Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 French parliament adopts ban on full-face veil

by Frederic Dumoulin, AFP

10 mins ago

Oh, and about your phoney baloney jobs assholes-

Democratic Job Prospects Dim on K Street

By Anna Palmer, Roll Call Staff

Sept. 14, 2010, 12 a.m.

Help wanted on K Street. (Democrats need not apply.)

That’s the not-so-subtle message many Democratic Hill staffers say they are getting about their employment prospects this fall.

…

Limited job prospects have left some Democratic staffers, particularly those working for vulnerable Members, doing everything they can to be ready to start their job search on Nov. 3. In addition to readying their résumés for potential lobbying gigs, staffers are meeting with former colleagues who have already made the jump downtown.

…

Democratic aides may take a cue from their Republican counterparts. It wasn’t that long ago that Republicans found themselves in a similar position. After Democrats won the House in 2006, the job market significantly tightened, and many former GOP staffers left the Beltway completely.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Fear Factor

Be afraid.  Be very, very afraid.

A line of argument we’re mostly used to hearing from Thugs, but being pushed hard by the Institutional "Fuck You Retards" Democrats in the run up to this election.  Even my activist brother somewhat bought the latest variation- that re-districting might be effected by the results in November.

Not so much it seems.

Debunking the Redistricting Myth

by Dylan Loewe- Speechwriter, Author of Permanently Blue

Via Huffington Post, Posted: September 13, 2010 08:00 AM

Many have suggested that if Republicans are able to retake the majority in Congress this fall, they’ll be able to maintain that majority over the long-term, largely as a result of a subsequent redistricting process they expect to control. Some have even argued that Republicans could gain the power to draw as many as 25 congressional districts in their favor.

…

(Only) 23 states … will be at the center of the redistricting battle.

…

Democrats will be in a better position during this redistricting in at least 8 states, and, depending on the outcome in November, could very well be in better shape in as many as 11 states. Republicans, on the other hand, will find themselves in an improved partisan environment in just 6 states.

…

The states where Republicans are expected to be better positioned (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina) are midsized states, with an average of only about 8 congressional districts each.

The states where Democrats are expected to improve, on the other hand, (Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Virginia, and Michigan) include a significant number of very large states, with an average of about 17 congressional districts.

…

Over the last ten years, 80 percent of the population growth in this country has come from minorities, overwhelmingly in metropolitan areas. When states like Texas are awarded new congressional districts (they are expected to get four this cycle), those districts will have to be drawn in the same metropolitan areas where such high minority population growth is occurring. Barack Obama won 80 percent of the minority vote. He won every major city in Texas except Fort Worth. This means that these new districts are going to be drawn in areas that are going to be highly populated with Democrats, ones that are almost certainly going to send Democrats to Congress. This, of course, will play out beyond Texas. In fact, of the 10 new districts expected to be allocated, there is reason to believe that at least 8 of them will end up in Democratic hands.

I don’t mean to understate the power of gerrymandering. But even gerrymandering can’t solve this problem for the Republican Party. In the middle of last decade, when Tom Delay and state Republican leaders redrew the Texas state map in a way that removed half a dozen Democratic seats, they didn’t touch the minority districts already in place. Why? Because they were concerned that doing so would invoke the Voting Rights Act and send the newly drawn map to the courts, where it would likely be redrawn by judges. (If that happened in 2011, Democrats could gain as many as 10 seats in Texas.) During the 2011 redistricting, it won’t just be the already existing minority districts that Republicans will have to avoid. It will be the new ones too. With the vast majority of the population growth coming from minorities, the vast majority of the new districts are likely to require minority representation. And for the first time since the Voting Rights Act was passed, the Attorney General in charge of overseeing the process will have been appointed by a Democratic president.

…

(E)ven if taken to the extreme–even if Republicans are able to ensure, in each case, that a Democratic seat gets erased, that still won’t do as much for the Republican Party as they think. Such a district is likely to be erased in predominantly white, rural areas, where population has declined over the last decade. That means that the Democratic districts that will be erased are more likely to be moderate ones, the kinds that Blue Dogs represent.

…

By the time redistricting is over, not only will Democrats have secured for themselves a far more favorable map, they will have also gone through a process that will unify their caucus, increasing the number of seats where progressives can win, in exchange for decreasing the number of seats where Blue Dogs can win.

Folks, the only thing they’re really afraid of is losing their phoney baloney jobs and getting second pick at the choice offices and parking spots on Capitol Hill.

Monday Night Throwball double header, but the real treat is for you Ayn Rand fans- Patricia Neal in The Fountainhead–

The Fountainhead’s protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic  young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. The book follows his battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship. How others in the novel relate to Roark demonstrates Rand’s various archetypes of human character, all of which are variants between Roark, the author’s ideal man of independent-mindedness and integrity, and what she described as the “second-handers.” The complex relationships between Roark and the various kinds of individuals who assist or hinder his progress, or both, allow the novel to be at once a romantic drama and a philosophical work. By Rand’s own admission, Roark is the embodiment of the human spirit and his struggle represents the triumph of individualism over collectivism.

• ABC Family– Johnson Family Vacation x 2
• AMC– Death Wish x 2
• ESPN– Ravens @ Jets, Chargers @ Chiefs
• Food– Unwrapped, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (premiers)
• FX– There’s Something About Mary
• History– Pawn Stars, American Pickers (premiers)
• Oxygen– Juno x 2
• National Geographic– Inside the Vietnam War
• TBS– Family Guy night
• Turner Classic– The Fountainhead
• TNT– The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles (Season Finales)
• Toon– Regular Show, MAD, Total Drama World Tour (premiers)
• Travel– Man v. Food, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (premier)
• Vs.– Victory

Later-

• AMC– Rubicon, Mad Men (repeats of this week’s)
• Turner Classic– The Subject Was Roses, A Face in the Crowd
• TVLand– How Stella Got Her Groove Back
• USA– Covert Affairs, Psych, White Collar (this week’s)

Dave is in repeats.  Jon has Ben Affleck, Stephen Lisa Birnbach.  Alton does game birds.  Boondocks is doing Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy, but you’ve already seen that, haven’t you?

This whole country’s just like my flock of sheep!

Sheep?

Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers – everybody that’s got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don’t know it yet, but they’re all gonna be ‘Fighters for Fuller’. They’re mine! I own ’em! They think like I do. Only they’re even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for ’em. Marcia, you just wait and see. I’m gonna be the power behind the president – and you’ll be the power behind me!

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Thirteen dead in Kashmir, Christian school torched

by Izhar Wani, AFP

Mon Sep 13, 12:00 pm ET

Monday Business Edition

Monday Business Edition is an Open Thread

I don’t believe it.  I think this is pre-election posturing.  Still, as some have suggested, it’s possible this administration may be forced to make some policy promises that are not so easy to walk away from.

Geithner Urges Action on Economy

By DEBORAH SOLOMON, The Wall Street Journal

September 12, 2010

“If the government does nothing going forward, then the impact of policy in Washington will shift from supporting economic growth to hurting economic growth,” Mr. Geithner said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal in his U.S. Treasury office, citing the example of countries who “shift too quickly to premature restraint” after a crisis, including the U.S. in the 1930s.

…

On Sunday, a top Republican lawmaker signaled there might be room to compromise on extending the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners but, in a sign of how fraught the issue is, his words drew immediate skepticism from Obama administration officials. “I want to do something for all Americans who pay taxes,” House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “If the only option I have is to vote for some of those tax reductions, I’ll vote for it. But I’ve been making the point now for months that we need to extend all the current rates for all Americans if we want to get our economy going again, and we want to get jobs in America.”

[The] typical error most countries make coming out of a financial crisis is they shift too quickly to premature restraint. You saw that in the United States in the 30s, you saw that in Japan in the 90s. It is very important for us to avoid that mistake. If the government does nothing going forward, then the impact of policy in Washington will shift from supporting economic growth to hurting economic growth.

Mr. Geithner, in the interview, rejected the view of many economists that allowing taxes to rise is unwise at this point in the recovery. The White House estimates the one-year cost of extension at $35 billion and the 10-year cost at $700 billion.

“We don’t have unlimited resources,” Mr. Geithner said. “We just don’t think it would be responsible for this country, given the size of our future deficits, and given the substantial burden the middle class has been bearing over the past decade in particular, to go out and borrow $700 billion from our children so we can sustain those Bush tax cuts that only go to the wealthiest 2% of Americans.”

He said the U.S. can no longer rely on consumer spending, which has long powered the economy, to be the growth engine that leads the recovery this time around and said Washington needed to plant the seeds for business investment and exports.

In the mean time here at The Stars Hollow Gazette we’re going to keep teaching Samuelson and not Snake Oil Salesmen.

• Economics 101
• Striking Right at the Capillaries
• The Economic Damage of Republican Obstructionism
• Economics 101: Tonight’s Reading Assignment
• Aggregate Demand
• Goolsbee: Chair Council of Economic Advisors
• Magical Thinking

Sunday Night Throwball, Dallas Cowboys @ Washington Redskins.  On examining my feelings I don’t hate the ‘skins quite as much as the ‘boys.  Tonight Turner Classic is showing 2 films that perfectly illustrate my contention of rampant cultural misogyny in the 60s that sadly persists to this day.

• ABC Family– Cars x 2
• AMC– Broken Arrow, Rubicon and Mad Men (both premiers)
• Bravo– Top Chef marathon (including Season Finale)
• Disney– New Hannah Montana, Good Luck Charlie, Jonas L.A. (gag me with a spoon)
• Discovery– Man v. Wild x 2 (including Fan v. Wild), Mysteries of the Mediterranean (premier)
• ESPN– Cards @ Braves
• Food– The Great Food Truck Race (premier, 3 teams left), Iron Chef America (premier)
• FX– Cloverfield, Jumper
• History– Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People (premiers)
• MTV– 2010 MTV Video Music Awards (umm… who cares?)
• TBS– Last Holiday, My Boys x 2 (premiers)
• Turner Classic– Sex and the Single Girl, Bachelor in Paradise
• Adult Swim– Delocated (premier)
• TNT– The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King x 2

Later-

• Comedy– Futurama (3peat), Ugly Americans (repeat of Series Premier)
• FX– Cloverfield (again)
• SciFi– Carny
• Turner Classic– The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (shhhh)
• USA– National Treasure

The Venture Brothers 2nd half Season Premier night on Adult Swim– The Diving Bell vs. the Butter Glider.  Childrens Hospital– Give a Painted Brother a Break.

You think you are wise, Mithrandir. Yet for all your subtleties, you have not wisdom. Do you think the eyes of the White Tower are blind? I have seen more than you know. With your left hand you would use me as a shield against Mordor, and with your right you would seek to supplant me. I know who rides with Theoden of Rohan. Oh, yes. Word has reached my ears of this Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and I tell you now, I will not bow to this Ranger from the North, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship!

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 35 Top Stories.

1 Moving NY mosque would boost Islamic extremism, imam warns

by Maxim Kniazkov, AFP

2 hrs 9 mins ago

223 Stories served.  31 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 9/5
• Monday 9/6
• Tuesday 9/7
• Wednesday 9/8
• Thursday 9/9
• Friday 9/10
• Saturday 9/11

Ferrari on the front row.  Well, first and third.  Good for them as the hometown team I suppose.

In fact Ferrari is a team in trouble and has threatened to concentrate on next year’s development if they don’t get a good result.  Frankly no result is going to move them beyond an eventual 3rd place because they’re just too far behind.  Also, that’s what they did last year and look where it’s got them.

It’s not only that the car isn’t fast, their engine is not reliable and almost every team that uses it, including Ferrari, is on their last one with 6 races to go (including this one).  If you use any above the allotted 8 for the season there’s a 10 spot Grid penalty and starting position is very important in Formula One.

They’re not the only ones with engine problems, for some inexplicable reason Mark Webber from Red Bull has elected to race a used engine when almost every other team has switched to a new one.  Not just that, but this engine has had 2 problems during the practice sessions and inexplicable because he has 2 spares.  The reason this is significant is because Webber and Hamilton are the only ones with a realistic shot at the Drivers’ Championship and Red Bull and McLaren are only 1 point apart in the Team Championship.

The other technically interesting point is the dueling aero setups.  Some drivers and teams have opted for a larger wing and are relying on F-Ducts to spoil the airflow over it to reduce drag on the parts of the track where you don’t need so much downforce.  Everyone else is just going for a smaller wing all the way around which has the additional advantage of being lighter.  You can see this play out on the McLaren team where Button, using the F-Duct, is starting 2nd and Hamilton, using the small wing, is starting 5th.  Hamilton was a little squirrely during Qualifying.

All of the top ten are starting on Option (Soft) Tires that only have 2 or 3 laps on them, but they won’t last and because the field is so closely matched it’s unlikely that anyone is going to be able to gain enough of a lead to pit without losing position.  This is somewhat of an advantage for Button who has shown an uncanny ability to tread (heh, heh, get it?) lightly on his tires, but were I a back marker like Schumacher or Petrov I’d start Primes and drive them into the ground.

My Qualifying Commentary, Speed Channel Racecast, Formula One Official Website.

Starting Grid and Standings below.