News roundup, 28 Aug 2026

- Donald Trump has signed an executive order officially renaming Lake Ontario as "Lake America". Some folks on social media are suggesting that we should respond by closing the Welland Canal to American vessels, which would create a rather awkward situation for the US Midwest as they depend on the canal to ship their goods overseas. On a related note, Danielle Smith, predictably, continues to be vehemently opposed to using oil and gas exports as a bargaining chip with the US, and her fellow collaborator Scott Moe has similar opinions about potash.

- The investigation into the runway collision between an Air Canada jet and an airport fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing the pilots and injuring more than 40 other people, has found that two air traffic controllers had clocked out early, leaving the tower seriously understaffed. The FAA is looking to fire the controllers. Other factors in the accident, including the fact that the truck lacked a transponder, are still under investigation.

- Some Republican strategists are sufficiently concerned about Trump's collapsing approval ratings that they favour focusing on specific races. Trump's ego, of course, can't tolerate that, so his PAC, aptly known as MAGA Inc, is reportedly planning to bombard the country with ads making it all about himself.

- The spike in fuel prices resulting from Trump's war in Iran has led to a surge in the popularity of electric vehicles in pretty much every country except the US. This bodes poorly for the long term future of the American auto industry unless something changes soon.

- A civilian professor at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY has been fired for continuing to teach about human-caused climate change. Adam Kalkstein, who taught at the institution for 17 years, compares the prohibition to "trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the Constitution"; he is suing for reinstatement and requesting a jury trial.

- UK prime minister Andy Burnham is facing pressure from his MPs to move ahead with electoral reform. Burnham has advocated doing away with first-past-the-post for quite some time, and now nearly 100 of his MPs are calling on him to create a commission on the subject in his first 100 days in office. This is a refreshing stance for Labour; the party has long benefited from the status quo, but perhaps they're now realizing that this might be the best defense the country has against the rise of Reform UK.

- A car belonging to Salma Zahid, the Liberal MP for Scarborough Centre, was torched early Thursday morning by person or persons unknown; the fire spread to two other vehicles before being extinguished. Toronto police have not yet confirmed that Zahid was the target.

- A security guard at a Dollarama in suburban Winnipeg was stabbed after confronting a shoplifter. The suspect, who has a significant criminal record already, was captured quickly and charged with aggravated assault as well as robbery and failure to comply with a probation order.

News roundup, 13 July 2024

- Jeremy Skibicki has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of four women after the judge rejected his lawyers' arguments that he should be found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder. He faces an automatic sentence of life in prison with no eligibility for parole for at least 25 years.

- The US House of Representatives has passed a bill which prohibits non-citizens from registering to vote. If your first thought was, "wasn't that already illegal?" you would be entirely correct. In fact, it is a felony. And contrary to claims that huge numbers of migrants voted last time around, actual instances of this are extremely rare. So from a practical point of view, the bill is useless, though from a populist politician's point of view it is potentially very useful as a rallying point. Democrats fear that the measures contained in the bill would make it more difficult for actually eligible voters to register, something that suits Trump and the Republicans just fine.

- Many Democrats fear that previously safe states could be in play thanks to Joe Biden's refusal to leave the presidential race. Worryingly, his gaffes continue; earlier this week he confused Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Vladimir Putin at a press conference. Meanwhile, Trump seems unusually disciplined in the face he shows to the public. I don't know, it's not a good sign when a dottering old man is the only thing standing in the way of fascism.

- The Manitoba government is providing money for a safe consumption site in Winnipeg, to open in 2025. The site will be run by the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre and will provide numerous other services. Pierre Poilievre says that he intends to shut such sites down, at least in certain areas; he claims that they have "made everything worse". The available evidence suggests otherwise, but populist politics is not about that ay-leet stuff like evidence.

- A five-storey warehouse in inner-city Winnipeg is in such bad condition that a neighbouring residential building has been evacuated, as officials fear that the warehouse is in imminent danger of collapse. Looking at those photos, things sure don't look good; the city evidently concurs, as they have ordered the building demolished starting Monday.

- The UN projects the world population to peak within this century as a result of falling birthrates. From an environmentalist point of view this is definitely a good thing, while from a capitalist point of view it is definitely a bad thing - much for the same reason. From a public policy point of view it will definitely involve its challenges (those associated with ageing populations) but I have to say that's still a lot better than the alternative.

- Temperatures are so high in places like Death Valley that it's not always possible to fly helicopters due to the lower density of warm air and the resulting reduction in lift. This actually prevented a rescue helicopter from being sent to help a motorcyclist who succumbed to heatstroke in temperatures as high as 53°C.

- Following an assault on a paramedic in Victoria, first responders are saying that they will only attend calls on the block where this occurred if they have a police escort.

- Some landlords have taken to using AI chatbots to interact with their tenants. Does that sound like a good idea to you? If it does, you might be a landlord.

News roundup, 7 June 2024

- The IDF used an American made bomb on a UN-run school in Nuseirat, Gaza. The school was being used as shelter by families whose homes had already been destroyed, and at least 32 people were killed, 7 of them children. Of course the IDF claims that they were targeting militants. For their part, the Americans say that the bomb was designed to be a precision weapon (thus hopefully minimizing collateral damage) but that the Israelis weren't using it in a precision manner. And the prospects for improvement are not good, since neither Netanyahu nor Hamas' leaders can settle for anything less than total victory, which in practice means no ceasefire for the foreseeable future.

- UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer says that he will call for a Palestinian state if he becomes prime minister.

- A Tesla shareholder is accusing Elon Musk of massive insider trading by selling $7.5 billion worth of stock shortly before some poor numbers were made public.

- The Bank of Canada has lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.75%, following a decline in inflation to 2.7%. Tom Brodbeck remarks that Poilievre's comments a couple of years ago calling the bank "financially illiterate" look pretty foolish now. Unfortunately, to Poilievre's followers they don't look foolish; they think the bank won't have succeeded unless they bring prices down to where they were before. If they were more financially literate they'd know that drops in prices are called deflation, and that it does far more economic damage than they'd like. Poilievre himself presumably knows better, but he's happy to lead the sheeple along with whatever they'll follow, so long as it wins him votes.

- A cyclist was fatally injured in a hit and run on a busy stretch of Wellington Crescent this morning. Both the cyclist and the driver were eastbound at the time. That section of Wellington is not subject to the summer bike route restrictions like the part west of Academy is, and is used as a major thoroughfare by a lot of drivers.

- Just to make sure we all know which side of the culture wars they stand on, the Colorado wing of the Republican Party has sent out a tweet calling for the burning of all Pride flags.

- The Hospitals of Regina Foundation has raised some eyebrows when they booked American comedian Rob Schneider for a fundraiser. The fact that he's an antivaxxer should have been reason enough to think twice; people who attended the event also report that he included misogynistic and transphobic jokes as part of his routine. They did cut his performance short after they realized their mistake.

- The Yuntai Mountain Waterfall, billed as China's largest, was discovered by a hiker to have been fed by a pipe. The operator of the park where the waterfall was found said that they made a "small enhancement" so that it would give tourists their value for money during the dry season when the natural flow rate would make for a less striking image.

Republicans want to bring back child labour

Seriously:

SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

Source (h/t PZ Myers at Pharyngula).

Even North Carolina voters have their limits

Ilario Pantano, the Tea Party endorsed candidate for North Carolina's 7th Congressional district, has conceded defeat. Perhaps his mysterious acquittal on war crimes charges failed to convince voters. Christine O'Donnell, star of this entry, has been defeated in Delaware as well.

On the other hand, it looks like Rand Paul has been elected, along with some other pretty far-out individuals. It doesn't look like they'll gain control of the Senate, though.

Teabagger doesn't understand the Constitution

You'd think people who are constantly ranting about the importance of upholding the Constitution would have bothered to read it. Apparently not:

The US constitution has its quirks but it is crystal clear on one issue: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," begins the first amendment, adopted in 1791. But more than 200 years later, its meaning appears to be lost on Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party favourite running for a US Senate seat.

At a debate today for the Delaware Senate seat once occupied by Vice President Joe Biden, O'Donnell appeared to be nonplussed by the wording of the first amendment, repeatedly returning to the subject and sounding incredulous after her Democratic opponent Chris Coons attempted to explain it to her.

When Coons told her the text of the constitution prohibited government from establishing any religion, O'Donnell replied in apparent bewilderment: "You're telling me that's in the first amendment?"

From the Guardian. Rather strange. It gets better, though, because the teabaggers, for the most part, subscribe to a school of constitutional thought known as originalism, the idea that when interpreting the Constitution, every effort should be made to see what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote it. Well, in this case we have some good evidence for the intention:

Not only is the first amendment perhaps the most famous part of the constitution but the "establishment clause", as it is known, is the subject of legal precedent stretching back into the 19th century. No less an authority than Thomas Jefferson, one of the constitution's authors, declared the clause's aim to build "a wall of separation between church and state".

My emphasis. Things are going to get rather interesting for some of these people when they find themselves actually getting elected (and I suspect far to many of them will for my liking). Gwynne Dyer thinks, though, that this might not be the disaster that some fear:

If all of the retired white people vote, and only the usual midterm proportion of all the other demographics does, then the Democrats will lose both houses of Congress.

So why isn’t Obama more worried about it?

He will certainly regret that so many long-serving Democratic senators and congressmen are going to lose their seats this autumn, but it really does not much matter to him who controls the Congress for the next two years.

He can’t hope to get any more legislation even through the current Congress since the Democrats lost their “super-majority” of 60 seats in the Senate last January, so what’s the difference?

Nor does Obama actually have to get more legislation through Congress right now. It would be nice to have a tough climate-change bill, no doubt, but from a political point of view, there is no new law that he simply must pass before he faces reelection himself in 2012.

Indeed, he stands a very good chance of winning a second term in 2012, in large part because of what is going to happen this November.

From the Georgia Straight. Essentially, Dyer thinks that the teabaggers will show their true colours, yet be unable to actually accomplish anything:

Getting majorities in both houses of Congress will leave the Republicans nowhere to hide on the critical issue of cutting the huge federal deficit. They have already said that they will not raise taxes—even for those earning more than $250,000 a year—and they have pledged not to cut defence spending.

What’s left? The only other big-ticket items in the budget are entitlements: health care and pensions.

The United States has not yet gone through the painful debate about how to tame the deficit that has already happened in most European countries, but it will have to do so soon.

That poses a particular problem for Republicans, because if they will not raise taxes on the rich or cut defence spending, then they have to support brutal cuts in health care and pensions or lose all credibility as deficit-cutters.

But cutting entitlements would alienate the Republicans’ own most important demographic: older white people. They will not risk that.

Dyer also points out that any ridiculous piece of legislation that they come up with, even if it passes both houses of Congress, is subject to presidential veto. The one thing he does not mention is that if the Republicans get supermajorities in both houses, they will be able to override his veto. Hopefully -- and probably -- that won't happen.

Teabagger strategy for midterms revealed

It's called voter suppression:

What was once an isolated story of one Republican group trying to suppress the Democratic vote is now turning into a much larger effort on the part of the entire Republican Party. Numerous stories have now emerged of various Republican candidates and conservative groups engaging in practices which they say are designed to stop voter fraud, but liberals claim the real goal is to keep legitimate Democratic voters from going to the polls.

The first evidence of a voter suppression effort came in the form of an audio tape of a Tea Party meeting in Wisconsin. In the meeting, one leader describes a concerted effort on the part of the Tea Party, the Republican Party, and Americans for Prosperity. The plan involved sending mailers to voters the group considered suspect voters. The mailer would warn the individuals that if they did not respond they may not be able to vote. That strategy has been used before as part of what is called the "voter caging" strategy. Under the strategy, many voters are effectively discouraged from voting because they believe (falsely) that they had to return the mailer from the private organization. In addition, the Wisconsin conservative group stated that they were planning to send a "team" of lawyers to districts where the mailers would possibly be used to challenge the votes of some citizens.

Following the Wisconsin story, another story came out concerning Republican senatorial candidate Mark Kirk. In an audio tape leaked to the press, Kirk can be heard telling his audience about his campaign's plan to send teams of lawyer to districts in Illinois which are dominated by African-America, Democratic voters. Kirk referred to these areas as "vulnerable districts" which would need to be monitored closely by his lawyers, but he did not feel the need to monitor areas dominated by white, Republican voters.

From here (h/t jblaque).

How will the US midterm elections play out?

They're going to be interesting, that's for sure.

On the surface, things look very bad for the Democrats. The Guardian cites a poll showing the Republicans having the support of 51% of registered voters, compared to the Democrats at 41%. And the Democrats' base is rather demoralized, because a lot of the hopes that led to Obama's election are being dashed. Certainly this could be a good thing, but not if the troops are simply shipped over to Afghanistan... And the healthcare initiative, while perhaps a slight improvement on what there was before, has been pretty mediocre, to say the least. (We'll make you buy health insurance, but won't pay for it unless you're really poor. None of that Canuck crap for you!) And we'll have to see what gets done on the climate front; on a diplomatic level it looks rather mediocre as well (uh... we'll sign an agreement that says we think we should probably do something about this, but not actually commit to anything). But with the grip they've had on the levers of government you'd think the Democrats would have accomplished far more than they have...

The funny thing is, though, in situations like this your enemy can be your best friend. The Republicans are actually in a rather bad state right now. David Neiwert at Crooks and Liars (h/t jblaque via Twitter) has pointed out that when teabaggers contest Republican nominations, it's become common for the loser to refuse to endorse the winner. Not to mention, when teabaggers are running in swing districts, they're less likely to win over the moderates. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of polling numbers change in the US once the summer's over. Hopefully that will change in Canada, too, before the likes of Harper, Ford et. al. win any more elections.

Republican reps apologize to BP for "shakedown"

Somehow they expect to make political hay from this:

Republicans on the Hill have calculated that President Obama's successful demand that BP set up a $20 billion escrow account to pay out claims is ripe for political attack. In the wake of Wednesday's White House announcement, a host of GOP officials are raising questions about both the process by which the deal was made and the deal itself -- going so far as to apologize to BP on America's behalf.

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) during a hearing on Thursday morning with BP's CEO Tony Hayward." I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown -- in this case a $20 billion shakedown -- with the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history, which has no legal standing, which I think sets a terrible precedent for our nation's future."

From the Huffington Post (h/t jblaque). Just when you think the Democrats are in for a beating in November, the Republicans do something to give you hope. And the Repubs will really look silly saying stuff like that if predictions that they might have to, say, evacuate nearly three million people turn out to be true (thanks again to Blaque for that one).

The lights all went out in Massachusetts...

Scott Brown has been elected to the Senate:

Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts on Tuesday in what is being called an epic upset for the Democratic Party.

Brown led by 52 per cent to 47 percent with all but 3 percent of precincts counted.

Democrat Edward Kennedy held the seat for almost 47 years before dying of brain cancer in August. Before that, his brother John held it for a decade.

Not only has Brown broken the Democrats' stranglehold, but his win also puts at risk the cause to which Ted Kennedy devoted his life.

Brown has vowed to kill the very thing Ted Kennedy lived for and President Barack Obama dearly covets — a form of universal health care.

Source. This is not good news for the Obama administration, for sure. How dramatic the effects of this are still remain to be seen, but it could get ugly. Of course, Brown won't have a long career, as kos points out:

Either Scott Brown alienates ideologically rigid Teabaggers by casting votes with Democrats in order to shore up his standing at home; or

He votes in lockstep with the rest of his party and becomes the nation's most unpopular senator.

One or the other is inevitable. Maybe both.

Which way this goes probably makes little difference to Brown's chances of getting reelected (slim), but it makes a big difference how damaging this is. If Brown votes against a filibuster, this minimalist health care package might actually be passed before the midterm elections. Unfortunately, I think the other outcome is more likely, and that the package will be delayed until fall, then die entirely when the Democrats lose their majority, as I expect they will.

Interesting...

According to this article, Nancy Pelosi is saying that health care reform will continue regardless of what happens tonight in Massachusetts. Not everyone agrees, though, as evidenced by this snippet from Stockhouse.com:

U.S. investors returned to trading today in a much better mood than they finished off with last week. Today’s earnings slate helped to boost sentiment with no major negative surprises out of the banking sector, as Citigroup’s (C) TARP losses came in even with expectations, and First Horizon (FHN) reported an improvement in its loan loss provision. Industrial manufacturer Parker-Hannafin (PHN) posted strong earnings (62 cents vs. Street 34 cents) and guidance. The health care sector has also been rallying, led by Coventry Health (CVH) and Eli Lilly (LLY) ahead of a key Massachusetts senate by-election, which may have a major impact on pending health care legislation.

In other words, the potential failure of health care reform is good news in the eyes of those arseholes.

Do-or-die day for the Democrats

Who could have imagined the Democrats having trouble in Massachusetts? Well, today a by-election (or as the Americans call them, a "special election") is being held to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy. And it's possible that they could actually lose:

The special election being held today to fill Mr. Kennedy's Senate seat, which is too close to call, is a stinging verdict on President Barack Obama's first year in office. If Democrat Martha Coakley loses - or barely scrapes by - Mr. Obama will bear the blame and the consequences will reverberate for the rest of his term.

The Massachusetts race also offers voters across the country a taste of what to expect this fall, when midterm elections will be held for all 435 seats in U.S. House of Representatives and more than a third of those in the 100-seat Senate. Gone from the Democratic pitch is the message of hope and empowerment that fuelled Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign. In its place are eerie attack ads and warnings of the dark days that a Republican win would bring.

From the Globe and Mail. If this happens, it could cripple Obama's administration, since the Democrats would lose their 60% majority in the Senate that they need to stop a filibuster. This would mean that the health care plan would probably collapse; all that the Republicans need is to delay it until the midterm elections. Worse, it could be damaging to efforts to minimize climate change. And in any case it could seriously damage Obama's chance of reelection in 2012. Gwynne Dyer's fear that Obama could be the next LBJ might well bear fruit. How does "President Mike Huckabee" sound to you? Maybe "President Nehemiah Scudder"?

The latest anti-Obama slogan

It's a subtle but unsettling message:

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

From the Christian Science Monitor, via AlterNet. It may not meet the technical definition of sedition or hate speech (it isn't overtly advocating violence, unless you believe in the power of prayer to kill someone) but it shows where their minds are at, on more than one level.

Kansas Republican calls for "great white hope"

A rather unfortunate choice of words, don't you think?

A Republican congresswoman from Kansas is issuing a great big apology for saying the GOP is searching for a "great white hope" to stop President Obama's policy agenda.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins "apologizes if her words have offended anyone," her spokesman, Mary Geiger, said. "That was not the intent in any way, shape or form."

During an Aug. 19 forum, Jenkins attempted to reassure the crowd that that the Republican Party has promising young leaders.

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," Jenkins, who is white, said. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."

Later, at an event at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Jenkins denied she was using racial terms. She said she meant only that the GOP needs "a bright light."

Source. Uh... sure. "A bright light". Yeah, we believe you, Lynn.

What the heck is with these "birthers" anyway?

No doubt you've heard of these people. They are absolutely convinced that Obama was not born in the US, and nothing will satisfy them. Here's some in action:

Via mesyn191 in this iTulip thread. Scary, no? And doesn't it occur to them that if there were any serious reason to believe that Obama was not qualified for office, that John McCain or Hilary Clinton would have dug it up? I mean, wouldn't you, if you were in their position? No doubt the birthers would say they're in on the nefarious scheme too, though.

And as others have pointed out, no previous president has faced scrutiny of this type. Nobody spread rumours about JFK actually having been secretly born in Ireland. But to a lot of people, Obama doesn't look like a real American. And an awful lot of elected officials are reluctant to discuss their views on the matter:

Via Blaque. Oh, and by the way, the birth certificate is shown here.

So who's in charge of the Republican Party now anyway?

How about Rush Limbaugh?

Make no mistake. Right now, Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party.

No other Republican is getting any attention, and you can credit whomever you want.

Maybe it is the brilliant scheming of Rahm Emanuel, David Plouffe, Paul Begala, and James Carville. They seem to think so.

Thanks to Blaque for the tip. Imagine what the Republican ticket of 2012 might look like? Limbaugh-Palin? Limbaugh-Huckabee?

Scary.

Bailing on the bailout

Well, as we all know, the big bailout is being held up in the US House of Representatives, with dramatic results. I don't honestly know what to think of this. The folks at Kitco, and to a large extent iTulip as well, are applauding the defeat of the bailout. Of course, most of these people lean in the direction of libertarianism (in the contemporary North American sense of the term), so their opinion is to be taken with a 10 kg bag of salt. However, although the bailout was mostly opposed by Republicans and supported by Democrats, there were substantial numbers of people in both parties that broke ranks on the issue. What's interesting is that among its critics are Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders, two of the most progressive elected officials in the entire country, as well as the (on the surface at least) libertarian-leaning Ron Paul. I say "on the surface" because there are reports that suggest he has some strongly socially conservative views (thanks to bugsybrown for the tip); in any case, though, Paul is usually at odds with his own party, be it about the war or about monetary policy. It seems to be opposed by "mavericks" of both the left and the right; ironically the guy who's always billed as a maverick is shitting himself trying to figure out a way to move it forward. Go figure.

It remains to be seen whether or not the House can be brought to agreement on the bailout, and if so what changes are necessary to allow it to pass -- not to mention whether or not it will be effective. Again, interesting times...

A potpourri of factoids, commentaries, and anecdotes

Remember Nick Leeson? He was the rogue trader who, in 1995, ran a 233 year old company into the ground with a bit of reckless speculation on the markets. Well, he obviously knows something about financial mismanagement, so naturally the Guardian got him to comment on the current international financial crisis:

The world's financial markets remain at the eye of a perfect economic storm. The architects of this almighty financial sell-off? The banks themselves. The markets are in complete disorder, yet they remain unable to solve the situation themselves, and so go looking for a public sector bailout. Risk management, the buzz word of the financial markets since the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995, is clearly an oxymoron.

One could be forgiven for a bit of eye-rolling for that last sentence, where he conveniently omits his role in the fiasco. However, he does acknowledge his role in the collapse of Barings, and in the process highlights his point about the lack of care in who financial institutions give credit to:

Quite simply, the banks have traded recklessly over the past 10 years and have put everybody's wellbeing at risk. Anybody and everybody could get whatever credit they wanted as recently as three years ago. I returned from Singapore in 1999, responsible for £862m worth of losses that brought down Britain's oldest investment bank, personally liable through an injunction for £100m, and yet within the space of a week had been offered five different credit cards. Ridiculous! Any central bank will tell you that the system exists on the premise of "responsible lending"; but the experiences of the past few years clearly show this is utter rubbish.

Yeah, that's right. A convicted felon, convicted of financial crimes at that, who was a hundred million pounds in debt, was offered credit, apparently without asking for it. And the thing is, the crisis of credit card defaults hasn't even hit in a big way yet. When it does, watch out, because this whole mess will start to hit the fan just as they're cleaning up the subprime mess. And despite what Americans like to think, their Treasury doesn't have infinite resources -- sooner or later China, the EU, many of the OPEC countries, and others will have to wonder if it isn't time to cut their losses and get out of the US dollar as the default reserve currency. Let's just hope that Sarah Palin isn't president when it happens. Remember Martin Sheen's character in The Dead Zone? "The birds are in the air. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"

Now Americans (at least nominally) have the opportunity to stop such a situation in November (perhaps; I'm not giving Obama a free pass either, but he's less likely to do something crazy like that than McCain, and far less likely than Palin). The question is, even if Diebold allows it, will they? This article raises an unsettling fact about how Joe and Jane Sixpack process information:

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued a flier to combat myths about the flu vaccine. It recited various commonly held views and labeled them either "true" or "false." Among those identified as false were statements such as "The side effects are worse than the flu" and "Only older people need flu vaccine."

When University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz had volunteers read the CDC flier, however, he found that within 30 minutes, older people misremembered 28 percent of the false statements as true. Three days later, they remembered 40 percent of the myths as factual.

Younger people did better at first, but three days later they made as many errors as older people did after 30 minutes. Most troubling was that people of all ages now felt that the source of their false beliefs was the respected CDC.

Unfortunately, what this means is that organizations like FactCheck.org are very double-edged in their effect when they deal with, say, the lies that the Republicans are telling about Obama. They acknowledge this themselves in this article:

A Sept. 4 article in the Post discussed several recent studies that all seemed to point to the same conclusion: Debunking myths can backfire because people tend to remember the myth but forget what the debunker said about it. As Hebrew University psychologist Ruth Mayo explained to the Post, “If you think 9/11 and Iraq, this is your association, this is what comes in your mind. Even if you say it is not true, you will eventually have this connection with Saddam Hussein and 9/11.” That leaves myth busters like us with a quandary: Could we, by exposing political malarkey, just be cementing it in voters’ minds? Are we contributing to the problem we hope to solve?

This is particularly scary. Of course, these organizations have to continue their work, but they also have to be careful how they present their findings. Fortunately, the aforementioned Post article discusses how such things might be handled:

Mayo found that rather than deny a false claim, it is better to make a completely new assertion that makes no reference to the original myth. Rather than say, as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) recently did during a marathon congressional debate, that "Saddam Hussein did not attack the United States; Osama bin Laden did," Mayo said it would be better to say something like, "Osama bin Laden was the only person responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks" -- and not mention Hussein at all.

Still, it's unsettling, because this handicaps you in trying to present the truth. Furthermore, ignoring the enemy's lies isn't an option either:

So is silence the best way to deal with myths? Unfortunately, the answer to that question also seems to be no.

Another recent study found that when accusations or assertions are met with silence, they are more likely to feel true, said Peter Kim, an organizational psychologist at the University of Southern California. He published his study in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Myth-busters, in other words, have the odds against them.

Scary.

On a (very) distantly related note, here's another psychological study that came out recently:

People who are easily startled by loud bangs or gruesome pictures are more likely to vote for right-wing policies compared to calmer people who take a more liberal approach to life, according to a psychological study of political beliefs.

The findings support the idea that personality type influences political attitude, which could explain why voting differences appear to be entrenched. "Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals' experiences, recent research suggests a possible biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with psychological traits," said John Hibbing of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

From the Independent. This doesn't fit me very well, because I tend to be a jumpy sort, and I'm certainly not right wing. Maybe I'm an anomaly, or maybe this study is full of shit. It's always good to remember that a lot of psychological studies are garbage, or at least oversimplify their findings (and media that report those findings oversimplify them even more). So maybe, just maybe, the studies about factchecking are inaccurate or incomplete and we can find better ways of bringing out the truth. Let's hope so, anyhow.

Lose your house, lose your vote?

In some parts of the US, it might come to that:

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

From here, via jk at iTulip. Of course, the Republicans secretly would love to make it official, and go back to the "good old days" when the vote was reserved for white male property owners. Fortunately, the legality of this move is being questioned:

“You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”

As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.”

Yeah, "mean-spirited" is one way to describe this.