Democrats Figuring Out How to Accept Concessions
in Spending in Exchange for Inevitable Tax Hikes

post from Firedoglake on 22 September 2012 09:00:51 PM. © Firedoglake

Republicans want to use the tax issue as a election tactic, and that's really the substance of these remarks in the Washington Post claiming that taxes will go up if President Obama wins a second term. But there is some reality behind them.[...]

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Silly But Amusing

post from Talking Points Memo on 22 September 2012 09:00:39 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Fresh from the Department of Silly But Amusing, Mitt Romney apparently mistakenly referred to the United States as a "foreign country" on his 2011 tax returns. [...]

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Romney Supporters Voting Against Obama Rather
Than For Mittens

post from Crooks and Liars on 22 September 2012 09:00:21 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Poor Willard. No one seems to care for him except for Ann, and maybe the kids?

No previous presidential candidate has been viewed more unfavorably than favorably at this point in a presidential campaign in Pew Research or Gallup September surveys going back to 1988.
Romney has gained no ground on Obama in being seen as more credible or more empathetic, and Obama now leads Romney by nearly three-to-one (66% to 23%) as the candidate who connects well with ordinary Americans ? an even wider margin than in June.
With the exception of jobs and the deficit, on which voter opinion is about evenly divided, Obama leads Romney on most key issues, notably healthcare, Medicare, and abortion.
And the survey, conducted amid an outbreak of violence in the Middle East and shortly after the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, shows that Obama has a wide edge when it comes to foreign affairs and national security. Far more voters see Obama as a strong leader and as the candidate voters believe would use good judgment in a crisis. Voters also express more confidence in Obama than Romney to deal with foreign policy generally, as well as problems in the Middle East.

Perhaps the saddest reveal in this in-depth poll, roughly half of Romney?s supporters say they are voting against Obama rather than for the Republican nominee.

Much more data in the Pew report available here.

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Romney lists USA as a "foreign country" in his
tax returns

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 22 September 2012 09:00:15 PM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

I just copied this off of Mitt Romney's own campaign Web site, see below.Click image to see larger version.Now some context. Just this week, Mitt Romney again chose to take something President Obama said out of context in order to try to hurt the President. This time it was something that even Romney himself had said, but no matter. And remember how Romney...

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Jon Stewart reports on right-wing "Chaos on
Bullshit Mountain" -- and Sarah Silverman's seen the mountaintop too

post from DownWithTyranny! on 22 September 2012 09:00:14 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

Sarah S, exploring the brave new world of voter-ID
laws, sez: "Look, you want fair, move to Canada!"

"No Photo No Voto": "How 'bout this bullshit? Some students, like in Tennesse, because of the new voter-identification laws will not be able to use their student IDs to vote, but -- and this is amazing -- gun owners can use their firearms permits as ID to vote. It makes perfect sense: Get these kids gun permits! Uh, I feel safer from voter fraud already!" Sarah's equipping her nana too! (Check out www.LetMyPeopleVote2012.com.)

by Ken

Our friend Jack passed along this amazing Sarah Silverman video. It's side-splitting hilarious, but on language grounds I endorse his caution: If your watching at work, or at a public computer in a libary, be sure to use headphones!

I'm not much of a clip-watcher, so it takes a lot to get me to watch one -- and that much more to get me to pass one along. I must have been presoftened by Sarah S's amazing voter-ID clip when I opened the e-mail from DailyKos's Chris Bowers passing on this message originally posted by Barbara Morrill in "Fox News is about to erupt":

In case you missed it, Wednesday night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart delivered what may be the best 10 minutes and 27 seconds you'll see on TV this entire campaign season. Stop what you're doing and watch it now!

For once, I did as I was told: I stopped what I was doing and watched it now! And am I ever glad I did. And if you haven't seen Jon's report on "Chaos on Bullshit Mountain," I think you'll be glad too.

I do have a caution here as well, though: If you watch, you're going to subject yourself to a parade of mental defectives and hooligans who may collectively call into question your will to go on -- I mean, in a world where all these degenerates freely spew their imbecilic, often psychotic lies and gullible viewers engullify them, what, really, is the point?

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Video-clip note: I've already had trouble with the Daily Show clips, which sometimes worked fine and sometimes, well, just kind of disappeared. In case of emergency, use the DailyKos link.
#

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Health and Fitness News

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 22 September 2012 08:07:32 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Welcome to the Health and Fitness News, a weekly diary which is cross-posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette. It is open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do[...]

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What We Now Know

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 22 September 2012 08:03:13 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

This week marks the first anniversary of MSNBC's Up with Chris Hayes (@upwithchris), the two hour discussion program that airs at 8 AM on Saturdays and Sundays. It has been a refreshing addition to the standard fare news talk programs, providing[...]

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Criminal behavior.

There are truly heinous crimes, and truly dumb crimes. With this post I would like to give you an example of both.

"Two 13-year-old Wisconsin boys have been charged with first degree murder for the brutal slaying of one boy's great-grandmother, whom they allegedly bludgeoned with a hammer and hatchet before robbing her spare change and going out for pizza.

Both boys, Antonio D. Barbeau and Nathan J. Paape, were charged Friday as adults in the death of Barbeau?s great-grandmother, 78-year-old Barbara J. Olson, prosecutors said.

In a crime that was both gruesome and callous, the boys are accused of going to Olson?s Sheboygan, Wis., home on Sept. 17 ?to get some money,? the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Barbeau allegedly told his friend they should kill the elderly woman and they armed themselves with a hammer and hatchet.

The boys got a ride to Olson?s home from Paape?s mother and they ?hid their weapons in their clothing,? police said. [Source]

I bet they ordered Papa John's.

And then there is the dumb:

"He may be a conservative, but he's pretty liberal when it comes to calling 911.
Orange County resident Terrence Bonney, 53, called emergency services several times on Saturday to complain about President Barack Obama. The president was visiting Central Florida that day, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

After his first call, Secret Service agents were alerted to Bonney's behavior and responded to his home. They searched his house but didn't find any threats, so they left. That is, until Bonney called 911 several more times to complain.
While he was being arrested, Bonney allegedly told officers that he had a photo of Obama with a noose around his neck, but "did not intend on hurting the president," according to a police report obtained by the paper.

"It's like I shot JFK," Bonney allegedly said during his booking, according to WKMG. "I guess you can't threaten the president."

No Terrence, you cannot.

Finally, I am glad that Maxine Waters was vindicated after three years and over a million dollars spent investigating her. Good job by Lauren Victoria Burke reporting on this story. There was no criminal behavior found here.

As most of you probably know, I have a problem with black politricksters who betray our trust, and even though I don't always agree with her politics; it would have been disappointing to know that Mrs. Waters was found guilty of wrong doing.

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Fact Checking PA Governor Corbetts Jobs Recordand
Some Unsolicited Advice

Governor Tom Corbett's administration has a new summary of Pennsylvania's recent job performance. Today's news that Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is as high as the national unemployment rate underscores, however, that the state's recent jobs record is[...]

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Chicago Fed Sounds The Alarm on High Frequency
Trading

This is quite the mess. I'm reading lobbyist Jeff Connaughton's stunning book "Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins", and he goes into great detail about his stint as chief of staff to then-Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) as they tried in vain to get the SEC to address this very issue. Quite the eye opener: Basically, the SEC doesn't do a damned thing unless Wall Street lets them. Add to that the fact that these trades are so complicated, so esoteric, even the traders don't always understand them - let alone the regulators. It's a casino, and brokers object to even a 50-millisecond delay. Kaufman did predict a flash crash, and the SEC did take notice - by finally agreeing to ask Wall Street for data about these trades. Good luck with that!

Why is it important? Because it means the retail trader (you) will never, ever get accurate information about the markets. It's being manipulated by these high-speed trades and you'll never really know.

That's why this Chicago Fed studyis important:

The Chicago Federal Reserve paper, How to Keep Markets Safe in the Era of High-Speed Trading, prattled of a laundry list of the most recent high frequency trading debacles including Knight Capital as well as others. Yet in spite of these increasingly frequent stock market disasters, even basic risk controls are not implemented. Why? They claim it would slow down their trading systems.
Industry and regulatory groups have articulated best practices related to risk controls, but many firms fail to implement all the recommendations or rely on other firms in the trade cycle to catch an out-of-control algorithm or erroneous
trade. In part, this is because applying risk controls before the start of a trade can slow down an order, and high-speed trading firms are often under enormous pressure to route their orders to the exchange quickly so as to capture a trade at the desired price.
While the paper focuses on events, contained within is a solid example of really bad software engineering. The Chicago Fed found code wasn't even tested, literally changes are being made on the fly on live production servers not just putting those trades at risk but the entire system as well.
Another area of concern is that some firms do not have stringent processes for the development, testing, and deployment of code used in their trading algorithms. For example, a few trading firms interviewed said they deploy new trading strategies quickly by tweaking old code and placing it into production in a matter of minutes.
Perhaps financial organizations should consider hiring some real engineers who know a thing or two about software design instead of what they are doing. No American who is worth their salt, including those specializing in advanced mathematics, would ever change, on the fly, algorithms on a live server, dealing with billions of dollars.
The study also found out of whack fictional financial mathematics, referred to as algorithms, being designed as well.
Chicago Fed staff also found that out-of-control algorithms were more common than anticipated prior to the study and that there were no clear patterns as to their cause. Two of the four clearing BDs/FCMs, two-thirds of proprietary trading firms, and every exchange interviewed had experienced one or more errant algorithms.
The report amplifies just astounding irresponsibility and engineering incompetence. Can you imagine someone in a nuclear facility implementing software changes on the fly? Can you imagine air traffic control algorithms refusing to put in safety and error checks, claiming that slows down real time air traffic routing execution?
The Chicago Fed does give some recommendations in their report:
Limits on the number of orders that can be sent to an exchange within a specified period of time
A ?kill switch? that could stop trading at one or more levels
Intraday position limits that set the maximum position a firm can take during one day
Profit-and-loss limits that restrict the dollar value that can be lost.