Jul
24
2008

URLs du Jour

2008-07-24

  • Reports Hans Bader at OpenMarket:
    An enormously costly mortgage bailout bill passed the House 272-to-152, with strong support from liberal lawmakers. It will soon pass the Senate by an even bigger margin and become law. President Bush, following the advice of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, has wimped out and dropped his threat to veto it.

    The bill will bail out the mortgage giant Fannie Mae, which has used intimidation and deceit, and spent millions of dollars on high-priced lobbyists, to thwart efforts to rein it in, even after its management engaged in a massive accounting scandal that rivaled Enron.

    "Other than that, though, it's fine." No, actually, that's a lie, there's more, and it's worse. I just stopped quoting Hans after two paragraphs. Go read the whole thing.

    Both New Hampshire's silly congresscritters voted for this mess, and—this is really painful—our Senator Sununu has announced his support.

  • Will Wilkinson has a good response to a recent LATimes article on whether Americans are "losing faith in free markets."
    This kind of crisis of confidence occurs every time the economy temporarily heads south — which it inevitably does from time to time. What does this tell us? It tells us that people do not understand the economy very well. And what do stories like Gosselin’s tell us? That most journalists don’t either.

  • If you don't want to go through the hassle and expense of seeing The Dark Knight, you can get a pretty good picture of how our finest protect us from the slimy underbelly of society via this week's Rochester (NH) Police Log. Sample:
    Friday, July 11

    3:45 p.m. — A Cornerstone Court burglary victim is unhappy with the subsequent investigation, not having been contacted by detectives. She will call every time she finds something missing, even if this equates to 50 times a day.

    Saturday, July 12

    9:19 a.m. — On Rangeway Drive, a vehicle has been broken into and a GPS unit stolen. An abandoned beer can is no compensation.

    7:02 p.m. — On Farmington Road there is "a horrendous noise" coming from the Pink Cadillac. Dispatch has a hard time understanding the complainant due to loud musical din in the background.

    10:58 p.m. — Eight people yell obscenities at customers using the Walgreen's Drug Store drive thru.

    Much more at the link.