KateAndDally

More Cows!

Ratings agency execs were hauled before Henry Waxman's Oversight committee this a.m. to justify activities such as outlined in this conversation:

Official 1: By the way, that deal is ridiculous

Official 2: I know, right. The model definitely doesn’t capture half the risk.

Official 1: We should not be rating it

Official 2: We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it

Official 1: There is a lot of risk associated with it. I personally don’t feel comfy signing off as a committee member.

Somehow I'm betting his discomfort didn't stop him, though.  Read about the hearings here.

Making it All Real

This is the best real-life explanation I've found about the financial crisis and how it might/could/will affect all of us.  I highly recommend listening to it; when I heard it (in my car), chills ran down my spine.

Why I love Gail Collins...

Fresh snark from today's column:

“We are in the midst of a serious financial crisis,” the president said, reading his lines flatly and stolidly, like an announcer delivering a long public-service message about new parking regulations for the holiday season. The whole event had a kind of unreality to it, since Bush has arrived at that unhappy point in American public life when a famous person begins to look like a celebrity impersonator.

And,

Meanwhile, McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign, taking his ads off the air and going back to Washington to do something leaderlike and bipartisan. This was yet another new McCain, very different from last week’s versions, that blamed Obama for the financial meltdown while tossing out rescue plans like a desperate dart player 10 minutes before the bar closes.

“Following Sept. 11, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now,” he said.

In deference to the current emergency, we will refrain from pointing out that when our national leaders came together following Sept. 11, the results were, all and all, worse than if they had stayed home.

Do Ya Think?

What are the odds Eliot Spitzer is sending Adm. Fallon a bottle of champagne right now?

Military Woofs

This is a great story, with a great outcome, _ut certainly raises ethical questions....I wonder how much it costs to place a stateside animal?  Anyone know?  Please note that Charlie's head is shaped much like Kate's...

Yesterday, at the local mall (just up the road from Walter Reed), I encountered several military types, _ut without their canine companions...also without some of their lim_s, which is always difficult to see.  I always feel like I should either thank them or apologize, or possi_ly _oth.  George _ush _etter _e right.  A_e Lincoln is said to have dreamed of the _oys he sent to death.  Does George, do you think?

Andrew Olmsted Memorial

Colonel Olmsted's family has asked that people who want to honor the Colonel should contribute to a fund set up for Captain Thomas Casey's children.  Casey served with Olmsted, was with him at the fatal ambush and died trying to help him.  He leaves four children.

Capt. Thomas Casey Children’s fund
P.O. Box 1306
Chester, CA 96020

Read all about it at Obsidian Wings.

Quote of the Day

"It's true people sometimes need to be placed under involuntary mental health treatment because they can't take care of themselves," veteran psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Sugar said of the 26-year-old Spears. "But there's a difference between being detained involuntarily for psychological treatment and being forced to endure Dr. Phil involuntarily." (my emphasis)

From CNN.

What Us Curvy Girls Have Always Known...

well, duh.

Major Andrew Olmsted, KIA

Major Olmsted was killed in Iraq recently.  I didn't know him; he was UO's friend, although they had never met f2f either.  Major Olmsted posted at Obsidian Wings and at the Rocky Mountain News; I am linking to the major's final post at Obsidian Wings because I would like to honor his memory in my own small way; and because the post reveals a man of tremendous decency and intelligence.  There are lots of men and women like Major Olmsted serving in our military who are willing to make the supreme sacrifice, and our duty to them, as the civilian bosses of our military, is to make sure we don't waste them like so many kleenex.

Please take a moment to think on him and his family and say a prayer for them, if it's your way. 

Bhutto Murdered

The AP writes:

President Bush demanded Thursday that those responsible for the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir be brought to justice.

I'm sure Pervez Musharraf will get on it at once!