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There's been a lot of chatter recently about how various economic indicators should have President Obama running scared as he commences the 2012 re-election campaign. Unemployment remains higher than is generally viewed as tolerable. The US is carrying a lot of debt, and S&P revised its outlook amid concerns that political gridlock will prevent our debt problem from being brought under control. The wage stagnation issue that some commentators focus on heavily appears persistent. Gas...

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That's the title of this piece from WIRED. Definitely worth a read:
In the months after the accident, Soviet authorities undertook drastic measures to deal with the catastrophe. Almost 1,000 acres of the Red Forest had perished, and nearly 4 square miles of topsoil around the sarcophagus was scraped away and buried as radioactive waste. Of the 250 settlements and villages in the zone that were evacuated, the most radioactive were bulldozed in their entirety and interred. Contaminated...

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Now that a bunch of polling shows Donald Trump on the move in the prospective 2012 presidential contest, there's beginning to be some more substantial scrutiny of what it is that he's proposing (kudos to Dave Weigel for taking the time to read The Donald's book, something no one else, including yours truly, seemed to be arsed to do).
The Club for Growth has emerged as a non-fan (surprise!)-- Matt Lewis titles his post on this "Club for Growth: Trump is a liberal."
And now CNN has...

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This may be the stupidest thing I've read today, and since my job requires me to pay attention to a lot of weird and crazy shit posted on the internet, that's saying something:
Republicans have called for less permits and regulations in 2011, but on Wednesday a proposal for a new regulation was passed unanimously by a Senate panel that would require the homeless to have a permit to panhandle.
SB 1180 is an expansive transportation bill that includes numerous items, from giving...

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Or not, as the case may be:
Hoping to sidestep new financial regulations that could have forced it to raise billions in new capital, Deutsche Bank AG is planning to restructure its U.S. operations, which would allow it to operate with a thinner capital cushion than the new rules envisioned.
Executives of the German Bank had worried it would have to put up as much as $20 billion in new capital to offset losses in its U.S. unit that have left it undercapitalized, according to an...

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This isn't exactly the topic of the day, but it is important and I have been meaning to write about it, so here goes. The federal government is proposing new rules affecting mortgages that I suspect could become somewhat controversial:
... the federal government is proposing new mortgage finance rules under which only home buyers who can afford a minimum 20 percent down payment on a conventional loan would get a shot at the best available interest rates and terms.
[...]
But...

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Speculation is rife in Washington, DC, today that we're headed for a government shutdown.
Frankly, at this point, I'm struggling to see how we avoid one.
The House passed HR1, the Continuing Resolution, which was necessary because Democrats, when they controlled both chambers of Congress as well as the White House, couldn't get it together to pass an actual budget (what a bunch of clowns).
The Democratic-controlled Senate, of course, won't pass HR1.
The...

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Phil Klein basically lays it out here:
The problem Obama faces is that he himself has said that current entitlement costs are unsustainable. “I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans," he declared in his 2010 State of the Union Address, in which he established a bipartisan Fiscal Commission. For a whole year, whenever he was asked about long-term deficits, he’d point out that he was waiting for the commission to report back. Yet ultimately, he...

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Via the U.S. Air Force:
3/31/2011 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- A team of female Airmen made history here March 30 when the F-15E Strike Eagles of "Dudette 07" blazed down the runway to provide close air support for coalition and Afghan ground forces.
The two-ship formation consisted of all females, two pilots and two weapons system officers, but more importantly, it marked the first combat mission flown from Bagram to be planned, maintained and flown entirely by...

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Or at least among elected officials, he offers a strong submission in sending out this newsletter. Note item #5, in particular:
MAKING IT WORK
April 1, 2011, Volume XIII, Special Edition
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The purpose of this newsletter is to provide information, inspire involvement, and make things work in this great city. You can request additional information or comment on the newsletter by...

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