Guy loses job, gets worse one, unhappy about it.

In which I perform an intervention.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Outside the Beltway readers. I actually didn’t even consider the tip situation…

Via @Yousefzadeh comes this tragic, tragic tale:

From Ordering Steak and Lobster, to Serving It

Carlos Araya used to order lobster, filet mignon and $200 bottles of red wine at the Palm Restaurant in midtown Manhattan.

Now, he seats customers at its Tribeca branch.

Mr. Araya, 38 years old, lost his job in 2007 as a crude oil trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange. After visiting dozens of headhunters with no luck, he applied in August 2008 to be a host at the Palm to support his wife, two young daughters and mortgage payments. His salary has plunged from $200,000 to $25,000.

Read the whole thing, so that you can properly appreciate the advice which I am about to give this fellow:

  • Sell the condo for pay-off-the-mortgage price (if that’s not your definition of ‘break-even’ – and I’m betting that it’s not – change your definition). If you can’t, toss the bank the keys and write it off.  Yes, that will destroy your credit rating.  It’ll also save you the two grand a month that you’re hemorrhaging right now.  Actually, probably more like three grand.
  • Find an apartment in Queens. One that you can afford.  Welcome back to the urban middle class; think of it as a life lesson on what disaster planning really entails.
  • Take the subway to work.  Although I may be unfairly assuming that you don’t.
  • Go get a college degree.  Associates will do for now.
  • Get a job that doesn’t let you network with potential employers but does pay more than $25K/year. What, you thought nobody would notice that?  I was making more than that temping in NYC.

And, oh yes:

  • Start voting your freaking class interest. Because, based on context clues, I am morally certain that you don’t vote Republican.

Moe Lane

PS: Sympathy? Sympathy? Something like one-seventh of the population of the planet don’t have clean water to drink (and I don’t mean something that can be handled by this).  This guy’s underemployed and trying to save his condo: I’m sure that I’d be trying to do the same thing in his circumstances, but until his kids are coming down with beriberi there’s an abrupt upper limit to how long it’ll take before I start pointing out things to him.

Crossposted to RedState.

Jon Corzine plays the Bush card. No, really.

It was apparently ‘George W Bush’ this and ‘George W Bush’ that in his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination tonight (in other words, he’s repeating his strategy from 2005, and Menendez’s from 2006).   Which, as Jim Geraghty nicely (more nicely than he should have, maybe) notes, is interesting, given that Corzine currently polls below (36%) George W. Bush (41%).  Heck, right now he’s polling below Dick Cheney – so I suspect that this particular well might be drying out a bit*. Meanwhile, Chris Christie won on the GOP side, pretty conclusively: Steven Lonegan has already pledged his full support. Continue reading Jon Corzine plays the Bush card. No, really.

Sen Gillibrand (D-NY) gives the 9/11 Troofers some agitprop.

Tsk, tsk, Senator.

This only encourages them.

On the other hand, her party does have a problem with this sort of thing, and I guess that she may need the campaign contributions for next year after all – so now would be a good time to reach out to the base.

But really, madam: Infowars?

Moe Lane

PS: The New York Observer: “The video is already in wide circulation on 9/11 conspiracy web sites.”

I imagine that it must be.

Crossposted to RedState.

Two statements on the death of William Long.

Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska:

“The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media’s hands yesterday – both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.

William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.

Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death.”

Barack Obama, President of the United States of America: Continue reading Two statements on the death of William Long.

On BlogTalk Radio with Fausta again today.

After the fold; it’ll autoload. See also here. I’m going to blame any stammering and verbal tics on my knee.

Fair warning: I got a little angry at the end (around 32:30) when I was talking about what Little Miss Attila noted was only not a ‘rape’ list if you could honestly expect that a woman would knowingly and voluntarily have sex under those particular circumstances. My commenters here don’t need to defend themselves on that; I regulate comments here specifically to keep people who do that kind of trash behavior off of this site. But it’s an ugly problem with ugly wider consequences, and there’s no two ways about it.

Continue reading On BlogTalk Radio with Fausta again today.

Pawlenty not running for third term.

Via NTCNews:

Sources: No 3rd Governor Term For Pawlenty

Two sources have confirmed that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will announce that he will not seek re-election in 2010.

The sources confirmed to WCCO-TV political reporter Pat Kessler that the announcement about Pawlenty’s future plans will include an announcement that he will not seek a third term.

The general assumption seems to be that this means that he’ll be running for President in 2012. All I know is that, at the rate things are going, he may be out of office before the 2008 Senate race gets resolved…

Crossposted to RedState.

President Obama finally has a chance to show his mettle.

Because while Dick Cheney may have won the battle of public opinion, it’s the President who makes the final call.

Now that it’s come out that the President’s stance on Gitmo is deeply, deeply unpopular with the American people (via @BrianFaughnan):

WASHINGTON — Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to closing the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and moving some of the detainees to prisons on U.S. soil, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

By more than 2-1, those surveyed say Guantanamo shouldn’t be closed. By more than 3-1, they oppose moving some of the accused terrorists housed there to prisons in their own states.

…he has an unparalleled change to show his leadership. Now is the time for the President to come out with his detailed, specific, and comprehensive plan for closing down the prison at Gitmo and incarcerating its prisoners on American soil.  No matter how unpopular it might be.

We’ll get a response from the White House any moment now.  I’m certain of it.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Dick Durbin knew all along that Blagojevich was selling off the seat.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Hot Air readers. I agree with Allahpundit that this was probably legal of Durbin, but I still think that he really should have mentioned it to somebody when the indictments started piling up.

This would only be a bombshell if it had been unexpected.

AP Exclusive: Blago talked to Durbin about Senate

CHICAGO (AP) – Just two weeks before his arrest on corruption charges, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich floated a plan to nominate to the U.S. Senate the daughter of his biggest political rival in return for concessions on his pet projects, people familiar with the plan told The Associated Press.

Blagojevich told fellow Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin he was thinking of naming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the seat vacated when Barack Obama won the presidential election, according to two Durbin aides who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[snip]

The aides said the concessions Blagojevich wanted in return were progress on capital spending projects and a health care bill that were stalled in the Legislature.

Continue reading Dick Durbin knew all along that Blagojevich was selling off the seat.