Links and Minifeatures 12 03 Monday

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of the Capitalists.

Deal near on mortgage defaults

Paulson told a national housing conference that this effort involved a "pragmatic response" to current realities as the economy goes through the worst housing slump in more than two decades. The number of homeowners struggling to meet higher payments because their initial introductory rates are resetting is currently soaring.

Translation: The investors are making money on these clients now. They've come to realize that the "hand over fist" action they were anticipating isn't going to happen, and if they insist upon full payment, they're not going to get anything except defaults out of it.

Hit a investor hard enough, with a big enough sledgehammer between the eyes, and they will learn. Real estate loans are not a magic "make money risk free" machine. They are no safer an investment than the underlying property, and usually worse. Of course, an awful lot of lenders didn't have reserves to give them time to take advantage of the learning curve.

I don't write about sports much. Here's something long overdue, but for reasons the article doesn't mention

Walter O'Malley elected to Hall of Fame

O'Malley moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the 1957 season - a baseball version of the California Gold Rush that helped open the West to the national pastime. He received the minimum nine votes necessary for induction.

"Mr. O'Malley was a visionary by opening the gates to the West Coast. He linked the entire nation to the game of baseball,'' Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda said. "What a contribution he's made.''

Now, here's why O'Malley deserves induction in two words: Jackie Robinson.

This is to take nothing away from Mr. Robinson, who was by all reports a fantastically talented ballplayer as well as having the heroic temperament necessary to put up with the abuse heaped upon the first major league ballplayer (outside of the "Negro Leagues" as they were called at the time). But as gifted as Mr. Robinson was, he needed one thing more in order to break the color line:

He needed someone willing to hire him.

That someone was Walter O'Malley, who, in the wake of World War II's end, hired not only Jackie Robinson but several other non-white ballplayers before he even knew if Jackie Robinson was going to work out. Abuse was rampant, not just for Robinson and the other players, but also for O'Malley. Many season ticket holders canceled in protest of O'Malley's decision. It would have been far easier had he given up, or stopped at only one. Nonetheless, he stuck to his guns and continued the process of hiring the best talent he could find, regardless of skin color.

And not only every professional athlete who has benefited from this, but the entire country owes him a debt of gratitude for taking the first concrete step toward ending discrimination in this country. Before any of the Civil Rights Acts (1957, 1964 and 1965), before Brown vs. Board of Education, even before the military was integrated by President Truman's executive order. When the history of civil rights is written, Walter O'Malley deserves a significant mention, right alongside Jackie Robinson.

Sudan President Pardons British Teacher

So she's pardoned for something that shouldn't be a crime at all, after she's already served half the sentence, and she has to leave her job and the country, and that's supposed to make me feel better about Sudan?

Killing bullet for Venezuelan democracy dodged, for now: Chavez loses referendum

Humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.

Considering Chavez' history of electoral fraud and intimidation, the actual vote must have been something of a landslide.

Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a failed 2002 coup, blamed the loss on low turnout among the very supporters who re-elected him a year ago with 63 percent of the vote.

Translation: Even his former supporters can't see voting his way any longer, even if they have been intimidated into not voting.

Monitors say Russian vote unfair

Foreign election observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the vote as a validation of his leadership.

In other news, water is wet and dog bites man.

The people of Russia put off worrying about Putin's authoritarian tendencies just a little bit too long.

At this point, he's not going away peacefully.

Many voters said they were pressured to cast ballots for United Russia, said Alexander Kynev, a political expert with the election monitoring group Golos. In Pestovo in the western Novgorod region, some said their they ballots already were filled out for United Russia, he said.

In Chechnya, where turnout was over 99 percent, witnesses reported seeing election authorities filling out and casting ballots.

It's amazing how 95% of those whom he brutally repressed decided to vote to keep him in power!

And if anyone believes this, contact me. I've got a great deal on land in Florida.

Too funny not to mention: Clinton Cranks Up Rhetoric Against Obama

Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Monday that Barack Obama has too little experience and perhaps too much ambition

As opposed to some other unnamed candidate? Except, of course, for the "perhaps" part.

The introduction of the new puppy went very well. This was the right thing to do for my elder daughter, and not co-incidentally, a certain little black and tan dachshund, whom my daughter named "Julia." Also, Mellon hasn't whined the last couple nights with the puppy for company, something she had been doing since Thing died. I told my wife this was the best idea she's had since she married me.

The new puppy is a chewer, which we'll have to put a stop to, but she's also a cuddler, which Mellon isn't. It was kind of nice to read on the couch with a warm puppy last night.

Here's a picture, taken about 10 seconds after my daughter first saw Julia, who climbed right up into the position you see.

The younger daughter is insanely jealous of course, but she's not old enough for a puppy of her own. But 1) She's learned enough not to hurt the new puppy, and 2) that will furnish me an additional argument on my side for another puppy in a couple of years when she is ready.

Got an email from the guy I got the puppy from the next day. The night I picked the puppy up, her daddy tangled with "the vet said (the tooth mark) was from a HUGE coyote or the mountain lion that's been seen in the area", and evidently gave as good as he got. One tooth mark on him. Blood in and around his jaws. Coyote or Mountain lion, impressive and lucky for a twelve pound dog, even of a breed that was created to take on badgers in their dens.