Month: June 2013

It’s a beautiful day out here…

…so go enjoy yours, to the extent that local weather conditions will allow.  Me, I need to go get a haircut: there’s a new place, which means that I get to watch a new bunch of barbers get it through their heads that, yes, really, I understand what I am getting into when I walk into an African-American-run barbershop and tell them to “cut it fairly short.”  It’s why I’m there, guys.

Bankruptcy endgame for Detroit?

Very possibly:

[Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn] Orr on Friday sat down in a closed-door meeting with about 150 creditors, bond holders and unions to discuss the city’s fiscal situation, seeking concessions that would save Detroit millions of dollars in payments.

Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of his plan: Orr said, starting now, there will be a moratorium on debt payments for all unsecured funded debt. Creditors are being asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what’s owed them. Underfunded pension claims would get less.

This is my only comment – well, aside from the one where I note that Detroit should take another look at that zombie plan that I suggested a while back – but it’s a doozy: those underfunded claims that I bolded, if I am reading this correctly, represent 3.5 billion dollars’ worth of debt.  The Emergency Manager is stating outright that at least 3 billion of that is going to be defaulted on.  Now, I am a rank amateur at many aspects of public policy and all that, but I suspect that this will end up having adverse effects on the local economy, no?

I’m telling you, again: it’s already post-apocalypse, over there.  They might as well just admit it.

Via Drudge.

Sharyl Attkisson, computer hacking, and the Masters of the Universe.

So. Somebody hacked into the computer of one of CBS’s best-known investigative journalists.

CBS News announced Friday that correspondent Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was hacked by “an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions,” confirming Attkisson’s previous revelation of the hacking.

CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair said that a cybersecurity firm hired by CBS News “has determined through forensic analysis” that “Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions in late 2012.”

One with a history of going after the administration. The report suggest that this wasn’t a script kiddie drive-by and it wasn’t a phishing expedition; whoever did this was after Attkisson’s personal hard drive data, and attempted to cover up the intrusion. So, whodunit?

Continue reading Sharyl Attkisson, computer hacking, and the Masters of the Universe.

Chuck Schumer lectures Mike Bloomberg on gun control message.

Alternative title: Chuck Schumer auditions for Senate Minority Leader.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his gun control ads, labeling them ineffective.

“Frankly, I don’t think Bloomberg’s ads are effective,” Schumer told TIME Magazine in a report posted Thursday. “The Mayor of New York City putting ads against people in red states is not going to be effective.

Continue reading Chuck Schumer lectures Mike Bloomberg on gun control message.

Reps. Defazio, Grijalva slavering over Ed Markey’s Ranking Membership.

I’m not entirely certain why – Natural Resources is one of those committees where the basic goal of the Republicans is to inflict Maximum Fun on the Democrats; and when the GOP holds the House the Maximum Fun is very, very Maximum indeed – but I guess that there’s money in it?

Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., has yet to win the Senate seat vacated by now-Secretary of State John F. Kerry, but Reps. Peter A. Defazio and Raúl M. Grijalva are already fighting over who should replace him as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

The two Democratic lawmakers are arguing not only over legislative records and policy positions, but also over the weight that should be given to seniority.

Continue reading Reps. Defazio, Grijalva slavering over Ed Markey’s Ranking Membership.