Corrente

In Tuesday's debate, McCain derided Obama's support for an expensive "overhead projector" for Chicago's Adler Planetarium.

While I failed to comment on it at the time (but I did mention it to Atrios's wife, I swear), that stuck in my craw.

The heart of a planetarium is an "overhead projector" isn't it? It's kind of a big-ticket item, one that inspires future generations of geeks. If you've got a problem with that, you'll have to tear the light saber out of my cold, dead hand. Read below the fold...

[Updated]

Naturally, my reaction here qualifies as rightwing spin, but this tale leaves me a little underwhelmed. Read below the fold...

Amidst all the gloomy news, there's finally something to celebrate. The Supreme Court of Tennessee is now composed of a female majority for the first time in the state's history! Given that Tennessee has never elected a female Governor or a female US Senator and that females still hold only about 20% of the state's judgeships, the news is all the sweeter.

Tennessee has joined the ranks of a small and progressive group: states with a female majority on their highest court, in a profession long dominated by men.

Wisconsin, New York and Washington, D.C., are the only other states that can boast the distinction of having a female majority, and those in the legal community say Tennessee can attribute its progress, in part, to Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Read below the fold...

Yah, yah. One "can't beat City Hall." But: I'm steaming mad right now. For several reasons. a) I'm discovering that I can't build an addition off the house, basically an open floor/dirt grounded, passive solar, glass "extension" greenhouse, because of building codes. And b) due to an archaic law, the well that is on this property may have to be "capped" because it's blah blah nothing that matters in a health and safety sense blah. Read below the fold...

Stirling: Read below the fold...

I'm getting the feeling that it's "mean" or even "snarky" to do anything but virtually rip Obama's digital press releases right off the wire, so I'll do just that: Read below the fold...

Broader FBI powers now set in stone

Among the powers agents now have for an assessment:

• Conduct surveillance without an otherwise required court order

• Obtain grand jury subpoenas for personal telephone and e-mail accounts

• Recruit informants for feeding information about a group or person to the bureau

• Examine records maintained by federal, state and local government agencies, which are typically not accessible to the public, like police databases profiling past criminal suspects.

Read below the fold...

RGE Monitor:

1) To reduce the counterparty risk in the money markets a triage between insolvent banks that need to be shut down and a recapitalization of solvent banks is necessary together with massive injections of liquidity in non-banks and the corporate sector;

2) Commercial paper facility was recommended here first and it is a useful first step. Consider expanding to small businesses as well.

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Utility Workers Union of America Endorses HR 676

Washington, DC. The Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) became the 19th international union to endorse HR 676 after its Executive Board voted October 7th to endorse HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The UWUA represents over
50,000 members working in the electric, gas, water, and nuclear industries across the United States.

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I have been away for a while. I enjoyed being away enormously.

Lo and behold, the sky is still up there. It's still blue, in between the clouds. At night the stars still shine. So come with me and see some of Texas at her best:

That's Shannon D. Moore's copyrighted photo of one of the buildings the Civilian Conservation Corps created at Bastrop State Park in the 1930s. Read below the fold...

From the debate: A 'look' at the candidates' words (On Politics, USA Today)
Courtesy of Janet Harris at Upstream Analysis, here are tag clouds that take the words used by the candidates at last night's debate in Nashville and "show" which ones they emphasized most:

Janet looks at the clouds and says McCain's "is full of nationalist/patriotic terms" while Obama's "seems mild by comparison, reflecting its mild-mannered speaker." Read below the fold...

How stupid do they think we are?

Pretty damned, apparently, but let me ask you all to tell me what's wrong with this quote from some benighted writer:

But the semi-automatic ammunition used in one of the weapons would have been illegal under an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

Read below the fold...

Here.

MORTAL ECONOMISTS WILL CRINGE WITH FEAR AS THEY REMEMBER THEIR WORDS AT DAVOS 2007!

I've got candy!

NOTE Via Naked Capitalism. Read below the fold...

Wow! McCain's asking for my vote! Why, the audacity! Bloomberg:

Republican presidential nominee John McCain's plan to stabilize the housing market would rely on government funding already authorized by Congress to buy mortgages directly from distressed homeowners.

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An interview with Katie Robbins of Healthcare-NOW!

Mickey Z: It seems no one (outside of the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, of course) is happy with America's market-driven health care system. Do you think the country—particularly in light of the current economic crisis—is finally ready to embrace single-payer as a logical alternative?

Read below the fold...