Balloon Juice: This is analysis

Nitpicker: Teapartiers vs. George Washington

Tina Dupuy: Feminism in the wake of 'Ladies' Night'

Economist's View: "The Economics of Libertarianism"

The Washington Independent: S.C. Dems move ahead with challenge

Words of Power: Which tide will overcome?

Elizabeth Warren is so sensible and credible. Why don't more people in the Obama administration listen to her?

Banks and homeowners alike need to take a more realistic view about how to stem the tide of foreclosures overtaking the housing market and the economy, the head of a government watchdog panel told CNBC.

The more than $700 billion the government allocated toward dealing with foreclosures has only made a minor dent in the problem, said Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

That's because those on both sides of the equation are not taking a proactive enough approach, she said.

"We have to sober up on this and say, 'Look, it's time to get realistic,'" Warren said. "It's time for the banks to get realistic about the value of the second mortgages, it's time to be realistic about doing some principal writedowns."

But the onus is not entirely on banks. Homeowners with distressed mortgages also may need a reality check.

"Some of you should stay in your homes...and some of you don't belong in those homes and you've got to be moved out," Warren said. "And frankly, those houses need to get back onto the market and get into the hands of people who can afford them."

"In other words, acknowledge the problem, deal with it, write off the losses and start rebuilding an economy on solid ground."

We must never forget.

First Draft: 

The second annual Rising Tide conference will be held August 24-26, 2007, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. This is a NOLA blogger-organized and supported conference featuring speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and other dialogs on the future of the city of New Orleans. This year's emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. It has become clear to those of us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, as well as take the upper hand is setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach...read on

Christy has a great post up that covers a lot of ground....As is my tradition---and a sad one it is---I will be posting videos when Katrina hit---the White House slept---thousands suffered and are still suffering...Here's another Youtube on Katrina...

AP Via The Huffington Post:

With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and 'Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.

While many of the buyers are Crimson Tide alumni or ardent football fans not entitled to any special Katrina-related tax breaks, many others are real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.

And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials. Read more...

Billmon goes back into his archives:

But to piece together the truth in those days you had to scrounge for it, ignore the ignorance and lies pouring out of Donald Rumfeld's mouth and defy the prevailing political tide of arrogant triumphalism. Very few journalists, and even fewer politicians, were willing to do that. Some in Left Blogistan were (Kos, Needlenose and Steve Gilliard, among others, also come readily to mind). As a result we presented a far more accurate picture of the war to our readers than the corporate media — with a few honorable exceptions — did to its own. I'm proud enough of that to want to remind the world, and the moronic media blog bashers in particular, of it...read on

Iraqslogger:

Your IraqSlogger editors are stunned that the Pentagon has released to the entire world and posted on the Web the U.S. military's new 282-page counterinsurgency war-fighting manual.

This is the first post-9/11 "war on terror"-era U.S. military counterinsurgency manual - the long-awaited doctrine meant in part to help turn the tide for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The counterinsurgency field manual's cover reads in part, "Distribution Restriction: Approved for Public Release; Distribution is unlimited."

Why?

Now you and everyone, including Al Qaeda terrorists and insurgents, can read the entire 282-page manual.

It's posted on multiple military Web sites.

Am I the only one who remembers during the first Gulf War, when it became patently obvious that the televised press conferences announcing troop manouvres were also being viewed by Iraqi military? What a shock, they got CNN too. Is the DoD under the impression that the US is the only country with internet access? Guys, it's called the WORLD WIDE web.

"Pat Buchanan, a leading conservative pundit and former presidential adviser, quietly suggested House Republicans mull impeaching President Bush -- though not for the liberals' cause celebre, Iraq -- but rather for what he sees as Bush's 'criminal' failure to stem the tide of illegal immigrants,...read on"

Pat gives him a public flogging over immigration.

. Powerline: The Great Unraveling

Powerline :A Sad Day

"What I don't understand is why this tragic case should be an occasion for the partisan hatred which currently bedevils our public life.

" I don't know how to account for it, unless one concludes that for some liberals, politics is about hate, period."

A picture of right wing zealots calling for Jeb Bush's head, yet it's liberals who hate.

Powerline again:

Why? Maybe they have "fallen half in love with death," as Noonan suggests? Or maybe they are just frustrated by losing elections, seeing the tide turn in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East (must Terri die for Bush's "sins"?), etc. Whatever the case, it makes for a sad and sorry spectacle.

A Christian conservative judge (with a price on his head) backed by the Conservative lead Supreme Court is ruling on this case, yet it's Bush hating liberals that are some how calling the shots. They should take a look in the mirror to find where the real hate is coming from.