Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Keating Five
Still think John McCain would make a good president?
The Keating Five (or Keating Five Scandal) refers to a Congressional scandal related to the collapse of most of the Savings and Loan institutions in the United States in the late 1980s.
Following the deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980s, savings and loan associations (also known as thrifts) were given the flexibility to invest their depositors' funds in commercial real estate. (Previously, they had been restricted to investing in residential real estate.) Many savings and loan associations began making risky investments. As a result, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the federal agency that regulates the industry, tried to clamp down on the trend. In so doing, however, the FHLBB clashed with the Reagan administration, whose policy was deregulation of many industries, including the thrift industry. The administration declined to submit budgets to Congress that would request more funding for the FHLBB's regulatory efforts.
In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.
This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee's investigation focused on five senators: Alan Cranston (D-CA); Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ); John Glenn (D-OH); John McCain (R-AZ); and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-MI), who became known as the Keating Five.
Go here for the rest.
The Keating Five (or Keating Five Scandal) refers to a Congressional scandal related to the collapse of most of the Savings and Loan institutions in the United States in the late 1980s.
Following the deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980s, savings and loan associations (also known as thrifts) were given the flexibility to invest their depositors' funds in commercial real estate. (Previously, they had been restricted to investing in residential real estate.) Many savings and loan associations began making risky investments. As a result, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the federal agency that regulates the industry, tried to clamp down on the trend. In so doing, however, the FHLBB clashed with the Reagan administration, whose policy was deregulation of many industries, including the thrift industry. The administration declined to submit budgets to Congress that would request more funding for the FHLBB's regulatory efforts.
In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.
This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee's investigation focused on five senators: Alan Cranston (D-CA); Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ); John Glenn (D-OH); John McCain (R-AZ); and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-MI), who became known as the Keating Five.
Go here for the rest.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I Hate This Vacuum
This hilarious customer review is on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2C54W4I5AUNVS/ref=cm_cd_pg_next?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdPage=2
Customer Review
920 of 955 people found the following review helpful:
I Hate This Vacuum, December 27, 2005
By drew m
Listen, maybe because I am a man, and in our society men have been stereotyped as helpless boobs who couldn't make a bowl of cereal without the help of a wife/mom/fairy godmother, I should be not the person to review this product. But since my wife likes this vacuum, and because as such I cannot smash into a million pieces with a fungo bat, I have to write this review to get even the Electrolux Oxygen Ultra, an object that is now my sworn enemy, from now until the end of eternity.
I hate this vacuum. Every moment I use it is a chance to ruminate on how much I hate it. Seriously. I vacuum around the house saying to myself, "I hate this vacuum. You know what? This is a really terrible vacuum. I don't think I like this vacuum. Oh wait, did I just suck up the dog?"
It was clearly designed by someone rich enough to never have to use it. Let's start with the basic setup. The main body of the vacuum is something you drag behind you as you go from room to room. This would be a great thing if the house you're vacuuming happens to be empty. And maybe in Sweden or Switzerland or wherever they designed this godawful piece of garbage, that's all the rage now. But if you're someone who happens to have furnished their house with things like chairs and tables (and even the occasional ottoman), this means the Electrolux is constantly getting stopped by whatever objects you had the audacity to place in its way. With an upright vacuum, you don't have to drag anything. But you have to constantly drag the Electrolux everywhere you want to go. I'd like to drag it behind a truck going 150 mph, but that's about it.
Then there's the main, carpet-cleaning attachment of the Electrolux. I hate this attachment. First off, the attachment allows the main handle from the vacuum to be turned to the right, and to the right only. I even checked it for an hour just to make sure I hadn't made a mistake. Nope. This is the only way the attachment turns on the handle. Why? Who knows? Probably just to annoy me, because I paid $600 for the stupid thing. Oh sure, I can turn my hand and vacuum my carpet Gangsta-style now, but otherwise this is the kind of design flaw that makes you want to drive your Honda through Bed Bath & Beyond, just to get even.
And, if anything, this attachment sucks too hard. Like that fringe on your oriental rug? Sorry, the Electrolux thought that was lunch! But every rug could use a good shearing now and then. Also, the motor in the attachment spins so hard it makes controlling the thing darn near impossible. But hey, at least you can turn the handle to the right.
Did I mention that you can only get bags for the Ultra through Electrolux, and that the bags have to be shipped to you? I didn't? Don't worry, no one told me either.
The other attachments aren't so hot either. The attachment we use to vacuum the hardwood floor is stiff and cumbersome. And the coiling tube that goes to the main handle is almost always, without fail, twisted up in an awkward fashion.
Listen, I'm a simple guy. This is clearly what I get for being dumb enough to buy a $600 vacuum. I'm sure the Electrolux has the sucking power of 1,000 Kevin Federlines, and can filter out all the potential carcinogens and death spores I've been told pollute our air. But this isn't rocket science. It's a vacuum. You know why I vacuum? So that stuff looks like it's been vacuumed. That's all. Basic house vacuuming can be easily accomplished with any $100 Hoover out there. You can probably get one at a yard sale. Or maybe you can get my Electrolux at our next yard sale. If I'm sneaky enough, the wife won't notice.
I hate this vacuum.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2C54W4I5AUNVS/ref=cm_cd_pg_next?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdPage=2
Customer Review
920 of 955 people found the following review helpful:
I Hate This Vacuum, December 27, 2005
By drew m
Listen, maybe because I am a man, and in our society men have been stereotyped as helpless boobs who couldn't make a bowl of cereal without the help of a wife/mom/fairy godmother, I should be not the person to review this product. But since my wife likes this vacuum, and because as such I cannot smash into a million pieces with a fungo bat, I have to write this review to get even the Electrolux Oxygen Ultra, an object that is now my sworn enemy, from now until the end of eternity.
I hate this vacuum. Every moment I use it is a chance to ruminate on how much I hate it. Seriously. I vacuum around the house saying to myself, "I hate this vacuum. You know what? This is a really terrible vacuum. I don't think I like this vacuum. Oh wait, did I just suck up the dog?"
It was clearly designed by someone rich enough to never have to use it. Let's start with the basic setup. The main body of the vacuum is something you drag behind you as you go from room to room. This would be a great thing if the house you're vacuuming happens to be empty. And maybe in Sweden or Switzerland or wherever they designed this godawful piece of garbage, that's all the rage now. But if you're someone who happens to have furnished their house with things like chairs and tables (and even the occasional ottoman), this means the Electrolux is constantly getting stopped by whatever objects you had the audacity to place in its way. With an upright vacuum, you don't have to drag anything. But you have to constantly drag the Electrolux everywhere you want to go. I'd like to drag it behind a truck going 150 mph, but that's about it.
Then there's the main, carpet-cleaning attachment of the Electrolux. I hate this attachment. First off, the attachment allows the main handle from the vacuum to be turned to the right, and to the right only. I even checked it for an hour just to make sure I hadn't made a mistake. Nope. This is the only way the attachment turns on the handle. Why? Who knows? Probably just to annoy me, because I paid $600 for the stupid thing. Oh sure, I can turn my hand and vacuum my carpet Gangsta-style now, but otherwise this is the kind of design flaw that makes you want to drive your Honda through Bed Bath & Beyond, just to get even.
And, if anything, this attachment sucks too hard. Like that fringe on your oriental rug? Sorry, the Electrolux thought that was lunch! But every rug could use a good shearing now and then. Also, the motor in the attachment spins so hard it makes controlling the thing darn near impossible. But hey, at least you can turn the handle to the right.
Did I mention that you can only get bags for the Ultra through Electrolux, and that the bags have to be shipped to you? I didn't? Don't worry, no one told me either.
The other attachments aren't so hot either. The attachment we use to vacuum the hardwood floor is stiff and cumbersome. And the coiling tube that goes to the main handle is almost always, without fail, twisted up in an awkward fashion.
Listen, I'm a simple guy. This is clearly what I get for being dumb enough to buy a $600 vacuum. I'm sure the Electrolux has the sucking power of 1,000 Kevin Federlines, and can filter out all the potential carcinogens and death spores I've been told pollute our air. But this isn't rocket science. It's a vacuum. You know why I vacuum? So that stuff looks like it's been vacuumed. That's all. Basic house vacuuming can be easily accomplished with any $100 Hoover out there. You can probably get one at a yard sale. Or maybe you can get my Electrolux at our next yard sale. If I'm sneaky enough, the wife won't notice.
I hate this vacuum.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Take action and tell Congress -- reject Bush’s cuts to public broadcasting.
If this seems to you like dejá vu all over again, you're not alone. This is the eighth straight year that Bush has tried to de-fund public broadcasting, but this year the proposed cuts are the deepest ever. Even Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who now serves as the President of CPB, has called these cuts "draconian".
More and more, the free press that is so essential to our democracy is controlled by a shrinking number of mega-corporations. Never has it been more essential to have a publicly funded, noncommercial media outlet that provides thoughtful rather than partisan news and won't waste our time covering Britney Spears and the baseball steroids scandal.
http://act.credomobile.com/campaign/save_pbs
More and more, the free press that is so essential to our democracy is controlled by a shrinking number of mega-corporations. Never has it been more essential to have a publicly funded, noncommercial media outlet that provides thoughtful rather than partisan news and won't waste our time covering Britney Spears and the baseball steroids scandal.
http://act.credomobile.com/campaign/save_pbs
Monday, February 4, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
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