"We Can't Wait"? "Yes We Can!"

The Times stays on-message while boosting Obama's next risky jobs scheme:

Jobs Plan Stalled, Obama to Try New Economic Drive
By JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON — With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: “We can’t wait” for lawmakers to act.

According to an administration official, Mr. Obama will kick off his new offensive in Las Vegas, ground zero of the housing bust, by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners, those with little or no equity in their homes, can refinance and avert foreclosure.

And Wednesday in Denver, the official said, Mr. Obama will announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans, seeking to alleviate the financial concerns of students considering college at a time when states are raising tuition.

So what has been Obama's problem so far?  My emphasis:

The “We can’t wait” campaign is a new phase in Mr. Obama’s so-far unsuccessful effort — punctuated until now by his cries of “Pass this bill!” on the stump — to pressure Republicans to support the job creation package he proposed after Labor Day. It comes after unanimous votes by Senate Republicans in the past week to block the plan; House Republican leaders have refused to put the measure to a vote.

Polls show overwhelming support for pieces of the $447 billion package, which includes expanded tax cuts for workers and employers, and spending for infrastructure projects and for state aid to keep teachers and emergency responders at work. But Republicans oppose provisions in Mr. Obama’s plan that would offset the costs with higher taxes on the wealthy.

Should the bill ultimately fail, Democrats believe they at least have the better political argument, and they vow to exploit what they call the Republicans’ obstruction in the 2012 campaign.

Those obstructionist Republicans!  But back in reality, the bills lost to a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats.  OK, not many Democrats, but still.  Obama can't even hold his own party together, but he wants to blame Republicans and the Times wants to help.

 

 

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

Left this on other thread for fellow Floridian narciso: [plus anyone else down here I don't know about on JOM]

narciso,

Rina could be heading your way. Keep a sharp eye out. Models are saying it will replicate Wilma in 2005. Hit the Yucatan and make a hard right across the gulf toward Port Charlotte then inland. Sometime next week.

[narciso]

What no h/t, thanks for the warning,JiB, rse is one as well, but I think on the West Coast, as is rich on the east coast.

[narciso]

No we really shouldn't:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/23/key-general-calls-iraq-pullout-plan-a-disaster/

[rse]

Right narciso. Have a place in Panhandle that I hope to get back to at the editing stages. All these books are just not too portable.

Hello everyone. Behind but LUN is VDH.

Anytime hurricanes are to the west of us we accrete sand. So La and Texas hurricanes build up the beaches in Fla panhandle.

[Asbestos at Altgeld, too.]

All he's got is demagoguery, now.
==================

[Pofarmer]

We are heading for hard, hard times in the middle east.

[narciso]

Well that's all he ever really had, Kim.

[Jack is Back!]

narciso,

Someone at AoSHQ calls it Obama's "Restore the Caliphate" plan:) May be the only plan he has that seems to be working.

[Rick Ballard]

"Mr. Obama will announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans"

That's one to watch, as is the "free house" deal as well. The Bowel Movement isn't gaining support as fast as King Putt had wished so he's going to give the debt serfs another illusion. He still doesn't realize that over exposure has so trivialized his verbal flatulence that no one is listening to him lead from his behind any longer.

[Cecil Turner]

The bigger deceit is the pretense there are any "jobs" in the "jobs plan." As Mitch McConnell correctly notes, the only part of that stinker that might actually create some jobs (the three free trade agreements) passed with overwhelming support . . . except for some die-hard Democrats . . . to little fanfare. The rest is a collection of giveaways of taxpayer monies to favored groups, balanced by job-killing tax proposals, guaranteed to deepen the current fiscal morass.

Bottom line is that the Dems don't want jobs, they want clients. And barring that, they'll take the issue. But I don't think they're going to find nearly as many buyers this time 'round.

[narciso]

This piece that preceded a much more expansive one, about a week later, in the Journal, gives the game away, that we are seeing now in Libya.

http://digitaljournal.com/article/312582

[jimmyk]

There's been a lot of discussion about how people being stuck in their underwater houses keeps them from moving to where the jobs are, thereby contributing to high unemployment. So I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how paying people to stay in those houses is going to help. Maybe Barry just doesn't want them to move to Texas.

[narciso]

This is like their third go around, at a mortgage reform plan, Rick, and the devil's in the details,

Reading between the lines, it seems the late
'Norwegian Blue' General Younis was Le Piscine's contact, in the Resistance and Bel Hadj had him 'pining for the fjords'

[Jane]

Stupid question alert.

I want to buy a book at Amazon for my Ipad. I have the kindle APP (or is it AP?). Can I buy it on my desktop with some other stuff and download it at my leisure or do I have to do it from my Ipad?

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 21 at Raz today.

[Laura]

you can buy it on your desktop and download it when you want. You should set up kindle apps on all your devices then you can read whatever you have purchased whenever you want. The books are saved on the Amazon cloud. I think at the moment we have something like six devices attached to my Kindle account.

[Danube of Thought]

Jane, I believe that if you go to the Kindle Store at Amazon on your desktop, when you find your book you will get some options as to where to deliver it, one of which is iPad.

[Jane]

Thanks guys. I'm very nervous about this for some reason.

[Specter]

Some day I hope to grow up and own an iPad...

;-)

[Laura]

Jane as long as your Kindle app is tied to your Amazon account there is no problem. You might want to download a Kindle app to all your devices registering them to one account. That way you can read what you have at any time.
Your books are stored on the Amazon cloud and accessible to any device you are using with a Kindle app. I think I have about six devices registered. Desktop,laptop, phone, my daughter's phone, laptop etc.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Jane-

Make sure you download the free Kindle app to the iPad, first.

It should all flow from there pretty smoothly.

[Jack is Back!]

Interesting interview with Rick Perry in Parade magazine.

Lots of good stuff to chew on, especially his partial-birther response. Some personal information that I am sure will find its way into insinuation and hyperbole before it is all said and done.

[Jack is Back!]

Seconding Clarice,

What's with all the Captcha moments here?

[Clarice]

As to the ME. I know Egyptians will soon be starving. Tunisia may fare better but in Libya I see inter gang fighting and corruption and no real change.

The ME had a shot at sunlight and seems to be blowing it.By the time the folks there start to get their acts together we will be riding high on a crest of oil and gas, Obama will be lecturing fourth graders at various Patrice Lamumba charter schools and no one will give a tinker's dam about what happens there.

[narciso]

I've made the comparisons with the Russian revolution, the original one, not the October
One, which really was more of a coup d'etat.

Are there really Patrice Lumumba charter schools, facepalm?

[Melinda Romanoff]

A counter-balance to the eeeveeel US Hegemony is being created where, through benevolent guidance by the tranzi-left, whom the Islamists will gratefully support unswervingly.

Or something like that. Eurabia squared.

[narciso]

Ah, you can ask the Tudeh, how that worked out, it might take a while to get an answer,
from the Ouija board.

[Threadkiller]

I have a particularly busy week ahead. I do want to drop information here, as it happens, regarding the scrubbing of Minor during the run up to the '08 election.

Justia has decided to block their entire site from Wayback Machine access, as of this morning.

Instapundit has decided to launch the story.

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/130226/

WND has it at the top of their site, but I count on Joe Farrah screwing it up. He has not so far, so who knows.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=358645

[Clarice]

No such schools that I know of, but I'm sure someone--probably in Oakland--will get that ball rolling,narciso.

[Danube of Thought]

When I download a book to my iPad it also goes to my wife's iPad at no extra cost. Don't know how this happened.

[Danube of Thought]

Seems to me that what Obama is doing will simply prolong both the housing and higher education bubbles. Economic insanity.

[Melinda Romanoff]

DoT-

It's designed as a campaign funding fix, not a general economic fix.

[narciso]

So they won't extradite Al Megrahi, well at least we got Musa Kusa, out of the deal, so sorry, you don't even get a version of the home game:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8844489/Col-Gaddafis-death-former-foreign-minister-Moussa-Koussa-faces-fresh-claims-of-complicity-in-torture.html

[Clarice]

T, I am still unpersuaded that this was simply a programming error or the work of some crazed employee; the point of doing this deliberately escapes me as Justia is not an official citation source any lawyer would use.

[Old Lurker]

Rick & Jimmy re College Loans and Mortgages. And the Fox story up now about Obama's plan to permit underwater borrowers to refinance anyway.

How did we get here so fast?

A family makes a decision to borrow money for college because they failed to save enough, and now it is a political decision to waive those debts using money from our grandkids, even from the grandchildren of families which did pay cash to educate their kids or did forgo college because they could not pay for it?

And so if the market has determined that the going rate for lending money to a family for a mortgage that is <1 LTV and with a family with good income and credit, it is now a political decision to allow underwater and maybe poor credit borrowers access to the same cost of capital reserved for good loans?

This is crazy talk.

[Jane]

WEll apparently Amazon is unaware that I have the kindle app, so I've got to work that out first.

Laura, are you saying I can also download the ap on my desktop and laptop? DO I get it from Amazon?

[narciso]

Did they restore the link, because I found it:

http://supreme.justia.com/us/88/162/case.html

[Ranger]

And who could have predicted this?

Bodies of Gaddafi supporters 'found executed' in Sirte

The bodies of 53 Gaddafi loyalists have been found at a hotel in the Libyan city of Sirte after apparently being executed, a human rights group says.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the victims - some of whom had their hands bound - died about a week ago.

This is so strange, because I thought this was exactly the kind of thing our intervention was supposed to prevent. Once again, Responsibilty to Protect apparently only applies to particular groups in this conflict.

[rse]

I shudder to think what he will say Wednesday Rick. Glad to know though my predictive skills are intact.

I just asked Red this AM if her classmates knew student loans were nondischargeable even in BR and she said it would be news. I had noticed the inability to pay is not getting in the way of chasing after name schools. These are middle class kids whose parents make too much to qualify for aid but not enough to fund these schools. Just borrow it because we still have to fund our retirement seems like bad advice all the way around.

Too many parents and students never look at course catalogs. There are plenty of big name schools now where I would have a hard time putting together an honestly solid curriculum outside the sciences and I know what to look for now.

I actually finished the higher ed chapter yesterday so this is really on my mind. The reality and the reasons for it feel like a stunning betrayal of our country and the next generation. But you just cannot stop this current primal desire to have a big name prestige u t shirt and bumper sticker.

These schools really try to milk a belief that there is a bus that heads you towards success and this is how you get a ticket aboard.

The individual's own responsibility for making their own destiny and the question "will this add valuable knowledge and marketable skills?" should be at the core of every high school and college student's analysis. Right now at best 5% see it this way.

That's one of the reasons I mix in so much practical history and economic effects in what I write. These have been the consequences of such policies in the past and this is the likely effect now and why it matters to virtually everyone. I think that is what it will take to really get at the effects of ed policy, K-12 and higher ed. It probably will not surprise anyone that none of this is inadvertant.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Yes, OL.

Right out of the handbook: "How to create loyal voters through public policy".

You can find them blowing around on the street here.

[Janet]

It is Justia + the SSN questions + the birth certificate + the prosecution of the student loan co. employees + his mother's passport records missing + the 2 different eligibility forms from the Dem. party + ....

[Laura]

Jane, yes go to LUN for download site. With all the books we need for home schooling, MM's college reading etc, we share a virtual kindle so to speak. Each of us have different devices but access to the same bank of books stored at Amazon.

[Old Lurker]

I know Mel. Don't touch them without rubber gloves.

[Janet]

and Ranger, Gateway Pundit has a picture/video of Gaddafi being sodomized before being shot.

I can't believe the laughing & acceptance of all this after the demonizing of the Bush administration. Unbelievable.
My neighbor had a sign in their window "Get out of Iraq"...where is the "Get out of Libya", "Get out of Uganda", "Get out of Pakistan", "Get out of Yemen", sign????

[Threadkiller]

Clarice, I have a couple of theories. During the great debate wars, I always came up short in proof that Minor's ruling on citizenship was indeed part of the holding. It should be apparent that I relied on the internet. MarkO often referred to me as the Google lawyer. Justia was a main source for me. If Ex Parte Lockwood was not so badly mangled, by Justia, it would have showed up on my search. That is the holy grail as far as Minor is concernd. Not only does it show I was correct about the holding, we find out one of the Justices in Lockwood was also a Justice in Minor.

I was not the only one doing these searches.

Secondly, news outlets, like WSJ, relied on Justia to knock birthers around with faux legal speak. Taranto was very good at this. If he did not know his source was tampered, he would send his readers in the goose chase. More than once he sent readers and fellow journolists to the redacted Justia site.

Got to go now.

[Laura]

rse
I am currently working on teaching, (hah homeschooling has taught me teaching is not nearly as important as the desire and aptitude to learn) my daughter AP US History. As I go through the material from the College Board, what becomes evident is the use of the DBQ and source documents is a way to lead the students to a skewed socialist view of US history. By consistently choosing documents that highlight the oppressive nature of colonization, the Puritans, the horrendous treatment of women, slaves, Native Americans and any other victim group the educational establishment has led at least a generation of our best and brightest high school students to detest our American heritage.

[DebinNC]

JiB's link to Parade Mag's interview with Perry was reassuring, assuming he didn't get the questions beforehand. Only two things bothered me: 1) Question about differences between him and GWB: "You don’t have enough pages. We grew up differently. We have different value sets." Hmm... 2) Question about his TX record of rewarding cronies: He sidestepped the question, claiming people aren't interested in it. Hm... Other than those two answers, Perry answered other questions well. Naming "Immortal Beloved" as his favorite movie, even though he's a Beethoven fan, seemed somewhat hard to believe. OTOH, at least he wasn't pandering, since so few would agree imo.

[Rick Ballard]

OL,

I believe you have to separate the two programs. There is an element of reward for virtue in allowing a mortgagee who is current on payments the opportunity to refinance at current market rates. You would offer a rent concession to a tenant on the brink in those circumstances. The difference is that Uncle Sugar is going to make the offer with my money and without my permission, as usual. There is also a 100% probability that the program will finance as much vice as it does virtue through a careful structuring of who receives the benefit and where it will be most forcefully administered (very slow in Phoenix, very fast in Detroit).

The relief for the OWS naifs whining about the weight of their serf's collars is, IMO, entirely vicious. The cycle of stupidity which RSE elucidates in her 10:28 will continue until the Muddle is educated through observation as to the scope of the Big Lie propagated by the indoctrination industry. The fact that the thimblewits are jabbering on Wall Street rather than on the uni campuses where the thieves actually stole their money is evidence of the efficacy of their indoctrination - and their innate lack of discernible intelligence.

[Janet]

A family makes a decision to borrow money for college because they failed to save enough, and now it is a political decision to waive those debts using money from our grandkids, even from the grandchildren of families which did pay cash to educate their kids or did forgo college because they could not pay for it?

That is the kicker for me. We made choices. Did those families that borrowed money have cable TV, numerous cars, cell phones,...?? Did their kids wear designer clothes? We made choices & are still making choices.

On a smaller scale, we were paying for travel soccer team scholarships for kids whose families had plenty of money to pay...but were choosing other things instead. It became odd that our family with one car, small house, no cell phone, no AC for awhile,...were subsidizing these other kids.

[Ignatz]

--Bottom line is that the Dems don't want jobs, they want clients.--

That should be carved in stone somewhere.
Like, say, across Barry's and Harry's and Nancy's foreheads.

[Danube of Thought]

Here is the question presented to the Minor Court, as succinctly stated by the Court in its opinion:

The question is presented in this case, whether, since the adoption of the fourteenth amendment, a woman, who is a citizen of the United States and of the State of Missouri, is a voter in that State, notwithstanding the provision of the constitution and laws of the State, which confine the right of suffrage to men alone.

Elsewhere the Court framed the question this way:

The direct question is, therefore, presented whether all citizens are necessarily voters.

The holding of a case is its decision on the question before it; anything else in the opinion is non-binding dicta.

The Minor Court announced its holding as follows:

Being unanimously of the opinion that the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one, and that the constitutions and laws of the several States which commit that important trust to men alone are not necessarily void, we affirm the judgment.

[MayBee]

The Obama administration is full of putzes, but man I feel for Ambassador Ford. He's pretty brave, IMHO.

[narciso]

One feels like Bill Murray, in GroundHog Day,
with Obama as the annoying weatherman, we've
seen this film before,

[Ignatz]

--A family makes a decision to borrow money for college because they failed to save enough...--

In a free market many of them wouldn't be making that decision because the true cost of that borrowing would preclude $50,000 per year schools.
But of course that would mean lots of Dem institutions of higher yearning, oops I mean learning, wouldn't be making huge windfalls off of people who can't afford their over priced, taxpayer subsidized "product".
That's why I'm more and more in favor of something like 9-9-9. The only way the country survives is everybody has skin in the game so they can sit down at the end of the day and total up just how much all these government "services" cost them. When that ratio turns negative for enough people watch how fast the government shrinks and the country prospers.

[Porchlight]

It became odd that our family with one car, small house, no cell phone, no AC for awhile,...were subsidizing these other kids.

Janet,

Good for you!

According to those with the handout mentality, it's "unfair" that choices have to be made, and loans have to be repaid.

[Sandy Daze]

Lawrence "Larry" Summers this morning in the WaPo talking about How to stabilize the housing market

I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night*, so my understanding of what I read may be incorrect. . . Among many of the ideas Mister Summers proposed was this:

First, and perhaps most fundamentally, credit standards for those seeking to buy homes are too high and too rigorous. The characteristics of the average successful applicant in 2004 would make that applicant among the most risky today. The pattern should be the opposite, given that the odds of a further 35 percent decline in house prices are much lower than they were at past bubble valuations.

Isn't this just what created the mess to begin with, i.e. lowered requirements for credit, thus expanding the base of potential home-buyers to categories of people who were not credit-worthy, and expanding the modest reach of border-line purchasers into home purchase well beyond their means?

Like Yogi Berra said:

"It's déjà vu all over again"

* I did stay at the ANC on Farragut Square in WDC, where I'll be for the next couple days. If any JOMers are interested in a cuppa joe or a run let me know at sandydaze at gmail. Am attending the annual ISOA summit in the Reagan Building would be great to say hi.

OMG~ABO,
Sandy

[Ignatz]

--Here is the question presented to the Minor Court, as succinctly stated by the Court in its opinion:--

It must be after 5:00PM somewhere. :)

[Old Lurker]

I understand your points, Rick. It is the non-market mechanics which are the slippery slope. The underwater borrower who is current (which probably means employed) really has two loans in one: a mortgage component which at some number relative to value and income is "conforming" and deserving of access to refi rates. The balance of the existing debt is really an unsecured personal loan. The system has always provided both types of loans but a different cost of capital.

I just hate merging and blurring the distinctions between the two.

Blurring the distinctions among credit seekers is why credit cards charge one rate, say 20%, for all card holders who fail to pay in full each month.

[rse]

LUN is especially for OL. I know adding that Environmental Humanities program and Comparative Civilizations in the Pre-modern World makes me want to take everything back I just said. Not. Fuel on the Fire.

laura-I have not looked at US but that is typical of what I found with my AP World review. We got that stopped, but the general revelations I will be making are the best I can do on US. I recommend Keith Windschuttle's book The Killing of History in the meantime.

I would tell you to just use older anthologies but the victim's rights graders dominate the AP markers of those essays and the topics they choose. I have talked to a number of high school and college teachers and profs who were not invited back because they saw the essays objectively. I have numerous books put out by the College Board in the 1990s go around of ed reform that make it clear how on board they are with gutting academics and shifting entirely to an instilling desired values and dispositions approach for education. I buy up all these books used so that no one later can assert I cannot prove my points. Those footnotes were especially revelatory. CB is an important part of the social poison delivery system. And making great sums while dispensing it as is the crony way.

[MarkO]

Next up, here on the Discovery Thread, we exmine the number of angels on the heads of pins found on desks in the Pope's new World Bank.

[Ignatz]

--First, and perhaps most fundamentally, credit standards for those seeking to buy homes are too high and too rigorous.--

And let's not forget the moron who could say that was the smartest, most responsible one in the WH.

[Jane]

Thanks Laura,

I think the issue is I used a different email account on my IPAD so I think I have to change that. But I did download it on my desktop, so that is very cool.

[Porchlight]

The characteristics of the average successful applicant in 2004 would make that applicant among the most risky today.

Great news. Let's please not change it back.

[Threadkiller]

Narciso, a very detailed report on what happened can be found here:

http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/justia-com-surgically-removed-minor-v-happersett-from-25-supreme-court-opinions-in-run-up-to-08-election/

Clarice, at that same link, the 71st comment is the shocker.

The author of the report waited for Justia to lock itself from the Wayback Machine and for sympathetic bloggers to say the scrubbing was incidental. He has destroyed that theory and is preparing another document dump. Very newsworthy.

DoT, can't do this now. 5:01 pacific I will meet you on a dead thread.

[narciso]

'In the land of the blind, the one eyed man
is king' Larry just wants to 'dial up to eleven' and hope for the best, Maybe he should consult this fellow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Falcon

[Melinda Romanoff]

The more I read about this HARP proposal, it's becoming clear, to me at least, that the true goal of this program is to void the reps and warranties clauses in the securitization boilerplate.

A new TBTF legal bailout, as it were. Especially in light of the Bevilacqua ruling by the MA SC last week.

[Old Lurker]

rse, we talked here several years ago about that Acadamy of Science study (now ten years old) that tracked the "delivered learning" by 50 top colleges over the 20th century.

The takeway was that at the date of the study one could assemble the same quality of education enjoyed by our parents and grandparents at those elite colleges, though unlike earlier generations the duty to assemble the right courses was up to the student alone because core requirements are mostly gone, fluff courses abound, and parents no longer get copies of report cards or schedules. I took all that in mind as my young lurkers went through the grinder and with good outcomes but only because they were game for our intense parenting. :-)

Truth is I wonder if it is even possible today to find enough courses of enough rigour to make a four year effort the same as was afforded to previous generations? Probably in hard sciences and math, but probably not other disciplines?

Now comparing the product received today to the real (inflation adjusted) cost of the diploma reveals the magnitude of the scam foisted on us by the higher ed industry.

[Clarice]

The Vatican comes up with the dumbest idea ever.

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.

It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.

[Old Lurker]

Hey Sandy... you will find my Father in Law's name on the plaque in the lobby at the ANC as the project manager for the club when it was rebuilt 20 years ago. He was West Point 36 (Engr) and that was his retirement project.

[Jane]

Finally someone has figured out that Romneycare gives free healthcare to illegals. I spent the entire last debate screaming that at my TV.

[narciso]

'Oh fiddlesticks' how is something like that decision, in the LUN, right. Shouldn't some remind Pope Benedict, this is exactly the foolishness he was railing against in 'liberation theology'

[Danube of Thought]

TK, e-mail me privately and we can spare our friends all this stuff.

I simply cannot understand why Summers would say what he said.

[Clarice]

If I recall, the last major Catholic foray into finance was its decision to call interest usury and thereby stifle development everywhere the church held sway.

Nonsense.

[Danube of Thought]

Arab Spring rolls on:

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian authorities counted votes Monday in carefully watched elections, with early signs that a once-banned Islamist party is leading in many constituencies in the country that unleashed uprisings across the Arab world.

Tunisia was known for decades for its repressive leadership but also for its progressive legislation on women and families, which secular-leaning Tunisians fear the moderate Islamist party Ennahda would roll back if it takes a commanding number of seats in the new assembly being created by Sunday's elections.

Ennahda believes that Islam should be the reference point for the country's system and laws but maintains that it will respect women's rights and is committed to democracy and working with other parties.

"During the campaign the Islamist party was quite disciplined in saying they will protect human rights, they will protect the rights of women and maintain equality, but in fact this is an open question," said Ricky Goldstein who observed the elections for the New York-based Human Rights Watch. "Their discourse in some areas was vague and ambiguous."

[Jim Ryan]

probably not other disciplines

In philosophy, there are still plenty of rigorous courses, as long as it's a department devoted to analytical (Anglo-American) philosophy, rather than Continental (French and German). Epistemology, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, history of Western phil, ethical theory, logic, all are still healthy. The Continental courses can be okay, but are usually vague and unrigorous in content, or worse. When picking a college for your kid, definitely be sure the philosophy department is analytical/Anglo-American, not Continental. Further, check to see that the department grades hard. It should be difficult to get an A, as in physics.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Clarice-

Indulgences comes to mind.

[narciso]

I posted the link to one profiler of Ghannouchi, who seemed quite naive, this fellow an outspoken supporter of Hamas, sees little reason to dissemble:

http://books.google.com/books?id=b6GhV3Eu5OAC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=Ghannouchi,+Sorbonne&source=bl&ots=LHRHPdL_Vc&sig=AG-eEf2LSJ7xEbSvplGzsdthQC0&hl=en&ei=yIilTs-2I-fh0QHlrO3XBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Ghannouchi%2C%20Sorbonne&f=false

[rse]

OL-

It would make you ill to know how much of what I have is explaining how to hide what is really going on under traditional academic course titles so that the kids with involved parents who know to avoid "studies" and anthro and media based coursework are still unable to study great literature for its own sake or find a history course not told primarily through a modern perspectives lens.

I told Red if she did not think I cared what she took she was mistaken. I have also though reiterated that I do not think I could have figured out all the things I have been able to pull together and then document if I had not had a top notch la background coupled with a 10 year break in my career that I spent reading deeply and broadly as I raised kids. It let me recognize the actual gist of what I was looking at that made no sense or that the plausible explanation was knowingly false. Those 2 things let me look at where the policies as they would go into effect were actually going to go and what the likely consequences would be. Those actual end games are where I found the stunning disclosures.

I think you have to be careful with humanities degrees and find the right school but there is more knowledge of human nature and motivations in great classic lit nad history than in virtually any sociology class. And understanding human nature and motivations has timeless predictive value however you make a living.

I love Robert Conquest's point that Churchill was not smarter than Chamberlain but he knew his history. And knew evil exists and what it looks like.

[Janet]

for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank”

Wow. Between Israel, a relatively calm Iraq (compared to other ME countries), & Europe...these are interesting times for Biblical studies on end times. Not saying it is the time, but it sure seems like all the key pieces are in place.

[Captain Hate]

So is Benedict trying to cherry pick some Anglicans that are upset that Rowan Williams is finally leaving or is the demon that possessed Pfleger moving up the hierarchy?

[Ignatz]

--During the campaign the Islamist party was quite disciplined in saying they will protect human rights, they will protect the rights of women and maintain equality...--

As seen through the eyes of sharia.
The mullahs always claim they're protecting human rights and it is the decadent, infidel west that doesn't.

[BR]

It's clear there was deliberate tampering, not error, at Justia on 25 cases citing Minor. Donofrio proves it. LUN. (See Donofrio's Editor response to Alec Rawls at October 24, 2011 at 9:58 AM.)

Whether the Minor case proves Obama's eligibility or not,
it is the specific tampering that is significant, as in Rathergate. I'm interested in the forensics, a computer expert following the trail to find out who did it, inside Justia or from the outside and whether there's a direct connection to Obama ordering it and Bob Bauer/Perkins Coie involvement.

[centralcal]

Jammie Wearing Fool has a piece from the NYPost that made me laugh and cry. It is about big employers and the difficulties they have even finding someone worth interviewing, much less hiring. About the job applications and resumes received:

And the material that does arrive is too often not worth the effort it takes to read it, the pair say. It’s a complaint that’s widely echoed by employers tired of cover letters and resumes that show an inability or unwillingness to write a competent sentence, and communiques (“here u r. resume attached. We can talk $ l8r”) that read like they were texted from junior-high recess.

“Who the hell is going to hire these people?” asks Heinemeier Hansson. “Who is going to read some of these atrociously bad applications and say, ‘Yeah, that’s the person I’ve been looking for?’ ”

[pagar]

This link will help with the talk of what is being done to destroy education in the US.

Read down to the comments and see the hundreds (if not thousands) of listings of what William Ayers has inserted into our education system.

The listing ends in 2008, but I would gather from what I have read that Ayers has not slowed down a single bit in his efforts to defeat the US using our education system. The lists do not show how many recruits Ayers has signed up to aid him in destroying US education.

http://swordattheready.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/puzzle-pieces-obamas-political-career-launched-by-terrorist-william-ayers/

[MarkO]

Dot, copy me. I am actually interested.

[MayBee]

There was a lot of internet weirdness surrounding Obama from the minute he began campaigning. Someone was looking out for him.

[Danube of Thought]

Will do. I don't have TK's e-mail; don't know if he has mine.

[MarkO]

That makes it even more fun.

[narciso]

This seems to have been Cardinal Turkson's doing, it isn't absolutely clear that it represents Benedict's thinking, he is considered 'papabile' for the future, so we
should keep an eye on him.

[Clarice]

CH, I understand this is not from Benedict but from the Pfleger wing of the Vatican.

[Jim Ryan]

Uh oh, TK and DoT are fixin' to th'o' down.

[MarkO]

"Uh oh, TK and DoT are fixin' to th'o' down."

And, I'm mixing drinks.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Why does he keep coming to Denver for this crap? What did we do to him?

[narciso]

Theyt voted for him, in 2008, and for Hickenlooper and Bennett in 2010, I know the choices were substandard, but it encouraged
him,

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Some day I hope to grow up and own an iPad...

Some day I hope to ...

No, never mind.

[Jim Ryan]

So, Romney is the new Dukakis. Does this mean Perry can beat him just by calling him "The governor of Massachusetts" over and over again on TV? Worked for Bush the Elder.

[MarkO]

Thanks for the DOOM, Jim.

[Gmax]

The lists do not show how many recruits Ayers has signed up to aid him in destroying US education.

Near as I can tell from the sampling of faculty that has been on display recently, its damn near the entire faculty at Columbia for sure.

[Ignatz]

--Thanks for the DOOM, Jim.--

Is there any combination of words that can't be rearranged to spell DOOM in MarkOworld?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

A family makes a decision to borrow money for college because they failed to save enough, and now it is a political decision to waive those debts using money from our grandkids, even from the grandchildren of families which did pay cash to educate their kids or did forgo college because they could not pay for it?

Man, it's like this: very much like the housing thing, the government decided getting a college degree was a Good Thing, and everyone should have Good Things. As a result, we made an excess of college educations, because more of a Good Thing is always a Good Thing. People borrowed money to buy these Good Things because they were Good and were supposed to help them make lots of money.

Now that times are not so Good, people are having trouble making the payments. In the normal course of events, we let people who are over their heads go into Bankruptcy, which is a Bad Thing but gives people a chance to recover. Only, because the government was involved, we screwed up the normal course of things and made the student loans impossible to discharge through bankruptcy. So now the people who thought they were getting a Good Thing find that they're stuck with a loan they can't repay, which is a Bad Thing, and worse they can't do anything about the loan, which we have said for 300 years is a Very Bad Thing: that's why bankruptcy is specifically included in the Constitution.

So now it's like this: the Government guaranteed the loans. Whether they're discharged through bankruptcy, or because eventually all those people with bad student loans will die, the government will end up paying them.

The real solution is to make student loans dischargeable through bankruptcy, but no one wants to do this because people then say things like

"A family makes a decision to borrow money for college because they failed to save enough, and now it is a political decision to waive those debts using money from our grandkids, even from the grandchildren of families which did pay cash to educate their kids or did forgo college because they could not pay for it?"

which don't actually contribute to a solution, or even change anything about the problem, but does make it difficult to deal with the problem in a rational manner.