No, really:
Media conglomerate Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, as the owner of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Cubs and other properties tries to deal with $13 billion in debt.
Add to that list of holdings WGN and the Baltimore Sun.  Not at all surprising, but it’s still really something to see.
When CEOs lead companies through good times, they deserve vast rewards. When they lead companies through bad times, they deserve vast rewards for sticking around. Funny how that works, no? Yglesias thinks this through a bit:
After all, the underlying premise of our finance-led rush to hyperinequality has been that the rich are very very very very different from you and me and that it’s so excruciatingly important that we maintain adequate incentives for them to ply their trade that we should ignore the immense damage rising inequality does to middle class well-being.
One we realize that that’s not the case, that there’s no “magic†at work in the financial field and people are just mucking around I think that has quite radical implications. If nothing the CEOs and top fund managers are doing makes them worthy of taking the blame when the crash hits, then they also don’t deserve nearly the share of the credit — and money — that they got while things were going up.
Expect this point of view to get approximately zero airtime in our ongoing social and political conversations. Indoctrination is a hard thing to overcome.
breaking the law isn’t exactly unprecedented in the US. Except in this case, the only ones breaking the law were the police. This is fantastic:
KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the [cops] lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.
The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster’s attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster’s secret mobile office nearby.
Read more here (note that I endorse Balko’s take on the perpetrator, unfortunately).
You’ve almost certainly heard the news already if you’re interested in Virginia online politics, but I’ll repeat it here – the New Dominion Project is open for business. It’s a collaborative effort by three . . . hmm, I can’t exactly call them “fresh” voices, considering that each of them has been at this for a while. Let’s go with “refreshingly youthful” voices. I expect good things from them.
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Ah, the holiday season, where we all get to reflect upon and celebrate our priorities and values.
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I had forgotten that Italy will be taking the EU G8 Presidency [ed. note – d’oh] in short order, making the corrupt disaster that is Silvio Berlusconi [slightly] more relevant to our lives
Italian president and media baron Silvio Berlusconi said today that he would use his country’s imminent presidency of the G8 group to push for an international agreement to “regulate the internet”.
Speaking to Italian postal workers, Reuters reports Berlusconi said: “The G8 has as its task the regulation of financial markets… I think the next G8 can bring to the table a proposal for a regulation of the internet.”
Thanks, Italy.
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Vivian Paige laments the loss of her weekly milk & eggs delivery from Yoder Dairies. I’m with her, if only in spirit. The last place I had milk delivery was in Nottingham in the mid-80s.
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I am shamed to say that I didn’t lift a glass in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition last Friday (to be clear, I was lifting several glasses in celebration of other things – the anniversary just got lost in the shuffle). Amit Singh had a brief note about it up at Bearing Drift. That post kicked off a discussion that turned into an amusing reminder that the (remaining) Republican rank and file are more concerned with the fact that someone somewhere may be enjoying themselves than actually living up to that small government and personal freedom gloss they love to claim.
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Oh, and a begrudging congratulations to the dolts in Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, who finally ousted that crook, Rep. William Jefferson (D). It’s begrudging because that district’s voters apparently weren’t smart enough to do it the last time they had the opportunity. Anyway, it’s good to see him gone, and terribly amusing to see Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner hold up the Republican winner of that race as “the future” of the Republican Party.  If relying on the Democratic incumbent to get found with a freezer full of cash and indicted is the Republican plan to win, well, I can live with that. Note also that the winner – Ahn Cao – will be gone in two years. He may be an entirely competent and decent fellow, but there’s no way a Republican wins reelection in a D+28 district.
Utterly unrelated to anything while being related to everything:
Just thought it was terribly interesting.
It’s something of a horror show, but Shaun Kenney’s doing a good job (from my perspective, anyway) of capturing the goings on at the Republican Party of Virginia’s annual “Advance” meeting at the Homestead. Waldo points out that Shaun’s blog has been blocked at the Homestead. That, in itself, is a great illustration of the RPV. Backward, ignorant, and working hard to keep it that way.
Facebook is a strange place. Maybe it’s because it’s been 15 years since I’ve discovered what it is to connect with people online that I’ve very little patience for the learning cycles of folks who are (still) new to the concept. Or maybe it’s because I myself am learning something new – that sometimes there’s a good reason you’ve not kept up with people. Have seen a lot of names from high school lately (and yes, on balance, it’s been good, even tho’ it’s never the ones you really wonder about). Throws me back in the playlists. This is the result:
Hoodoo Gurus – Come Anytime
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MAzxtJ-IUQ[/youtube]
Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians – What I Am
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JNkBby9i6g[/youtube]
REM – Pop Song ’89
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXXfAjrqzrQ[/youtube]
Hello, I saw you, I know you, I knew you
I think I can remember your name…name
Hello I’m sorry, I lost myself
I think I thought you were someone else
Should we talk about the weather? (hi…hi, hi)
Should we talk about the government? (hi…hi, hi, hi)
TPM catches this Barney Frank quote:
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): “[Obama’s] going to have to be more assertive than he’s been. At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time. I’m afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He’s got to remedy that situation.”
I do not want an Obama holiday fleece. I do not want an Obama mug. I do not want an Obama victory t-shirt. And you do not need any more of our money. Give it a rest, please.
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