and that the owners were “well aware of the stable, loving and patient temperament of this dog”. The owners were unavailable for comment.

Police state that the handler, who was noticeably unrepentant, was cited for Reckless Entertainment. The dog was given roasted chicken treats and was not taken into custody.

“To err is human, to forgive, canine” ~ Anonymous

Why fundamentalism will fail

2009-11-10T11:00:00.001-05:00

The Boston Globe:

Why fundamentalism will fail

A seemingly unstoppable force is being undone from the inside

By Harvey Cox

November 8, 2009

IN 1910, A COHORT of ultra-conservative American Protestants drew up a list of non-negotiable beliefs they insisted any genuine Christian must subscribe to. They published these “fundamentals” in a series of widely distributed pamphlets over the next five years. Their catalog featured doctrines such as the virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Christ, and his imminent second coming. The cornerstone, though, was a belief in the literal inerrancy of every syllable of the Bible, including in matters of geology, paleontology, and secular history. They called these beliefs fundamentals, and proudly styled themselves “fundamentalists” - true believers who feared that liberal movements like the social gospel and openness to other faiths were eroding the foundation of their religion. full article.

Redeveloping a concept of local government...

2009-10-31T20:20:00.003-04:00

...or

What to do about CHDO?

Last week a notice was posted on the City Government Bulletin Board (NATribune) about the latest quagmire of resource depletion, the Linden Meadows project. No, sadly, the project’s goal was not creating a Linden meadow abutting I-64. It’s conceptually flawed goal was to create affordable housing. But in fact it destroyed a park, a linden meadow? to make way for the project. This “Linden Meadows” could now be named “Erosion Field”.

From what I read, the city has proposed handing 1/2 million dollars to a big bailed-out bank, so they can add 18 blighted properties to the towns glutted inventory of blighted properties. Given the already $600 million National City sucked down at the taxpayer bail-out trough in 2009, just remember, you’ve already bought Linden Meadows. Why pay twice?

Then these dots started connecting, in that stark-raving math kinda’ way in my head.

If the redevelopment wing of local government buys more ghetto, it can turn around and say we need to pay them to redevelop the ghetto! If the city just keeps using tax money to buy more distressed commercial properties, the ghetto grows, and so presumably does the need for “redevelopment”. So then I flip the equation backward and it reads: 50 years of “redevelopment” has created the ghetto NA is today!

Well then, my simple math says if we stop pouring money into government redevelopment fiascos’, and instead force them to use the money for public safety, infrasturcture, and education, the ghetto would go away!! Wow, so simple. So Zen. Reduce city government by better use of technology, eliminate the pretense of gov’t redevelopment, focus on basics, and boom - ethical, sustainable growth.

Here are my personnel pruning shears, let’s see where to start -

Building Commissioner

Carl Malysz

Plan Commission

Carl Malysz- Director of Community Development

John Rosenbarger- Director of Public Facilities Projects

Scott Wood- Chief Planner

Krisjans Streips- Planner

Redevelopment

Carl Malysz - Director of Community Development

John Rosenbarger- Director of Public Facilities Projects

Cyndi Krauss- Financial Compliance Mng.

Sherrie Holmes- Public Service Specialist

Deputy Mayor

Carl Malysz

Wow, a quick cut-n-paste of the NA org chart and the first thing I see - the Mayor doesn’t have a job. So then, you eliminate all the positions above, and give them to the Mayor, then he’d have a full time job. I know - he has no plan or ideas of his own. OK, since his only vision for New Albany seems to be a full pension and expensive free health care for himself, he’ll just have to sit at his desk and make rubber bands balls till his term ends. At least he won’t be out wining and dining every distressed commercial extractor who can stand to spend a lunch with him selling out the city. Mr. Maylsz could go back to the private sector, maybe jump over to the development side, now that he knows how to manipulate the levers of gov’t, there are no doubt countless private entities that would pay market rates for his advice. All the other “redevelopment lifers” downtown can finally go over to the private sector and make real money managing real world redevelopment projects. It’s a win-win for all.

Evansville has combined all community development areas, including especially historic preservation, into one department! Now, there’s an idea. As now configured, our NA gov’t is set up to work against the interests of historic preservation. Maybe a crime like the Tabernacle wouldn’t be repeated if redevelopment and historic preservation were in the same office, working toward mutually beneficial goals? Those are mutually beneficial goals here, right?

Ok, we can have one office downtown that is an umbrella for all community development stuff. But I promise we won’t need half of city government to accomplish helping businesses with permits.

Another positive from shrinking the mandate of our local govt, would be to relieve the need to construct a new city-county building, or at least reduce the additional space needed in the next 1--20 years. A little technology and know-how from the 21th century would go a long way to addressing our over-staffing problems.

One of the solutions to sustainable economic development in New Albany is to get the local government the hell out of it. CHDO, CCE, anything to do with development or redevelopment. God forbid the friggin hospital had just paid to tear down those houses. Now, years and millions later, the hopeful outcome is to return the park to nature and the neighbors. But what is the larger lesson from this disaster?

When I moved back here a few years ago and noticed NA had quite the robust local government redevelopment component, I thought it was a joke. I mean, could people actually preside over the destruction of our town, from what I remember in childhood, and get paid for it? Year after crumbling year? That verges on criminal. The very least a rational person would see is the town has been UN-developed. That is the opposite of developed. Linden Meadows is just the latest and most obvious redevelopment disaster. But I’ve only been paying attention for 40 years.

In less than 6 months, this administration has proposed no less than 3 new ways to bail out the private sector and their governmentally enabled abuse of this town. ENOUGH! Your hands should be full figuring out how to deal with the budget mess, or the sewer mess, or the storm mess,...

Welcome to our NOT Haunted Cistern. Come on in, the waters fine...

2009-10-27T13:33:00.007-04:00

Having lived many different places, I will say that the water that comes out of the taps here is disgusting. I don't give it to the animals or plants, much less my family. Unfortunately we do have to bathe in it. Bleh ... makes my skin and hair crusty. So I've been experimenting with ways to capture as much of our rain water as possible.

I know, the E.P.A. and Indiana American Water both say the water is safe. Me, I use the old fashioned sniff and taste test. If it tastes and looks skanky, it is skanky. But fortunately we have an alternative. Most of the big old houses pre-1900 in NA were constructed with their own cisterns. We still have ours, though it's just brick and not capable of holding water at present.

ye old cistern, back o' the basement

I've estimated we could store 1000-2000 gals of water in our old cistern, once it's been lined with a plastic tank. The rain from the back 1/2 of our roof area drains to it. It sit's under what is the kitchen, both original and now, so can easily be delivered by pump straight up. According to Ind/American Water, our household uses approx 3000 gallons of water a month.

old cisterns are usually round, like this one.

Not only are we aware of our usage, we have a goal of lowering it over time. Hence the brilliance, once again, of simply reverting to the original water storage system! As water becomes increasingly polluted and the rates rise in a futile attempt to clean and deliver it (remember, Mother Nature bats last), our household will have created it's own fresh water supply. Not to mention saving thousands and thousands of gallons of rainwater from the storm drain system where it overwhelms the sewer lines and spews toxic water in our streets.

If global warming is too abstract a concept for city planners to embrace, then just grasp the issues with safe water looming. Polluted groundwater + antiquated delivery system + increased demand = ?

Weigh in with the state commission who set water rates, or go buy a rain-barrel. Or do both.

"Those who couldn’t make it to the meeting have 10 more days to submit testimony on the matter. Written comments — which will be weighed equally with those delivered orally — can be sent by mail, fax or the Internet. Those comments should include the consumer’s name, mailing address and a reference to IURC Cause No. 43680.

They can be sent to Consumer Services Staff, Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Council, 115 W. Washington St., Suite 1500 South, Indianapolis, IN, 46204; Fax: 317-232-5923; E-mail: uccinfo@oucc.IN.gov" NATribune

Today is 350 Day! Come make a statement at Riverfront Park

2009-10-24T10:47:00.003-04:00

"We will assemble and spell out "350" with our bodies at 3:50 PM. There will be music, speakers, exhibits, puppets, theatre, and an aerial flyover to take a photo for the worldwide 350 event. Come be part of the solution! Everyone is welcome!"

The Louisville 350 Coalition,

an affiliation of local environmental, peace, and social justice groups, will hold

a 350 event on the

Great Lawn Waterfront Park Saturday, October 24 at 2:30 pm

As part of a worldwide effort to enhance public awareness of the consequences of global climate change.

O-MI-GOD - it's already here and I forgot to get out the word 'cause I was sooo busy winterizing my house!

2009-10-23T13:28:00.005-04:00

It's probably too late to register your name at the site, it was crashing from so much traffic this morning, but try anyway, or google "350" in case there is an ACTION event tomorrow near you. For the Louisville area:

CLIMATE ACTION
Great Lawn Waterfront Park, Saturday, October 24,
2:30 PM

http://www.350.org/

In a nutshell(one of those tasty "walnut ones" dropping now) -

the movement is advocating bringing CO2 levels down from 420 per million to 350 parts per million, which is the level at which we don't permanently F@%k-UP our planet.

Todays' Boston Globe Editorial Page link

I mean is it too much to ask, to lighten our load on old tired Mother Nature?

"U.S. Deficit rises to $1.4 Trillion.."

2009-10-17T10:55:00.002-04:00

"Bailout Helps Fuel a New Era of Wall Street Wealth"

Adding 1 + 1 under the new stark-raving math system equals we've been screwed.

Unless you're a banker.

2009-10-16T17:19:00.002-04:00

THE S%IT HITS THE FAN!
“During a heated exchange regarding an unrelated matter Thursday, Robison told Benedetti that she’d “done enough to damage this council already.”” (natribune)

During a heated exchange regarding an unrelated matter Thursday, Baylor told Denhart that she’d done enough to damage this city already.

During a another heated exchange regarding an unrelated matter, Coffey told England that he’d “done enough to damage this town already.”

During a heated exchange ..., Malycs told Coffey... Messer took a shot at Price, ... McLauglin wet his pants...

Finally the city Ceremonial Elder Coffey demanded everyone start singing the Candyman song.. "who can make a rainbow? sprinkle it with candy? and once everyone was happy he wrapped the show up with a statement of morality.

““Coffey responded he “morally” objects to any private meetings regarding the city, and that he wasn’t specifically referring to the caucus.””

Attorney Robinson indicates he will ask each member of the city to record for posterity their moral objections to government meetings.
...and God Bless America.

Battered Town Syndrome

2009-10-12T14:52:00.000-04:00

City Offers $600,000 to Shredder, says "Scram"!

After years and years and years of public frustration with the glacial pace of state and local government intervention on their behalf against egregious polluter Jeff Eastridge, AKA CCE. inc., AKA CBE.inc, and a host of other cheap disguises, residents reacted with glee when told there would be another chance to demand state and local government intervention on their behalf against infamous Eastridge on Oct 14 @ 7pm at Fairmount Elementary.

2045 Silver Street New Albany

"A staunch opponent of the move, Maurice King, who admitted to filing most of the complaints against Eastridge on behalf of the Fairmont Neighborhood Association, said the city allowed the problems to exist at the Silver Street location by not standing up in the past." (natribune)

According to public documents “Eastridge and selves” have a 100% defiance rating when it comes to community concerns.

2045 Silver Street New Albany

When asked to comment on public concerns about the background and price of the CCE deal, local resident Chris D. who called the CCE site "potentially VERY hazardous situation". We must pay for it."..."When attention was drawn to the plight of the property on Silver Street, certain factions pulled that attention away to other more pressing issues, such as a house with crap stacked in the yards. As such, it comes to us to pay for the mistakes of OUR government. Like it or not, thats just the way it has to be." (naconfidential)

2045 Silver Street New Albany

Mr. Eastridge, through his hired guns, "contended the contamination tests were skewed, and that they are close to having the property cleared of any metal pollutants by IDEM." Speaking for the record, NA city Councilman Jack Messer said of Eastridge: “He has done nothing but give to this community”. (natribune)

2045 Silver Street New Albany

The Poisoned Valley Batterers Society commented just before press time - “G.Coyle is standing in the way of every single thing we try to do here that smacks of progress.” The last thing we need is people asking a lot of questions around here, know what I mean?”

2045 Silver Street New Albany

Interior of Historic(?) train repair shop.

MartiOktoberGrasFest!

2009-10-11T15:48:00.001-04:00

2009-10-01T20:37:00.000-04:00

Marianne Strengell

TEXTILES

2009-09-26T17:33:00.001-04:00

Dina Rudick/Globe Staff

2009-09-22T21:28:00.000-04:00

Buy the old New Albany Country Club property to use as a land-fill, toss in all the brown fields, black top it, and redevelop it as a shelter for retired city government employees.

quiz: What historic NA building is this? Hint: One whole wall is curved.

marching with fish on School Street on the way back to school.

2009-06-08T15:59:00.000-04:00

Diminished Democracy

2009-05-07T14:21:00.000-04:00

Kleptocracy

"The effects of a kleptocratic regime or government on a nation are typically adverse in regards to the faring of the state's economy, political affairs and civil rights. Kleptocracy in government often vitiates prospects of foreign investment and drastically weakens the domestic market and cross-border trade. As the kleptocracy normally embezzles money from its citizens by misusing funds derived from tax payments, or money laundering schemes, a kleptocratically structured political system tends to degrade most people's quality of life. In addition, the money that kleptocrats steal is often taken from funds that were earmarked for public amenities, such as the building of hospitals, schools, roads, parks and the like - which has further adverse effects on the quality of life of the citizens living under a kleptocracy. The quasi-oligarchy that results from a kleptocratic elite also subverts democracy (or any other political format the state is ostensibly under)." source Wikipedia

peace on earth day...

2009-04-13T20:40:00.000-04:00

Don't eat too much candy this weekend...

2009-04-10T12:34:00.000-04:00

Full Text Link

The neuropsychology of zombies

Posted by Christopher Shea April 9, 2009 10:16 AM

A scene from "Night of the Living Dead"

Braaaains! Including the mediation of subcortical fear by the anterior cingulate gyrus! On Monday night, Science on the Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre will sponsor a showing of the classic zombie film "Night of the Living Dead," preceded by a talk by Dr. Steven Schlozman -- zombie enthusiast and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

"Breakthrough on Broken Windows"

2009-02-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

In Lowell experiment, crime linked to conditions

"As part of an experiment to see whether disorderly conditions breed bad behavior, this trash-strewn hot spot was eventually cleaned up." (Brenda Bond, Boston Globe)

Timely research report for Wednesday's neighborhood forum. It's a scientific fact - trash strewn streets breed crime.

For the Men in my life...

2009-02-05T16:14:00.000-05:00

Obama-rama

2009-02-04T17:43:00.000-05:00

Bankers pay capped at $500,000 if taxpayers are paying. God, I can't wait to see what the Greenwich papers are saying. You can't afford more than one McMansion on that salary, how are our financial elite going to cope without second and third homes? Personally, I'd make anyone who complains spend a day hanging out with an Iraq soldiers orphans.

"Obama said the measures were needed to restore trust in the financial system and make certain that "taxpayer funds are not subsidizing excessive compensation packages on Wall Street."

Marco? Polo! Marco? Polo!

2009-02-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

"Markopolos (Harry Markopolos, a Massachusetts financial analyst) discovered Madoff's alleged malfeasance in May 2000, after he became suspicious of his years-long record of success in all market conditions. Markopolos said it took him about five minutes perusing Madoff's marketing materials to suspect fraud, and another roughly four hours to develop mathematical models to prove it. He eventually delivered a detailed case to securities regulators in Boston and followed up several times over the next eight years as he continued to gather evidence. He said that important SEC officials in New York and Boston brushed his reports aside."

"Whistleblower Harry Markopolos also said he had feared for his physical safety and would turn over new evidence that Madoff had not acted alone."

Now there's an idea...

2009-02-04T12:34:00.000-05:00

Since the start of 2008, the city has been forced to board up 193 foreclosed and abandoned properties, as part of a program called "Clean it or Lien it."

This article from the Boston Globe is relevant to our century long local discussion of substandard rental housing.

One More Go 'round with the Box Gutters

2009-01-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

Back to work.

2009-01-21T11:43:00.001-05:00

After

Doesn't this "before" picture nicely represent a typical rental apartment in New Albany?

Bourbon and Spirits

2008-12-31T20:41:00.000-05:00

photo credit: Brigham and Women's Hospital

There's only one way to summarize the last year of my life. By noting that I'm on a first name basis with most of the people in this picture. This starchy group is my transplant team in Boston. In 6 short crazy months, I've gone from dying a horrible death to a miraculous rebirth owing to the gift of my kidney donor and the expertise of these awesome people. I never imagined becoming a cyborg could work out so well. But here I am, a few Frankensteinish surgeries later, better than I've felt in 10 years. Ahh, the miracle of science.

Happy New Year to all humankind. Meine Herr Doktor, mit tiefer dankbarkeit and bless all your staff. I'm flying on the wings of angels now, while still able to enjoy a shot of bourbon, ... life is good.

Good Health!

I brake for Bail-Outs. Or, as someone said it better:

2008-11-18T08:43:00.000-05:00

Save the company, lose the brain trust

November 18, 2008

GENERAL MOTORS needs a bailout. We need its constructive capacity to work for a better America. But the management and marketing segment that has been getting it wrong for decades should face the judgment of the market. We do not need the people who dismantled the Los Angeles light rail system merely to increase the market for their inefficient products. We do not need the people who decided to profit from adding lead to gasoline, thereby poisoning our air. We do not need the people who decided to put a military vehicle on public roads. We do not need the people who helped kill the electric car.
The stockholders have been largely wiped out, and the workers are being thrown overboard. What GM seeks to bail out intact is exactly the part that should be cut loose.
Public monies should serve the public purpose. We need energy-efficient transportation that the country and the planet can afford.
STEPHEN STRICKLER, Lexington

Why I'm voting for Obama

2008-11-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

LOVE vs HATE.

HOPE vs FEAR.

The Future vs The Past.

"That Guy", Masked Men and Republicans, ...whack, whack. Did you watch the Debate last night? I knew the Penguin was coming back.

2008-10-16T14:19:00.000-04:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..........................good news Sweet Tooths!

2008-10-15T20:57:00.000-04:00

Rookies is coming back to New Albany; bakery will open at Federal Hill Cafe Oct. 24

word-a-licious

2008-10-13T15:21:00.000-04:00

Luuuuvv it! New slang from some blogger over at Daily Kos "wingnutosphere"

Wall St Bail-Out Gives Local Leaders Idea.

2008-10-06T09:26:00.000-04:00

“New Albany City Council will vote on freeing funds for cash flow”

Either some bodies calculator jammed or this second emergency(what emergency? - everyday is an emergency in New Albany) appropriation in about a month looks 10 times bigger than last’s month request. What did I miss?

Certainly Ms Garry has a contingency plan for state revenues funneling in late? Or a dollar amount of what it will cost on a monthly basis to pay salaries et al?   Give me a million, quick! ...so Henry Paulsen-like.

“• A public hearing will be held and a vote taken on the additional appropriation of $250,000 to be used for storm damage clean-up.”

umm, watched too many trees destroyed BY the street department that were fine before they took a whack at them. Exhibit A are the locusts formerly known as trees on Market Street that I watched decimated today.   I doubt you could have none a better job of ruining a block that was slowing coming to life than that horrible hatchet job. Whether there was storm damage to them or not, that is not the way you clean up a tree, that’s the way you kill it. God help the Greenway. Couldn’t all this wanton destruction’s cost be included in the $1-million on the other request just to tidy things up? Can anybody bring some sloppy resolution for money to the council? Quick, I have one for $50,000 to replant the trees the Mayor’s office has ordered destroyed last year.

“• Council members will meet at 6 p.m. Monday for a work session to tour the set-to-open Scribner Place/YMCA. The YMCA is scheduled to open Nov. 15.”

One more comment, cause I’m in a mood today.   It seems like a silly waste of money to pay the city council to tour to new Y. I found the free tour offered Mon and Wed nights quite adequate and suspect that council members could easily acquaint themselves with the facility on their own time. I’d hope their attention would be focused on budget issues with all these screaming financial issues of late.

Final Day to register to VOTE in Indiana is Oct 6, MONDAY

2008-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

America! This is God. I need you people to be out by the end of the week, I’ve got someone interested in the property.

(paraphased from a poster I saw in the 1960s that I’ve never forgotten cause it was so funny)

The big bail-out of 2008.

OK - another $700 billion of fresh hot-off-the-press soon-to-be-worthless dollars. Who wins? All of us! We just put off China owning our country a tiny bit longer. I personally will appreciate the extra months of freedom, albeit a false freedom. The stark raving math I”m doing shows our total debt loan as a country is so past sustainable, it’s just a matter of time before the foreign holders of that debt call it in and we can’t pay, so...

pimp my bank, take my first born and everything he will ever earn, double-down on the off-shore accounts and be ready for WWIII.

Or - make sure you are at the polls Nov 4 and vote for Obama/Biden and let’s see if there’s anyway to pull out of this crisis before everything we know is gone.

WoW! The people pulled the levers of Congress this time. Let's keep up the pressure.

2008-09-30T09:52:00.000-04:00

From Jim in San Marcos, who blogs as The Great Depression of 2006.

THE CRASH DEFINED

A crash is pretty much just a redistribution of wealth, from the rich to the poor. The very rich stand to lose 90 percent of their wealth. With the poor, 90 percent of nothing is still nothing.

The bail out is a tax on everyone in the country ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on the fool talking. For a family of 4 that’s $20,000 to $80,000. If you consider that 3/4ths of the population pay little tax, this is going to be a very heavy wagon to pull.

If we do absolutely nothing to fix the mess, there will be a blood bath. The top 10% of the population get their lunch in Spades. After that, Mr. Rich guy is going to be looking for a job.

This doesn’t mean that we silver foxes walk away Scott free. We are going to get burned badly. That would have happened after the bail out failed anyway. We can’t print our way out of this mess, but can't we let the idle rich implode into nothingness?

If the government wants to do something, let the house of cards collapse. Then print money to keep people in food and shelter; this is a transfer payment I understand (plus it is a government responsibility). There should be no bail out support for the super rich. Paulson kiss your absurd 700 million dollars goodbye.

This event if understood for what it is, is a great redistribution of wealth. With the government buying failed assets; it doesn’t make them worth any more. What good does it do for the government to own them? Private industry has a loss, let them eat it!

We have survived one House of Representatives vote, we need to make sure that they understand, that we understand that printing money won’t solve the problem. This cannot be pushed into the future. The money is not there even if it was an option.

If you have a moment click on THIS LINK and express your concerns to your Congressman. Do we give the rich their money back? ---Or do we say “Suffer with the rest of us!” Vote now, and write your Representative a letter. I really think that we are being listened to, take the time to give your Representative your view; we are not billionaires, just voters.

Remember one thing, for government to pay the bills, we the people have to earn it. There are no quotes around the word earn. This next election could be all about, “Toss the Bums Out.” We don’t need a President as much as we need Congressmen that have some testosterone.

Please do me a favor and click on the link and give your Congressman you view, we can’t print our way out of this mess.

Thank you and good night

Stark Raving Math!!!

2008-09-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

The nation's social bargain with the rich
The Boston Globe
By Derrick Z. Jackson September 30, 2008

CONGRESS has been rushing to save financial CEOs from themselves with a $700 billion bailout that amounts to a tax of $2,333 on every man, woman, and child in America. This is after three decades of the nation's leaders punishing struggling Americans for their lack of personal responsibility, from Ronald Reagan's assault on "welfare queens" to the bipartisan slashing and capping of welfare benefits by President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

More recently, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have said undocumented folks should pay fines to get in line for citizenship.

Then, of course, there were the 1.5 million home foreclosures last year and the 2.5 million foreclosures projected for this year by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Many economists and politicians have washed their hands of them, saying, tsk, tsk, they were irresponsible for taking on too much responsibility!

If scapegoating struggling Americans on personal responsibility fails to work, we just ignore them, as sure as the Ninth Ward of New Orleans remains the American Dresden after Hurricane Katrina - while rebuilt Gulf Coast casinos break new revenue records.

All those millions of Americans, facing everything from slashed food stamps to swamped homes, live in a patronizing America where Clinton signs the 1996 welfare bill by saying, "We're going to take this historic chance to try to recreate the nation's social bargain with the poor. We're going to try to change the parameters of the debate. We're going to make it all new again and see if we can't create a system of incentives which reinforce work and family and independence. We can change what is wrong."

No broad parameters are being changed for greedy or incompetent Wall Street CEOs, as the financial sector assures itself a compliant Congress with $2 billion in campaign contributions since 1990 (Obama and McCain have respectively received $25 million and $22 million in campaign contributions from the financial sector in this campaign cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics).

Negotiators on the hill do say they will tax bailed-out companies for executive salaries over $500,000, but Wall Street found its way around similar rules in the past.

Yesterday, amid increasing outrage, the House failed to pass the bailout bill.

No bailout should happen without recreating the nation's social bargain with the rich. The nation can no longer afford the disparity where the average American CEO makes 344 times the pay of the average worker, according to the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. The CEOs and their boards should pay toward the bailout before a penny of that possible $2,333 comes out of the pockets of Americans.

There is more than enough money among the financial elites to pay for the bailout. The Institute for Policy Studies last week calculated that a securities transaction tax of a penny for every $4 invested would add $100 billion a year to the treasury. Had such a tax been in place after the 2001 Enron scandal, it would have added up to the current cost of the bailout.

A wealth surcharge of no more than 3 percent on households worth more than $10 million would add another $300 billion. In response to the news this year that two-thirds of American corporations paid no income tax between 1998 and 2005, a corporate minimum income tax could add another $60 billion.

The institute said a 50 percent tax on salaries of $5 million or more and 70 percent on salaries of $10 million or more - until the bailout is over - would add another $105 billion. Killing overseas tax shelters, loopholes for excessive CEO pay and the sale of mansions, and creating a progressive inheritance tax would add another nearly $300 billion.

Institute senior scholar Chuck Collins said that would be a much more fair way to deal with the consequences, and discourage a worsening of "casino capitalism," than the rush to dump this on the taxpayer. "Many of these things have been examined, but not implemented," Collins said, "But Congress essentially punted on how to pay for the bailout."

If Congress is the punter, the people are the football being kicked once again far downfield as Congress and the CEOs high-five with relief from the skybox.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.

Video - a miracle of science

2008-09-29T13:28:00.000-04:00

Interesting video clips of congressional hearing in 2004 relating to the regulation of Fannie May and Freddie Mac, although I don't remember Obama ever naming Franklin Raines his economic advisor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Red Cross to Greenwich - we're on the way...

2008-09-28T20:00:00.000-04:00

WSJblogs September 25, 2008, 9:00 am

For Greenwich, ‘This Is Our Katrina’

With markets continuing to swoon, the next shoe to drop is likely to be hedge funds. That means tough times for hedge-fund filled Greenwich, Conn. (As Nick Paumgarten wrote in the New Yorker magazine recently, “If New York City is the heart of the marketplace, Greenwich is the liver, where toxins are processed and rich bits collect.”)

Greenwich collected so many rich bits in recent years that its small population of about 60,000 contributed nearly $600 million in state income taxes in 2006. In other words, Greenwich pays 13% of all state income taxes in Connecticut with only 1.8% of the population.

According to an article by Christopher Keating in the Hartford Courant, the town and state are bracing for lower tax revenue. There are no signs yet that Greenwichers are hurting–Saks, Tiffany and Brooks Brothers are still busy and the local Rolls Royce dealers (there are two) say their clientele is largely immune. Yet local residents like Lehman Brothers’ Dick Fuld–he of the $700 million stock loss–just won’t be writing the big tax checks that they used to. Charities are expecting a lighter haul this year.
There also is the human cost to the financial floods, the collective psychological breakdown that occurs when Greenwich’s billionaires become mere millionaires.
“It’s the human toll that is frightening,” said State Rep. Livvy Floren, a friend of Mr. Fuld. “Dick Fuld has spent 39 years of his life doing this. It’s more than just money. They’re not going to be in the streets starving….I think the man worked 24/7. His family and Lehman are his life.”
A deeper analysis was offered by local Democrat Ned Lamont, who in one fell swoop compared Greenwich’s money woes to the Japan malaise, Asian tsunami and the New Orleans flood.

“It really is a financial tsunami, and it could go either way,” said the multimillionaire telecommunications mogul who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006. “It took Japan 20 years to recover from their buying binge. How long does it take us to work through excessive leverage? That could take years not months. This is our Katrina.”

Hello Kitty, Hilter, Pork-pies,...

2008-09-25T20:32:00.000-04:00

...Scary bail-out plans, Paulson, and Republicans, who by the way, I find myself in agreement with at the moment. Today they balked at the hastily crafted "compromise" "credit" "rescue" deal...

"...Instead, they issued a statement of economic rescue principles that calls for Wall Street to fund the recovery by injecting private capital - not taxpayer dollars - into the financial markets. Easing tax laws would prompt investors to put in their own dollars, they said.

The plan also calls for: participating firms to disclose the value of the mortgage assets on their books, ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's securitization of "unsound mortgages," reviewing the performance of the credit rating agencies and having the Securities and Exchange Commission audit failed companies to ensure their financial standing was accurately portrayed.

House Republicans also want to create a panel to make recommendations for reforming the financial industry by year's end."

Jesus was a community organizer...

2008-09-24T12:37:00.000-04:00

Oye I’m tired. I stayed up till 4am trying to get through a 825 comment thread at Daily Kos regarding the financial crisis. So many pissed off commentators! Seems I’m not the only one screaming mad at this latest breathtaking grab by the wealthiest members of “our” society. I’m not trying to be reasonable here, cause there is nothing reasonable about the deliberate destruction of the middle class. Here is my sleep-deprived easy-as-pie 3 point program to restore confidence in the financial markets:

Step 1. Have the UN declare Wall St a “terrorist state” and freeze all the assets (paper?) Next prosecute the heads of the top banks, the top regulators, and Paulson. If they flee to St Barts instead of standing trial, let’s do some shock and awe on St Bart’s. Let our most traumatized and depleted Iraqi soldiers get first shots. Shooting from airplanes will be allowed.

Step 2. President Obama, instead of handing $700 million to these slime-balls plunderers, make them pay back to the US Treasury $700 billion. Trust me, they have it.

Step 3. Never return to the quaint Victorian notion of a free-market. Free markets are free-for-alls, ie, survival of the greediest. Attempt to recreate the America I learned about growing up in school, the one I never saw in my 50 years. Fairness, justice, responsibility...ideals that were offered up as history, but now turn out to be fairy-tales.

Help - I'm down to my last $32 million, buddy can you spare $500 Billion?

2008-09-23T19:35:00.000-04:00

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy will shrink if markets don't begin functioning normally, joining Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in urging skeptical lawmakers to quickly pass a $700 billion rescue for financial institutions.
“Paulson and Bernanke urged senators on the banking committee to quickly approve the unprecedented $700 billion plan to prop up the shell-shocked U.S. financial system, saying failure to do so would risk the stability of financial markets and the U.S. economy.”

Oh how I laugh, chortle chortle - choke. Ya see, in the “other America” where most of us live, we’re already “shell-shocked” from 20 years of greedy capital markets reaming us. If anyone asked me, I’d like to see the financial markets have their stability undermined, and not function properly. From the other America, which hasn’t functioned properly for years, it would be nice to have your company.

Of course, that would make Wall St a part of America again. I’d bet my bottom, or even “under a buck” dollar (someone will make up the diff - right?) that living like regular Americans is a fate worse than death for the financial f@#k-heads who have just run the capitalist system into the ground.

Bail-out? I say get in line Wall St scum-bags. The line starts about 250 million back.

Or, better yet - bail ourselves out. Cash in your Swiss bank accounts, your Cayman bank accounts, sell your third and fourth homes and a few of your sports cars, and yes, even shutter your “private family foundations” if you need help. You’ve already had the taxpayers help, for like 30 years now. We’re tapped out.

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. ~Edward R. Murrow

While the "Little People" quibble over nickels and dimes, the biggest financial rip-off in the history of the world plays out...

2008-09-22T15:06:00.000-04:00

Many economists skeptical of bailout

"September 21, 2008 01:25 PM EDT

views: 655 | rating: 10/10 (2 votes) | comments: 25

To bad these phonies didn't speak up in the beginning instead of supporting this fascist bailout.

Many of the same economists and opinion-makers who'd provided a bipartisan sheen of consensus to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's previous moves have quickly begun casting doubts on the wisdom of a policy that would allow Treasury to purchase without oversight hundreds of billions of dollars of difficult-to-price assets from financial institutions.

Under the proposal, Paulson would not have to report to Congress until December, and the only safeguard for taxpayers was a provision that the “Secretary shall take into consideration means for — (1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and (2) protecting the taxpayer.”

Skepticism toward the plan reflected more than the predictable desires of the left to spread the wealth to Main Street or of the right to reject government bailouts, although those sentiments were also expressed.

"We need to take a bold move. In that sense I think Paulson is right," Luigi Zingales, a Professor at the University of Chicago School of Business who wrote a widely circulated short essay titled "Why Paulson is Wrong,” told Politico.

Zingales fears that the Treasury bailout would effectively turn the entire financial sector into a Government Sponsored Enterprise, complete with the same murkiness and moral hazard that sunk Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “It might achieve the final outcome, but it will do so at an enormous cost," he said. "All the troubles we’ve seen with Fannie and Freddie would be seen again and again across the entire financial sector."

President Bush is “asking for a huge amount of power,” said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University who was among the first to predict the crisis. “He's saying, ‘Trust me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is not a monarchy.” (Roubini told the New York Times that despite these concerns, he also thought the plan could help stave off a recession.)

Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist and liberal columnist for The New York Times who had until now been cautiously supportive of Paulson's and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s efforts to prop up the system, wrote that the new plan would be a taxpayer rip-off. “I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal,” he wrote on his blog at 4:46 p.m. Saturday. “Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets.”

Yves Smith, a longtime banker and contributor to the influential finance blog Naked Capitalism, published an angry post there titled, "Why You Should Hate The Treasury Bailout Proposal":

"Given that continuing to buy U.S. assets will come under increasingly harsh scrutiny overseas, the U.S. needs to bend over backwards to devise a plan that at least looks credible in terms of directing the funds that come from taxpayers and lenders to their highest and best uses and implementing reforms that will restore active and prudent oversight of financial firms," she wrote. "The administration's demand for a free pass, even if Congress unwisely goes along, is likely to backfire with our foreign creditors."

Gregory Mankiw, a professor at Harvard University and a former chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers who was the economic guru for Mitt Romney's campaign, favorably linked to Smith's post under the headline "A Blank Check" and approvingly quoted a correspondent who wrote, "Has more money ever been given with fewer restrictions on how it is used? Ever?"

Sebastian Mallaby, the center-right economic columnist for The Washington Post and scholar of the modern financial system, was equally dubious. “The plan is being marketed under false pretenses," he wrote in his Sunday column, rejecting comparisons of the plan to the Resolution Trust Corporation, which the government formed in response to the savings and loan crisis to purchase and sell off the bad loans made by bankrupted thrifts.

“The administration proposes to buy up bad loans before the lenders go bust,” Mallaby noted, keeping the banks alive but doing little to solve the problem infecting the markets. “Bad loans are weighing down the financial system precisely because private-sector experts can't determine their worth. The government would have no better handle on the problem.”

Justin Fox, Time magazine's top financial writer and columnist, also worried about the lack of an upside for the taxpayer. "What I still can't figure out is how Treasury hopes to structure the bailout so there's at least a chance of getting a fair return on that risk-taking," he wrote on his blog.

"How on earth will these things be priced?" Portfolio's Felix Salmon asked about the bad debt Paulson plans to purchase. He also pointed out that Treasury would need to stock its office with bond-trading professionals. "All we know so far is that it's going to be set up as a reverse auction, but that raises more questions than it answers."

One notable proponent of the plan was The Financial Times' unsigned Lex column, which acknowledged the lack of oversight but mostly praised the plan:

"This bailout is necessary and the bill should be pushed through quickly. … Nor is the package necessarily a disaster for the taxpayer or the U.S. dollar. If the Treasury buys assets well, and confidence is restored, there is [a] chance that Mr. Paulson could win fund manager of the year."

Zingales, though, writes in "Why Paulson Is Wrong" that "For somebody like me who believes strongly in the free market system, the most serious risk of the current situation is that the interest of a few financiers will undermine the fundamental workings of the capitalist system. The time has come to save capitalism from the capitalists."

As usual congress has given up its power again to corporate fascists to try and grt off the hook for something that is their fault as well as Bush.
Unfortunately the public cannot see the harm in what has just happened and by the time the bell rings suck ass Paulson will be long gone and Bush will be counting his loot in Switzerland."

"(Sarah Palin) is anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, anti-Big Oil, a lifetime member of the N.R.A., she hunts, she fishes - she is the perfect woman!"

2008-09-17T20:13:00.000-04:00

This morning I was on the verge of tears reading the article Abortion issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes in the NYTimes. Especially depressing was the paragraph:

"Many parishes distributed a voter guide, produced by an outside conservative Catholic group called Catholic Answers, which identified five NON-NEGOTIABLE issues for faithful voters: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, human-cloning, euthanasia and same-sex marriage."

Yeah - nada about poverty, war, the environment, greed, racism, justice, or child abuse.

I put down the paper in disgust at the endless fascination (perversity?) of conservatives with what other people do with their own bodies. I went to read my email and this was the first thing I saw, from good moral life-affirming people I know:

Dear All,

"I don't know who came up with this fantastic idea, but for a mere $5 you can let the McBush folks know what you think. Here's all you do.

Make a $5 minimum donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's
name. A Planned Parenthood donation is tax deductible, while a
political donation isn't.

And when you make that PP donation in Palin's name, they'll send her
a card noting that the donation was given in her name.

Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

Fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah
Palin's honor" card. Use the address for the McCain campaign
headquarters:

McCain for President/Sarah Palin
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

Tell all your women friends as well as your men
friends and urge them to do the same."

Consider my $5 sent...

No, I didn't make this up...

2008-09-17T00:29:00.000-04:00

Humm - The ultra business rag WSJ finds Obama more understanding of the financial crisis and it's causes? What?

SEPTEMBER 17, 2008 Wall St Journal Opinion page:

McCain and the Markets

It's easy to see how a 21-year member of the U.S. Senate like John McCain, or even a Senate rookie, could regard Wall Street as a mysterious and distant planet. Indeed, on the evidence of the past few days, Senators McCain and Obama would appear to know more about Mars than they do about financial markets.

On Monday as these markets and the broader world tried to absorb the news about Lehman, Merrill Lynch and AIG, our two Presidential candidates spent the day trading punches over the meaning of the "fundamentals." After Senator McCain suggested that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong," Senator Obama mocked Mr. McCain's view of "the fundamentals."

We'll leave it to the debates to elicit just what each Senator regards as the "economic fundamentals" in a $13 trillion economy, but for our money the notable thing about the exchange was how fast John McCain let his opponent's sarcasm push him off message, such as it is.

One whiff from Barack Obama about "the mountain in Sedona where he lives," and by day's end Senator McCain was ranting about "corruption" and how he was going to "reform the way that Wall Street does business." Yesterday Senator McCain's inner populist had cooled enough to admit the existence of "honest people on Wall Street," but it still sounded as if this week's version of the McCain Presidency would be more about restructuring private financial markets he doesn't understand than fixing the Washington he knows.

Flip-flopping between assertions that the economy is fundamentally strong and populist promises to rip apart its financial plumbing creates confusion about what exactly Mr. McCain really thinks. His opponent, meanwhile, stayed on message, explaining Monday's events with the sort of dogged persistence reflected in the headline across the front page of yesterday's New York Times: "Wall St. in Worst Loss Since '01 Despite Reassurances by Bush."

Likening Monday's events to "the Great Depression," Senator Obama explained them by restating his campaign's core economic idea -- that what he calls the McCain-Bush "economic philosophy" is behind all these problems. His solution, laid out in detail in the Denver acceptance speech, is higher taxes on what he said Monday were "those with the most" and a return to the paternalist economic policies of the 1960s. In short, we become France, but with a higher corporate tax rate.

The problem with Senator McCain's blustery Wall Street broadsides is that they don't offer an explanation for what is happening. How is it supposed to reassure people to hear Mr. McCain intone, as he did yesterday, the words "derivatives" and "credit default swaps" as if it's the first time he'd ever heard of them?

Agree with it or not, Senator Obama is identifying a problem and a path toward solution. Mr. McCain needs his own narrative for how we arrived at this point. If he wants to run as the populist protector of the middle class, he has ample targets.

He could start with the perils of "easy money." The Federal Reserve's low interest-rate policies -- virtually free money -- created excesses in credit expansion that led to what all now call a credit bubble. That bubble has been bursting, from Main Street to Wall Street.

As well, it eroded the value of the "greenback," as Rudy Giuliani noted in his barn-burner convention speech. Every American knows something's gone wrong when the dollar's value drops way below currencies in Europe or Canada. True to his campaign theme, Senator McCain might ask since when has dollar "weakness" become an American virtue? Barack Obama won't do it, so Senator McCain has a chance to step forward and defend the purchasing power of middle-class budgets against inflation in the prices they pay every trip to the supermarket or gas station.

We'd also bet that most voters have a better understanding of the excesses that forced Washington to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than what happened to Lehman and AIG. Greed is a big subject, and Senator McCain should train his message on the variety he understands best, in Washington.

Finally, Senator McCain should bring his worthy tax-cut plan out of hiding, and if anything refine it for immediate impact with an across-the-board income tax reduction. He then should ask, since when, as Senator Obama's proposals suggest, have we been able to tax our way out of economic trouble? If the U.S. economy is teetering on the edge of a recession or downturn, how has it become bad economics to propose a broad-based tax cut to revive the economy?

Wall Street right now is passing through a searing dose of market discipline and correction for its mistakes. After Monday's 504-point plummet in the Dow Jones index, it gained back 141 points yesterday. Barack Obama thinks he can win by explaining all this in terms of the Bush "philosophy." Mr. McCain is going to need a better reply than agreeing with his opponent about "greed" and Wall Street.

"Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

2008-09-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

Everyday I receive more incredulous email about Sarah Palin's candidacy than anything else. Some of it is funny, some sad, some just indignant that such an "anti-feminist" could be put up as an alternative to Hillary Clinton. This piece by Gloria Steinem is pretty good. As I'm still without the motivation to make up my own posts - I'll copy this one over:

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
By Gloria Steinem

September 4, 2008

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chrom osome with Clinton . Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood20for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.

Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq , she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq ."

She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a jo b candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq ; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" progr ams, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who o pposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.

So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.

Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can se e two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and shoul d be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

This could be huge.

Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center . She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.

2008-09-08T15:35:00.000-04:00

...coming back soon

letter from new albany

Happy Earth Day

Big Trees make Good Neighbors

Happy Pollen Days

101-year-old man has cared for sick ‘friend’ for more than half a century

see also: Madison lesson on pollution

"Linden Meadows Ghetto"...that has a nice ring to it, eh?

Stark Raving Math chapter 14 - NAMU

The formerly Green Valley

Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness

Aaahhhh, we can all breathe easier.

...related to our local discussion of Historic Preservation.

and not just 'cause I like it when people make the word FiSh look funny.

Another reason to support your local merchants this season!

FresH off the Bulletin Board!

“To err is human, to forgive, canine” ~ Anonymous

Why fundamentalism will fail

The Boston Globe:

Why fundamentalism will fail

A seemingly unstoppable force is being undone from the inside

Redeveloping a concept of local government...

Welcome to our NOT Haunted Cistern. Come on in, the waters fine...

Today is 350 Day! Come make a statement at Riverfront Park

O-MI-GOD - it's already here and I forgot to get out the word 'cause I was sooo busy winterizing my house!

CLIMATE ACTIONGreat Lawn Waterfront Park, Saturday, October 24,2:30 PM

the movement is advocating bringing CO2 levels down from 420 per million to 350 parts per million, which is the level at which we don't permanently F@%k-UP our planet.

"U.S. Deficit rises to $1.4 Trillion.."

Battered Town Syndrome

MartiOktoberGrasFest!

marching with fish on School Street on the way back to school.

Diminished Democracy

Kleptocracy

peace on earth day...

Don't eat too much candy this weekend...

"Breakthrough on Broken Windows"

In Lowell experiment, crime linked to conditions

For the Men in my life...

Obama-rama

Marco? Polo! Marco? Polo!

Now there's an idea...

One More Go 'round with the Box Gutters

Back to work.

Bourbon and Spirits

I brake for Bail-Outs. Or, as someone said it better:

Why I'm voting for Obama

"That Guy", Masked Men and Republicans, ...whack, whack. Did you watch the Debate last night? I knew the Penguin was coming back.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..........................good news Sweet Tooths!

word-a-licious

Wall St Bail-Out Gives Local Leaders Idea.

Final Day to register to VOTE in Indiana is Oct 6, MONDAY

WoW! The people pulled the levers of Congress this time. Let's keep up the pressure.

Stark Raving Math!!!

Video - a miracle of science

Red Cross to Greenwich - we're on the way...

Hello Kitty, Hilter, Pork-pies,...

Jesus was a community organizer...

Help - I'm down to my last $32 million, buddy can you spare $500 Billion?

While the "Little People" quibble over nickels and dimes, the biggest financial rip-off in the history of the world plays out...

"(Sarah Palin) is anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, anti-Big Oil, a lifetime member of the N.R.A., she hunts, she fishes - she is the perfect woman!"

No, I didn't make this up...

Humm - The ultra business rag WSJ finds Obama more understanding of the financial crisis and it's causes? What?

McCain and the Markets

"Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

CLIMATE ACTION
Great Lawn Waterfront Park, Saturday, October 24,
2:30 PM