Stay classy, West Contra Costa Unified School District

West Contra Costa Unified School District spokesman Marin Trujillo, taking time to note that other than a 15 year old girl getting raped by multiple people, the Richmond High School dance went off without a hitch:

"Multiple offenders, multiple people raping over prolonged period," said Lt. Mark Gagan with the Richmond police.

What makes this crime so shocking is that police say at least 20 people were involved in the rape or stood and watched the crime without going for help.
...
"Dance was successful event and safe for the students that were there," said Marin Trujillo, the West Contra Costa Unified School District spokesman. "This dance itself was a successful event."

Yeah, other than that gang rape type situation, the dance went off like gangbusters. The DJ was kickin' it with some tasty jams, the gym had a really well put together theme, and all the raping that occurred happened off of the dance-floor and at least 20 or 30 feet away from the main building.

I'm just glad that Mr. Trujillo was there to clear things up. I wouldn't want to have though that some got raped and the dance sucked. Also, I think people are failing to applaud the fact that no one was murdered anywhere near the event. When that is taken into consideration, this might be the most successful school dance ever. Stay classy, Marin.

No one could have forseen this mortgage crisis

You know, I probably should have my sense of surprise over the Bush Administration dulled by now. How many times can I go "Really.........really?" before I just am no longer shocked by the depth and breadth of their hackneyed stewardship of the country. The latest? Well, it turns out they were busy weakening mortgage and lending laws in the face of an economic collapse and ignoring regulations that could have at least mitigated the total free fall we seem to be in now.

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying _ along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK _ regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

Among the good ideas they tossed into the scrap heap:

• Regulators told bankers exotic mortgages were often inappropriate for buyers with bad credit.
• Banks would have been required to increase efforts to verify that buyers actually had jobs and could afford houses.
• Regulators proposed a cap on risky mortgages so a string of defaults wouldn't be crippling.
• Banks that bundled and sold mortgages were told to be sure investors knew exactly what they were buying.
• Regulators urged banks to help buyers make responsible decisions and clearly advise them that interest rates might skyrocket and huge payments might be due sooner than expected.

Christ that sounds horrifically prescient. Read the full article if you want to see the whole swath of quotes from a year beforehand about the consternations on how these regulations impede the open market and the free market and industry whinging. They sure do think those regulations are good ideas now, which is nice to know. All it took was trillions of bailout dollars and economic collapse.

9/11 billboard guy exactly as you imagined

Remember the 9/11 billboard guy? You should, it was two days ago. If you thought he was just an idiot, trying to exploit a terrorist attack for his own gain, well.....you were giving him too much credit.

Seems he got all his Global War on Terra learnin' from passing in and out of consciousness during Hannity's radio show, that grossly inaccurate ABC Path to 9/11 TV movie, and apparently what he pieced together from the comment threads at Free Republic. He also dresses like a discount pimp.