Harry Reid Quickly Passes Torch To Chuck Schumer For Democratic Leader

Dick Durbin Endorses Chuck Schumer For Senate Democratic Leader

There will be a serious leadership struggle in which a resurgent bloc of conservative Democrats -- who will be called "centrist" no matter what they actually believe and what they're actually willing to do -- will face off against those senators whose nominal leader is Senator Professor Warren. This is perilous at a time in which there is a serious threat to entitlement programs coming from the monkeyhouse on the other side of the Capitol, and at a time in which Evan Bayh, god help us, may consider a return to the Senate. The notion that Chuck Schumer is the odds-on favorite to succeed Reid should chill the bones of anyone in favor of lessening the death grip that the financial services has on our national economy. Charlie Pierce

Moments after Reid's announcement, liberal activist groups Democracy For America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee began boosting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to succeed him as Democratic leader. But Warren's office told TPM she wasn't interested and "will not" run.

FENTON * Former Cardinals outfielder Curt Ford said Thursday he may move away from the St. Louis area in disgust after being punched in an allegedly unprovoked, race-related attack at a gas station.

"I'm going to let the authorities handle this situation, but I've had enough of St. Louis," Ford said in a phone interview Thursday. "You hear about this kind of stuff happening, and I always knew it existed because of my previous experience working here in St. Louis, but you try to keep away from it, and there is just no way you can do that unless you stay inside like a hermit.

"I just want justice. It's all I want."
                                        <snip>
St. Louis County police from the Fenton precinct arrested James Street, 37, of the 400 block of Saline Road, a white man who allegedly slugged the black former Cardinals player Wednesday after shouting racial slurs at him and telling him to "go back to Ferguson," the Post-Dispatch has learned.

"I was sucker-punched, blindsided," Ford said. "I was walking into the store and hit from my blind side."

Condemnation of the beating has spread across social media, including from people who protested the shooting of Brown last year by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

That's funny.

And let's please stop comparing the GOP's ham-handed attempt at manufacturing controversy here to the actual Watergate scandal, i.e. "The eighteen minute gap." By doing so, all you're underscoring is your general ignorance about both.

People still don't have a lot of money.

But I kind of reject the notion that we should plan our built environment based solely on where people choose to live under the conditions that exist today.  If housing was cheaper and more plentiful in urban areas would people be moving there instead?  These aren't the same conditions that caused white flight.  Urban areas are expensive now.

And part of it is the shortage of houses and the availability of houses in the exurbs. At least here in metro Atlanta.

  Personally, I hate traffic and commuting-- really hate it. I also really like "the country" and quiet solitude, but not enough to endure an hour commute every day, and the closer burbs here are either generic, cookie cutter subdivisions and though the lots are larger, hardly bastions of solitude or also very pricey (yet similarly "soulless"  in my mind)  

   I preferred to  sacrifice in terms of size of  house and land in order to be  less than 3 miles from my downtown office. A "grand" house in the best neighborhoods that close to work was way beyond my means at the time (and would still be  beyond them 25 years later).

  We bought a 60 year (now 85) old, 2000 sq. ft. house on a 1/4 acre lot that needed a lot of work. It's situated in a quiet residential  neighborhood but one that in its best days was professional middle class, not "upscale.".

  Structurally, the house was and is excellent, but it immediately needed all new wiring a new roof and  had no central air. We are inside the city limits, but it's not an "urban" neighborhood, just pretty close to them. I live at the end of  dead end street and my backyard abuts a large city park with a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool soccer fields and  woodlands so it seems , especially since the entrance to the park is on the far side well over a mile from my house and the portion near my house is woods.

  At the time I bought, prices in the neighborhood were very low as new buyers were mostly buying in the burbs and many people from the city were moving there too, for the new houses and better schools.

  My house was even lower because of the needed repairs/improvements and the fact it has only a 1 car detached garage. In addition to the roof (which was just done a second time last year) and wiring, over time we replaced all the windows and doors, redid all the trim, completely redid the kitchen, renovated full bath, put in a new EE furnace, finished the basement, added another full bath down there,  did a bunch of littler stuff, all told we've put in well over double the original purchase price over the years).

  We were just married and had no kids when we bought. The only time we thought about selling was when school became an issue. The choices were to move to a better school district or private school. Moving actually would have been cheaper (and for people with more kids much cheaper), but we decided to stay. I like my house, the short commute and I think our neighborhood has more "character" than the cookie cutter subdivisions. But, if I could not have afforded private school, we would have sacrificed and  moved.

  Prices in my neighborhood are still low. I doubt there will ever be a "boom market" here given the age of the houses and the schools. This town has had a pretty stagnant economy. The population of the city has actually decreased and the metro population has grown very little in the last 25 years. Accounting for inflation, the current market value of my house is probably not that much more than the tax  basis, so it has not appreciably contributed to my real net worth.

  We do have younger people move in to the neighborhood, but it seems most of them move on after a few years. This contributes to another problem. People who buy and sell within 5 years seem not to invest in the houses and most of the other houses in the neighborhood have gone downhill over a quarter century. My house was probably the "worst" on my  street when I bought but is now probably the "best." In terms of property value that's not helpful. On the other hand, because the houses are on the small side, we have not experienced the issue of some neighborhoods, where older, large single family homes have been subdivided into rental units which is worse for value and generally.

   Even when we bought the house just out of school, the mortgage and escrow was only about 10% of my and my wife's gross income and beyond the roof and wiring which was built into the mortgage, we've just saved and paid cash for everything since. By the time we retired the mortgage a couple of years ago, the payments were maybe 2%.

   Perhaps, that is a reason I have no sympathy for middle class or upper middle class folks who got in trouble assuming mortgages for expensive houses  that consumed 30% or more of their gross income. It doesn't take a financial whiz to appreciate the risk of doing that. Taking the risk is a choice that they are entitled to make. Having others help pay the cost of that risk becoming reality is unfair to those who made wiser  choices.

In 2003, the Washington Post editorial board -- like many others in the media at the time -- supported the invasion of Iraq and viewed the war as inevitable.
...
According to former Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, from August 2002 until the invasion in March, there were approximately 140 front-page pieces in the paper making the Bush administration's case for war.

link

why would it address them later when these sanctions are lifted?