10 February 2009 Parting shots

I am working a bit late as we are doing some of my favorite topics in my classes:

1. Uniqueness and existence theorems for first order differential equations.
2. Sylow Theorems for abstract algebra and
3. The rudiments of kernel and image for linear transformations in linear algebra.

The class preparations are time consuming, but fun.

Politics
President Obama’s press conference in its entirety

Republican Fail

Bizarre Republican Objections

Bizarre Republican Primary

Evidently, this is serious.

Oh, I love the tight white pants.

Republican Mouth Pieces: Fox News Repeats GOP talking points, complete with typos!

During the February 10 edition of Fox News’ Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott claimed that “the Senate is expected to pass the $838 billion stimulus plan — its version of it, anyway. We thought we’d take a look back at the bill, how it was born, and how it grew, and grew, and grew.” In tracking how and when the bill purportedly “grew,” Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods. However, all of the sources and cost figures Scott cited, as well as the accompanying on-screen text, were also contained in a February 10 press release issued by the Senate Republican Communications Center. One on-screen graphic during the segment even repeated a typo from the GOP document, further confirming that Scott was simply reading from a Republican press release. The Fox News graphic and the GOP press release both claimed that a Wall Street Journal report that the stimulus package could reach “$775 billion over two years” was published on December 19, 2009 [emphasis added].

“Fair and Balanced”? Yeah, right.

Robert Reich on today’s Geithner’s press conference:

Geithner has to raise confidence among two groups: (1) the public, enough to allow the administration to use the second $350 billion Congress has already authorized without too much hollering on Capitol Hill; and (2) investors, sufficiently to get them to buy the banks’ toxic assets (with guarantees from the Treasury and loans from the Fed limiting the investors’ downside risks), and to buy new securities that will finance future loans to consumers, small businesses, and homeowners (also with some federal guarantees and loans limiting downside risks).

At this stage, (1) will be far easier to accomplish than (2). [...]

The public doesn’t trust Wall Street and has big doubts about the Treasury, even under Obama. But the administration isn’t asking for new legislation now. Geithner’s entire program is based on existing authority[...]

There are problems, to say the least. The Federal Reserve would be willing to grant loans in order to encourage investors to take the risks. But Reich argues that capital is hard to come by these days and this plan may rely on using hedge funds for capital….these are risky! Do you remember what happened recently?

So Geithner was intentionally vague about the plan; he needs to build in some wiggle room, but vagueness undermines transparency and confidence.

In short, this is a tough situation and we are in uncharted territory.

Republican Hate Thinking about it, I found it amusing that someone expressed, well, disapproval at my saying “GOP stands for Greed Over Patriotism”.

After all, that is all sweetness and light compared to what the Republicans routinely throw at us.

To see what happens at the extreme: recall what happened at the Unitarian Church in Knoxville. The person who did the shootings will be spending life in jail. But he is unrepentant:

In one sense, justice has been done this day in Tennessee. Jim Adkisson, the shooter who violated the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church,will be spending the rest of his life behind bars.

But there are still troubling loose ends. Still wondering whether it was a hate crime?

“This was a hate crime,” Adkisson wrote in a four-page “manifesto” he had left inside his truck and intended to serve as a suicide letter.
[snip]
This was a symbolic killing,” Adkisson wrote. “Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate and House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I knew these people were inaccessible to me.

I invite you, if you are strong of stomach, to read the whole thing.

If I weren’t one of the people whom he shot at, I could more easily be moved by the despair and self-loathing written here. “I know my life is going downhill fast from here,” he said. “If you would take my sorry carcass to the body farm, or donate it to science, or just throw me in the Tennessee River.” Here’s a man who felt like he had no options.

But how did he feel like he could best use this time he had remaining?

Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them. Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather.

This is where my sympathy for him ends. He apparently remains unrepentant:

Matthew David Chamberlain, a 47-year-old nonviolent sex offender who shared a pod with Adkisson, said Adkisson insisted that the motive behind the attack was purely ideological.

“He said if he got out (of prison), he’d do it again,” Chamberlain said.

Now THAT is a display of violence and nastiness; that is a bit more than calling someone a name.

Besides, given the crap that the Republicans routinely threw at us for the past umpteen years…

So, when someone calls us “liberal haters”, ask them when you’ve seen a bunch of liberals shooting up a place?

Of course, we have been known to protest….

BRING OUT THE PITCHFORKS!

No, this group of protesters are not necessarily a group of liberals; in fact I don’t know if there is a dominant political persuasion among them.

I am a bit surprised that this hasn’t happened earlier:

Monday, Feb. 9, a group of 350 to 400 at-risk homeowners, organized by the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America , staged a series of protests outside the mansions of wealthy bankers in a moneyed Connecticut neighborhood.

More details of the people powered movement below the fold.

* AfroPonix’s diary :: ::
*

The Stamford Times reports:

Stamford and Greenwich became the stomping grounds of a grassroots campaign against corporate greed Sunday as part of a three day homeowners’ workshop sponsored by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Between 350 and 400 people, most of them members, staff or volunteers for the Boston-based nonprofit organization, converged outside the Greenwich home of William Frey, manager of Greenwich Financial Services, at around 1 p.m.
[....]Called the ‘Predators Tour’ these actions were the start of NACA’s ‘accountability campaign,’ an aggressive, confrontational protest aimed at several top executives of companies that refuse to allow NACA to renegotiate the terms of loans on behalf of members, according to NACA CEO Bruce Marks

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