song du jour: Walk Of Life

Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh Yeah the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin’ woman
He do the song about the knife
He do the walk, he do the walk of life, yeah he do the walk of life

Here comes Johnny and he’ll tell you the story
Hand me down my walkin’ shoes
Here comes Johnny with the power and the glory
Backbeat the talkin’ blues
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh Yeah the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin’ woman
He do the song about the knife
He do the walk, he do the walk of life, yeah he do the walk of life

Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh Yeah the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

And after all the violence and double talk
There’s just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, you do the walk of life, yeah he do the walk of life

Spending Less Rather Than Taxing More? What A Concept!

This is not a natural disaster, like an earthquake or tsunami which destroys buildings and productive assets.

And it is not like an epidemic which may kill millions of people. Nor is it like a war, which may do both. For all the red ink, the real productive capacity of the economy may be exactly what it was before. So where does the impoverishment come from?

…

As long as default and inflation can be held at bay, and the economy can be kept fully employed, which requires monetary policy to be kept supportive for a very long time, then there need be no future real pain as a result of past financial mistakes. Admittedly, achieving this result will require some immediate announcement of tough public expenditure control.

Read the whole story here.  And even more interesting stuff here.

Obama’s Plan To Prevent Further Economic Woes Slows

Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to overhaul financial regulations by the end of the year. They say had regulations been tighter in recent years, firms would not have taken many of the risky bets that ultimately put them in danger of collapsing and in need of a $700 billion government bailout.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and chairman of the Banking Committee, said in an interview Thursday that he remains committed to tightening industry rules this year. But he also acknowledged that the work load is daunting for a Congress still trying to get its arms around the financial crisis.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to create both a congressional panel and a $5 million independent commission to investigate the economic meltdown in the next 18 months. Meanwhile, Congress is advancing legislation that would ban certain practices by credit card companies, target predatory lending and prosecute mortgage fraud.

“We’ve got a lot on our plate,” said Dodd.

Read the whole story here.

Many Wall Street Workers’ Compensation On The Rise

According to the New York Times ”The rest of the nation may be getting back to basics, but on Wall Street, paychecks still come with a golden promise.

…

Compensation is among the most cited causes of the financial crisis because bonuses were often tied to short-term gains, even if those gains disappeared later on. Still, as profits return, banks do not appear to be changing the absolute level of worker pay — or the share of revenue dedicated to compensation.

Historically, investment banks have paid workers about 50 cents for every dollar of revenue. The average is lower at commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, because they employ more people in retail branches where pay is lower.

But every dollar paid to workers is a dollar that cannot be used to expand the business or increase lending. Some of that revenue, too, could be used by bailed-out banks to pay back taxpayers.”

 

Rahm Emanuel Calls Repooplicans “The Party of NO, The Party of NEVER, The Party of NO NEW IDEAS”

AP News reports:  President Barack Obama wants Republicans to return to Congress this week from their spring recess with a more constructive attitude toward health care, energy and other administration initiatives. GOP lawmakers say they have ideas, just not the ones the president may want.

“When you’re the party of no, when you’re the party of never, when you’re the party of no new ideas, that’s not constructive,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Sunday. “The challenge will be, will the Republicans come to the table with constructive ideas?”

…

Democrats and Republicans also differ on how to crack down on abuses by credit-card companies.

Just before the break the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee approved limiting the reasons card issuers could raise interest rates and fees on consumers. Instead of such limits, Republicans favor prosecuting predatory lenders and requiring issuers to more fully disclose agreements in language that consumers can easily understand.

White House economic adviser Larry Summers said that putting a stop to the marketing of credit cards in ways that “addicts” people to them will help Americans save more of their money.

Obama is “going to be very focused, in a very near term, on a whole set of issues having to do with credit card abuses, having to do with the way people have been deceived into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn’t have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into,” Summers said.

Emanuel and Boehner appeared on ABC’s “This Week” while Axelrod spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Summers’ interview was with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Will they also focus on credit card issuers that drastically reduce the consumers’ credit limits when they pay down their bills–without telling them?  They only find out the next time they try to use their card and get declined!!!

The Righteous Retribution of Barack Obama, President of Kickassistan

I figured we could all use a little levity…  

song du jour: Photographs and Memories

Photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me
All that I have are these
To remember you

Memories that come at night
Take me to another time
Back to a happier day
When I called you mine

But we sure had a good time
When we started way back when
Morning walks and bedroom talks
Oh how I loved you then

Summer skies and lullabies
Nights we couldn’t say good-bye
And of all of the things that we knew
Not a dream survived

Photographs and memories
All the love you gave to me
Somehow it just can’t be true
That’s all I’ve left of you

But we sure had a good time
When we started way back when
Morning walks and bedroom talks
Oh how I loved you then

Melissa Huckaby’s Attorney Wants Sandra Cantu’s Body Exhumed

I know that every one is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but…

The SF Chronicle reports that Melissa Huckaby’s defense team is saything they ”should be allowed to examine Ms. Cantu’s body to discern alternative explanation for the assigned coroner’s observation of alleged genital trauma, so that Ms. Huckaby can defend herself against those allegations,” Behar wrote.

Behar added that his request was urgent because Sandra’s body “will deteriorate as time goes by, and … without immediate intervention to have the body preserved in the closest possible state to when the assigned coroner examined the body, an examination by Dr. Haddix of Ms. Cantu’s body would have progressively diminishing value.”

…

“Ms. Cantu’s body is of such material evidence and that, without immediate intervention by this court, (Huckaby’s) defense will be prejudiced,” Behar wrote. “If the defense pathologist is not permitted to examine the body, the defense will be forever denied the opportunity to refute the people’s case.”

Read the entire article here.

song du jour: Teach Your Children

You, who are on the road
Must have a code
That you can live by.
And so, become yourself
Because the past
Is just a goodbye.

Teach, your children well
Their father’s hell
Did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s
The one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would die
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

And you (Can you hear and)
Of tender years (Do you care and)
Can’t know the fears (Can you see we)
That your elders grew by (Must be free to)
And so please help (Teach your children)
Them with your youth (You believe and)
They seek the truth (Make a world that)
Before they can die (We can live in)

Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s
The one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

by Graham Nash

Video of CBS5 phone interview with the woman charged with Sandra Cantu’s kidnapping, rape and murder

I wish there was a transcript of this, but I guess you can play and replay it.  There is moment when she says something about Sandra being “missing” and then immediately corrects herself and says “with me”.

There are a few other things that bothered me too, but I’ll have to  listen to it again to really get what she’s saying.