One new tool the CPD might consider is Google's new Google Moderator tool, which was unveiled to the world late last week. Katie Jacobs Stanton, a member of Google's elections and moderator teams, described it this way: "It's a free tool which enables communities to submit and vote on questions for debates, presentations and events. This way, the best and most representative questions rise to the top."

Google Launches Google Moderator For Presidential Debates | Threat Level from Wired.com

Watching the alleged “leaders” act like a bunch of kindergarteners only stokes the fear.

They really don't know what the hell they are doing. They have no idea.

Quote of the day

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North...

...this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

This has the conspiracy theorists a twitter. On the eve of a major presidential election and in the midst of a financial crisis, a U.S. Army Infantry Division has, for the first time in U.S. history, been assigned to a permanent domestic deployment without a mission to respond to a specific disaster or crisis. They're here, you know, just in case.

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1 - Army News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Army Times

In the Sunday NYT print edition, there is an excellent visual depiction of costs all the Federal bailouts relative to ordinary fiscal expenditures (Iraq & Afghanistan Wars, Medicaid, stimulus package, social security, etc.)

The Big Picture | Tally of Federal Rescues

ubernoir wrote:
i trust Paul Krugman's opinion on this as someone who knows far more about it than me and I remember reading him talking about a housing bubble and saying it was dangerous rather a long time ago Jan 2006. It makes rather interesting reading now although I didn't take it too seriously at the time.

Out of curiosity I searched the MemeStreams archive. The earliest reference that I can find to something being wrong with housing is from DMV, who posted about it in April, 2004. The first actual reference to the word "bubble" is in a post from Noteworthy from May, 2005. Its an offhand reference - as if the idea that there is a bubble is already established and we're just waiting for it to pop. A week later these comments about certain kinds of mortgages being to blame. There were a number of posts about it during the summer of 2005. Apparently the idea was established widely enough that someone was (still is) selling t-shirts mocking it.

In my view 2006 was pretty late to the game. None of us understood that complex debt derivatives were behind this, but (AFAIK) none of us are bankers. All these policy makers and regulators who have been blindsided by this should have known before we did that something was amiss and they should have been able to figure out why and what the consequences were going to be and they should have been able to take preemptive action. They knew. They had to have known because WE KNEW. Why didn't they act?

RE: Op-Ed Columnist - Where Are the Grown-Ups? - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

The law, which specifically prohibits the use of an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication while operating a more vehicle, takes effect Jan. 1.

Will they also ban reading maps and reading GPS units while stopped at a red light?

California bans READING text messages while stopped at a red light!

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

The more I learn about this bailout the worse it sounds.

700 Billion

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:

As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:

1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.

2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.

3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America's dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted.

For these reasons we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.

To be fair, this isn't very constructive.

Academics oppose bailout

Mr. McCain saying he would suspend his campaign to help broker a solution and calling on Mr. Obama to postpone their first debate, scheduled for Friday night.

I'm working on some bad-ass economic shit right now! I have no time for politics!

Democrats in Congress... were reluctant to tie Mr. Obama’s hands by authorizing a lame-duck administration to spend money he hoped to use to expand access to health care, foster research for renewable energy and cut taxes for the middle class.

In the light of this article the whole thing appears to be some sort of cynical election year ploy, in which McCain is able to keep himself and Palin out of the hotseat while simultaneously putting a huge amount of money in the absolute and unreviewable control of one of the Bush team's Nixon administration buddies. If the Democrats win, all of that money, unfortunately, will have to be spent on bad debt which won't be worth anything in the end. Obama will not be able to make progress on any of his social programs because the national debt and plummeting US dollar will be in an untenable situation. If the Republicans win, however, it will turn out that only 100 billion was needed. Things weren't so bad after all...

News Analysis - For the Nominees, New Roles and New Risks - News Analysis - NYTimes.com

Below you will find explained all concepts of DNSSEC-bis in a way that furthers understanding.

A quick primer on DNSSEC, which you will need to understand shortly, I think.

DNSSEC-bis for complete beginners (like me)