The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.

Fan? Shit. Shit? Fan. Stay cool, wash your hands, and the box office for X-Men and Star Trek is going to suck ass.

WHO raises swine flu alert to 'pandemic level 5' - Swine flu- msnbc.com

Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure. A date for a sheriff’s sale had been set, and notices about the foreclosure process were piling up in her mailbox.

Ms. James had the tenants move out, and soon her white house at the corner of Thomas and Maple Streets fell into the hands of looters and vandals, and then, into disrepair. Dejected and broke, Ms. James said she salvaged but a lesson from her loss.

So imagine her surprise when the City of South Bend contacted her recently, demanding that she resume maintenance on the property. The sheriff’s sale had been canceled at the last minute, leaving the property title — and a world of trouble — in her name.

Welcome to absolute hell. Get out, oh wait, you got out and the place is a pile of shit that we don't want, so we're backing out, but maybe we own it, but you're responsible for it.

In the words of Jon Stewart, "FUCK YOU!"

In Homeowners’ Latest Woe, Banks Are Skipping Foreclosures - NYTimes.com

According to the police report, Eni Skoien became enraged and attacked her husband early Sunday morning when she discovered him with two prostitutes.

The police report said Gary Skoien acknowledged to authorities that the women were prostitutes. But he later denied that and tried unsuccessfully to have the report changed.

Wow. Wife comes home, find husband with two hookers, goes all Pete Townshend on him and she gets arrested. At least it was the Guitar Hero guitar and not the real deal.

Daily Herald | Police seek women who were with Skoien during attack by wife

In a comment aired this afternoon on WMT, an Iowa radio station, Grassley (R-Iowa) said: “The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.”

Chuck is a bit of a common sense Republican (not many of those I know of) and a guy I didn't mind all that much when I lived in Iowa. I often didn't agree with him but I knew where he was coming from and why. I think he hit the nail on the head with this one.

Grassley on AIG execs: Quit or suicide - Martin Kady II - POLITICO.com

Jello wrote:

Disney's net income falls 32%

We knew it would be ugly. Now we're starting to see just how hard the economic meltdown is hitting showbiz.

Disney kicked off what's likely to be a grim earnings season in the media sector by posting on Tuesday a 32% drop in net income for the first quarter. Overall revenue slumped 8% to $9.6 billion, and net income was $845 million.

Can anyone... put this in context? Has it ever gotten this bad this fast other than the slide towards the depression?

Sure, it has NEVER gotten this bad this fast across the entire economy. See the job crash chart I posted earlier for comparisons in the last 20 years. But no, the last time we saw anything like this was 1930. Governments are already falling (Iceland has completely collapsed) and this is going to continue.

And since this hasn't been made clear, this event is in the process of changing the entire world. As one of the other posts note, this is having effects on Putin's control of Russia, and I would watch very closely to see what other governments crash and burn.

Things that would not surprise me in the next 5 years.
1) AQ Khan has been released in Pakistan, some idiot in Pakistan will get their hands on a nuke and use it on India (fizzle or successful won't matter, it's still a very big, very messy BOOM) with a final death toll on the sub-continent in the area of 20-50 million in the ensuing war.
2) GM fails, Chrysler follows less than 6 weeks later, 3 million people lose their jobs. No one is aware of it because they can't afford cable TV and broadcast channels have gone digital so no one is able to watch TV. Radio doesn't mention it except to blame Obama for it.
3) France explodes in full revolt. They don't know how to do things half way, the fifth republic falls, and god only knows what happens next.

RE: Disney's net income falls 32% - Entertainment News, Entertainment Industry & the Economy, Media - Variety

This is what the economy falling off a cliff looks like. The red line is the dot bomb, the blue line is the post Gulf War 1 recession. This is going to be incomprehensibly ugly, and there is no way in hell we're going to "tax cut" our way out of this one.

I said this over a year ago, welcome to 1929.

The Gavel � Blog Archive � What 3.6 Million Jobs Lost Over 13 Months Looks Like

First of all, how can any single person be in three holes at once? Secondly, what the fuck is he talking about? If you're supposed to stop digging when you're in one hole, why should you dig more in three? How does that even begin to make sense? It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if the editors over at the New York Times editorial page spend their afternoons dropping acid or drinking rubbing alcohol.

Oh hell yes! It's a LOLfest.

Someone Take Away Thomas Friedman's Computer Before He Types Another Sentence | The Smirking Chimp

Now that's a lot of people!

ObamaInaugurationHighRes.jpg (JPEG Image, 2700x1238 pixels) - Scaled (45%)

"I don't know what Sen. Vitter has against GM or the United Auto Workers or the entire domestic auto industry; whatever it is, whatever he thinks we've done, it's time for him to forgive us, just like Sen. Vitter has asked the citizens of Louisiana to forgive him, " said Johnson, president of Local 2166. Otherwise, Johnson said of Vitter, it would appear, "He'd rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers."

Ouch. On the other hand, if we're talking about David Vitter, a prostitute might give him a blow job. An auto worker is just going to give him the finger.

Vitter faulted for derailing auto bailout - Breaking News from New Orleans - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com

And always remember why the windows are open in the security vehicles leading and tailing the president's car: To give the sharpshooters inside a clean shot.

Someone at the Trib has a sense of humor.

No messing around when it comes to Obama motorcade -- chicagotribune.com