Rock on

I've really never understood this view of "reporting" as having important people on your speed dial who occasionally give you important information as long as you put a positive enough spin on it.

That's not reporting. It's PR.

The US DOJ.

Not sure that even the Bushies ever tried pulling the "modify the text of old archived speeches a year later" trick.
New version:

This landmark Initiative, spearheaded by the FBI, was launched to help streamline and advance investigations and prosecutions against fraudsters who allegedly targeted, and preyed upon, Americans struggling to keep their homes. And it’s been a model of success. Over the past 12 months, it has enabled the Justice Department and its partners to file federal criminal charges against 107 defendants for allegedly victimizing more than 17,185 American homeowners – and inflicting losses in excess of $95 million.

Original version:

This landmark Initiative, spearheaded by the FBI, was launched to help streamline and advance investigations and prosecutions against fraudsters who allegedly targeted, and preyed upon, Americans struggling to keep their homes. And it’s been a model of success. Over the past 12 months, it has enabled the Justice Department and its partners to file 285 federal criminal indictments and informations against 530 defendants for allegedly victimizing more than 73,000 American homeowners – and inflicting losses in excess of $1 billion.

I'm probably reacting more negatively than I should to a plan like this - and if someone actually builds a prototype and proves it can be done with awesome sauce I'll be thrilled - but there is a weird tendency to be attracted to shiny new technologies which, despite their advantages (speed) have some obvious disadvantages (low capacity).

I just don't believe 30 second headways are possible. Maybe 2 minutes. So that gives a capacity of around 850/hour.

enjoy

Glenn Hubbard.

This really is quite the weird (and for the gullible) campaign narrative. It's true that if a Republican wins Pennsylvania there's a good chance they're going to win the election, but that isn't because they've won Pennsylvania, it's because if they've won Pennsylvania they've probably won in a bunch of other states and completely destroyed their opponent.

So, yes, the GOP can win Pennsylvania in the sense that they can win a landslide election. It's possible. But it's about the landslide, not about PA.

Better later than never.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is set to announce Monday that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations will no longer be charged with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences.

I'm capable of forgiving the administration for a surprising number of things based one real or perceived constraints they faced, but they really had a lot of power and allocated money to deal with the housing crisis/foreclosure fraud/banksters issue. And they used it, but not in the right way. Also, too, not honest.

The Justice Department made a long-overdue disclosure late Friday: Last year when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder boasted about the successes that a high-profile task force racked up pursuing mortgage fraud, the numbers he trumpeted were grossly overstated.

We're not talking small differences here. Originally the Justice Department said 530 people were charged criminally as part of a year-long initiative by the multi-agency Mortgage Fraud Working Group. It now says the actual figure was 107 -- or 80 percent less. Holder originally said the defendants had victimized more than 73,000 American homeowners. That number was revised to 17,185, while estimates of homeowner losses associated with the frauds dropped to $95 million from $1 billion.

Read the rest, as they say.

Translation.  And exegesis.

This blog lacks the power to make a band, but these kids deserve some love.

Had my first carshare fail. Fob unlocking mechanism didn't work, leaving me slightly stranded (was fine).

In case you missed Jay Rosen's frame.

The Snowden effect is spreading and expanding.

Nothing much to do with the birther movement or other weird Murkan stuff.

Getting so much better all the time. Austerity rocks!

The value of UK workers' wages has suffered one of the sharpest falls in the EU, House of Commons library figures show.

The 5.5% reduction in average hourly wages since mid-2010, adjusted for inflation, means British workers have felt the squeeze more than those in countries hit by the eurozone crisis. Spanish workers's wages dropped by 3.3% over the same period and in Cyprus salaries fell by 3% in real terms.

Obviously the really rich guy is most likely to feel the pain of the unemployed deep in his bones.

There was a brief moment when there was a panic in the popular discourse about how the Japenese were going to take over the country. Part of that involved stories about how them foreigners were buying Murkin real estate!!! Foreigners owning our land!!! It's a bit quaint now thinking about it, but once upon a time it was An Issue. And now the Chinesters are coming!!!

There were a lot of elegies. Or not elegies.

David Cay Johnston's.

It would be a huge public benefit to restore actual competition among news organizations in which ideas, policies and facts about how government and the economy perform actually got thrashed out in public.

Henry Blodget's

It's easy to "steward" a business when it's also making you rich. It's more difficult when the going gets tough.