EdCone.com

"Every time Obama tries to take on a progressive cause, there's a major political party standing in his way: the Democrats...We don't have a Left and Right party in this country anymore...[Republicans] actually worry that Obama is a socialist. Socialist? He's not even a liberal..." More funnier when Maher says it, starting at about 3 minutes in:

Sen. Hagan hedges on health care reforms.

"Sen. Hagan is looking at all the public option proposals," said spokesman David Hoffman. "She’s going to be working with her colleagues to ensure private health insurance isn't going to be destabilized."

Hoffman said Hagan was concerned that millions would drop their existing private health insurance and flock to a public option provider, leading to a collapse of the private health insurance market.

So she's worried that the public plan will be so attractive that people will want to use it, and that could hurt the insurance companies.

I guess we'll find out which one of those things is more important to Kay Hagan.

Father's Day. I wrote a Father's Day column. Which you can read after the jump if you wish.

I don't know how long a seizure notice stays up at a bank website, so I did a screen cap of the one at Wilmington's Cooperative Bank (click to enlarge).

Cooperative is the second Wilmington Bank to fail in the last couple of months. "The collapse of the local home construction market is at the heart of Cooperative's failure and that of Cape Fear Bank as well."

Meanwhile, statewide unemployment now stands at 11.1%.

"Please list any and all current personal or business Web sites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc."

From a now-changed job application form for the city of Bozeman, Montana (thnx to Sue for the pointer).

I guess he really was sick after all: "Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave from Apple Inc. since January to treat an undisclosed medical condition, received a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago."

That was then, this is now:

I wouldn't have considered "following the law" and "constitutional limits on executive power" and "skepticism about government secrecy" and "acknowledgment of the 4th amendment" and "accountability for government misdeeds other than blowjobs" and "lying our way into war is maybe wrong" and, perhaps, most of all, "torture is bad" to be just "liberal" positions.

I often feel that I'm a lot more conservative than some of the self-proclaimed conservatives out there.

"[S]omehow the broadness of the HRC report seems to have been ignored." Yeah, it's almost as if people don't know or don't care what the City Council actually did with that statement of regret -- they just oppose it, dammit.

The Washington Post cans Froomkin, presumably because he is popular and tough-minded.

Jim Buie puts a wrenching family story in the context of the abortion debate.

As Aunt Em, LaChanze, a Tony winner for “The Color Purple,” puts across her big opening number, “The Feeling We Once Had,” with soaring vocal richness and later brings similar poise and force to the musical’s climax. Wafting onstage as Glinda the Good Witch in an Eartha Kitt-ish sky-blue gown-and-turban combo, she bestows with an air of benevolent imperiousness the knowledge that Dorothy can click her heels and make the whole peculiar parade disappear.

LaChanze gets a rave in an otherwise tepid review of The Wiz.

Remember this story? FedEx has hired a Charlotte PR firm to push the anti-UPS website. I got an email today saying, "The chatter has started about what this might mean for Greensboro (and the rest of the Triad's) economy." 

Bob Buckley takes a look at Greensboro's Mill Village history.

John Hammer says political consultant Bill Burckley "smelled of alcohol and behaved like someone whose judgment was impaired by alcohol" when he was arrested at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. Hmm. Maybe it's not a case of criminalizing dissent after all.

Rhino's Paul Clark challenges the credentials of mold "expert" Linda May, who has stirred the pot at Oak Ridge Elementary, even as local health officials say the mold scare is way overblown:

[D]espite her repeated claims of connections with OSHA, the EPA and the Department of Defense, there is no indication that she has any connection with those agencies, and despite being asked repeatedly, she provided no documentation to prove any such connection...

...a spokeswoman for OSHA in Washington, DC, said she could find no record of May being involved in any OSHA rulemaking, and that OSHA has no certification for mold experts – so May could not be one.

Other alleged inconsistencies and gaps in the record abound.

I don't like the idea of outlawing words, but the transplanted Chicagoan comes across as more interested in fighting than in listening.

To: Barack Obama
cc: Kay Hagan

From: Me and I'm guessing a lot of other folks.

Dear Mr. President,

I laughed when people said you were a closet radical.

Now I'm asking you to please check your closet to see if there's just a little bit of radical in there.

You could apply it, in your judicious way, to healthcare and financial regulation and gay rights.

I dig the pragmatism thing. I believe that politics is the art of the possible.

But, really, you are a popular president who was elected to clean up a bunch of manifestly broken policies, so please don't give us Lite versions of same.

Regards,

Ed

Josh Marshall does Colbert.

An interview with Lisa Scheer.

Holding Kay Hagan's feet to the fire on healthcare reform.

So you've always wanted to be a teevee producer. Here's your chance.

Where are they now? A semi-serious look at web celebs.

About those strong housing-start numbers: "What really matters is the comparison with the previous year. And the news is horrid on that front."

Backlash on benefits: "This administration, the Congress and the DNC need to see the LGBT ATM shut down."

Your government is (still) watching you. "[L]awmakers are asking what the tolerable limits are for such incidental collection and whether the privacy of Americans is being adequately protected."

New regulatory regime for financial services includes the shadow banking system and exotic instruments. Assuming some workable version is established, our grandchildren will no doubt dismantle it.

UPDATE: City Council discussion here, beginning at 1:33 and continuing after the break at 2:39.

"I will tell you what my generation is talking about," Matheny said. "Look at our successes. Let us move on." Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny voted against the City's expression of regret for the 1979 Klan-Nazi killings. Only happy thoughts, and things that happened after Seinfeld went off the air, are to be discussed on his watch. Noted.

Blogger Joe Guarino says, "I hope no one believes these measures are going to satisfy the forces that have been agitating on this issue for many years." He doesn't name these "forces," but they are dark ones, no doubt. I don't think the resolution is about satisfying everyone, as much as finding a safe space where people can agree on some core issues, which is the basis of reconciliation.

Guilford County GOP executive director Tony Wilkins proclaims himself in danger of vomiting and gasket-blowing. "White guilt" is invoked, although a few White Russians could account for the vomiting and general tone of his remarks.

"[T]he most honest and heroic thing I've ever seen a local elected official do." Kind words for Robbie Perkins, who took a leadership role in tonight's City Council discussion of the Klan-Nazi killings; the Council voted to accept a report on the events of 1979, and to express regret for them.

Twitter and Facebook give US a window into Iran. "[T]he State Department asked Twitter to refrain for going down for periodic scheduled maintenance at this critical time to ensure the site continues to operate."

I hear the Fountain View condos in downtown GSO are now the Fountain View apartments -- sales of the newly-built units were non-existent, so they're going to rent them out instead.

Lisa Scheer took this Polaroid pic not too terribly long ago in Mebane.

Artie Lange could have been a hero for unstuffing Joe Buck's shirt, but he doesn't know when to shut up.

UPDATE: "Buck professes himself to be shocked, shocked!, that an old Howard Stern sidekick might waddle onto an HBO set and go off-color."

City Council will be asked to consider a "statement of regret" over Klan-Nazi killings.

We've had a lot of turnover on the Council since the board stiff-armed the TRC process.

They don't have to accept the flawed but useful report to comment on this piece of our history.

Malpractice suits, often abused, are a real cost in the medical economy and a serious concern for doctors, but are not quite the systemic threat they're reputed to be: "Medical malpractice dollars are a red herring for the system's failings," Amitabh said. "No serious economist thinks that saving money in med mal is the way to improve productivity in the system."

I was going to ignore the story of a prominent South Carolina Republican making a crude racist joke about Michelle Obama, but then another member of the Palmetto GOP showed his ass, too, and, well, two in the same day seems worth mentioning.

Elsewhere Artist Collaborative has been awarded a two year grant from the Warhol Foundation.

You can listen to George Scheer and Stepanie Sherman discuss the South Elm Steet institution here.

Lincoln National takes its place at the bailout trough.

Cramer: "Why are Lincoln National and Hartford allowed to get federal money when they screwed up so badly?"

Previously: Whisked away.

Should candidates use blogs and social media?

Different candidates have different talents. Certainly campaigns should be using these tools.

The paperback edition of Justin Catanoso's book, My Cousin the Saint, goes on sale tomorrow.

Justin will be signing books at the Friendly Center Barnes and Noble early Saturday afternoon.

Update: The restaurant, which had been seized by the NC Dept of Revenue, is scheduled to reopen on Friday June 19.

Madison Park, probably the best restaurant in Greensboro for the last year, has closed.

"It’s interesting that Microsoft seems to have some good buzz for Bing so far. And I do think it’s actually warranted. But it’s just a first step." A glimmer of hope for MSFT?

Panetta on Cheney: "[I]t’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."

Skepticism in Israel: "It's hard to believe that a single Palestinian leader will be found who will buy the defective merchandise Netanyahu presented last night."

Photos from Iran, including wire-service and amateur shots.

Reportage: "There can be no question that the June 12, 2009 Iranian presidential election was stolen." More here.

Two separate conversations this weekend with local white collar workers who have taken either furloughs or (allegedly) temporary pay cuts this summer. I'm in the latter group, too. I'll still be coping with the death of my industry when this recession ends, but at least the overall climate will be more pleasant.

This line troubled me when I first read it at Allen Johnson's blog, and again in this morning's paper: "[Dennis] Glass was whisked off to Philadelphia when Lincoln Financial acquired JP in 2006."

That makes it sound like the man was abducted.

Dennis was a great advocate for Greensboro while he was here, but let's be real: he was part of the team that plumped JP for sale during a financial mania, then went wheels up for the big city on a corporate jet laden with stock options. Using the passive voice doesn't quite describe the situation.

On top of CRE, credit cards, and ongoing mortgage woes, banks face "$25 billion a month in debt rolling into a market with a shortage of buyers willing to invest in it."

More from Morgenson:

The size and nature of this financial services debt — and the customers who bought it — are central to the late great credit mania we have just lived through...Issuance of this financial debt exploded during the mid-2000s...During the mania, these issues were snapped up by a group of relatively new money managers operating special investment vehicles, or S.I.V.'s...

Let me tell you about the formerly very rich. They are different from you and me.

Fork over the dough or the angry purple penis is homeless.

Greensboro's compulsive molar checkers don't know how good we've got it.

Quaint concepts: "President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama's assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice."