25 Comments

1. kynna:

It will never happen, but he’s right. She’s had an amazing year.

They’ll probably give Dan Rather a prize for his scintillating TANG scoop. It may have been false, but it was “accurate.” Too bad we have to lie to prove those things that we “know” are true.

At the very least Claudie Rossett deserves to be syndicated across the nation in all the biggest news outlets.

Mar 17, 2005 - 11:06 am 2. Godzilla:

OT

Here’s an article about an “unusual assembly” of Iranian exiles joining in solidarity against the mullahs. Deeper in the article the reporter makes mention that Sharon has ordered a land and air based attack on Iranian nuclear facilities if the latest round of diplomacy talks fail.

Iran Exiles Declare Their Unified Stand For Democracy

excerpt:

“In an interview, Dr. Razmara described as unprecedented the degree of cooperation between dissident groups with divergent views. “There is a sense of victory in the air,” he said.”

If the intelligentsia and the masses are on the same page, then this is good.

Mar 17, 2005 - 11:30 am 3. Silicon valley Jim:

Claudia Rosett is what every reporter should aspire to be, and what the MSM would like us to believe every reporter is, although few reporters are. Her moral sense, absolute devotion to the truth, energy, couage, and skill in writing are unexcelled – by any reporter of any era.

Mar 17, 2005 - 12:12 pm 4. Knucklehead:

You nailed that one, SvJ. Freakin’ journos and MSM are derelict in their duties. They should all aspire to be much more like Ms. Rosett.

Mar 17, 2005 - 12:42 pm 5. Knucklehead:

OT wrt Claudia Rosett but apropos the dismal failure of the MSM and journos to do their danged jobs – Mudville Gazette says pretty much the same thing.

Mar 17, 2005 - 12:55 pm 6. Terrye:

Roger:

I agree. It is because of journalists like Rosett that I have still have some faith in the press. She has earned a Pulitzer.

Mar 17, 2005 - 12:55 pm 7. LouMinatti:

This is completely and utterly off-topic, but since many of the readers here live in LA (like Roger) and other high-price areas I figured this is as good a place as any.

My question is: How can you people in LA afford it? I looked at comparable real estate (typical tract homes) in parts of Houston and Orange County. The enormous housing bubble should be obvious to California residents, but I suspect it isn’t – you guys are STILL bidding up the prices! I have more written here if you want to read it:

http://louminatti.blogspot.com/2005/03/california-real-estate-i-dont-get-it.html

Better sell while you can!

Mar 17, 2005 - 1:01 pm 8. Silicon valley Jim:

My question is: How can you people in LA afford it?

Well, not LA, but you did refer to “other high-priced areas”, and I suspect that Silicon Valley is even higher-priced than LA. I can afford housing here for two reasons:

1. I bought my condominium (in middle-class Mountain View) for $146,000 in 1984, when it was probably only three times as expensive as a condo in a comparable neighborhood near, say, Atlanta, rather than the five times that it is now (a unit identical to mine except that it is on the second floor was offered at $500,00 two months ago and sold in less than a week).

2. I make more money than most people in the United States; that’s true of a whole lot of people in Silicon Valley. To some extent that’s self-perpetuating, in that the higher cost of housing and higher incomes have driven up the cost of all services, thus raising incomes.

Some other thoughts:

I’ve been told, although I don’t know this for a fact, that affluent foreigners have been buying real estate in the SF Bay Area, and that’s driving prices up, even though the economy isn’t that good.

In 1978, Californians passed Proposition 13, which, among other things, provided that the valuation of your home on the property tax rolls can increase only 2% annually from its original purchase price (plus any new construction). I am paying approximately $2,500 per year in property taxes. If I had sold my unit to buy the unit that sold recently, my property tax bill would have jumped to approximately $5,500 per year. Looked at another way, a reasonable next step up from my 1,320 square foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium would be a 1,600 square foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house on a sixth of an acre or less on the other side of El Camino Real. The price tag for that is probably $800,000 to $900,000. So I’d have to borrow perhaps $400,000, for an annual principal and interest payment of approximately $28,000; my property tax payment would jump to $9,000 to $10,000 per year. Right now, I don’t have a mortgage. So those costs would jump from $2,500 per year to a total of perhaps $38,000. Against that, I might save $3,500 per year in homeowners’ dues, offset by having to do or otherwise pay for my own yard maintenance, exterior painting, etc. So I stay where I am, which wouldn’t be the case in a lot of other locations.

Yes, I am planning to get out soon.

Mar 17, 2005 - 1:43 pm 9. Rick Ballard:

“Yes, I am planning to get out soon.”

Shh, wait ’til I sell and then talk about it.

Actually there is no particular hurry. Prop 13 also forced local government to make correct upfront assessments on new developments in order to provide services. The cost of a developed lot in the LA or Bay Area will not be less than $35K (for a postage stamp) and building is not coming anywhere near meeting demand.

Mar 17, 2005 - 1:59 pm 10. Silicon valley Jim:

Actually there is no particular hurry. Prop 13 also forced local government to make correct upfront assessments on new developments in order to provide services. The cost of a developed lot in the LA or Bay Area will not be less than $35K (for a postage stamp) and building is not coming anywhere near meeting demand.

I agree that Proposition 13 has had many good effects, as well, including the one that you mention. I think that the minimum price for a residential lot is even higher than you state, at least around here. My somewhat-educated guess is that an acre land zoned for residential use in Mountain View would be worth $1 million; it would probably be worth close to $2 million in Shallow Alto, which, in some cases, is right across the street. Sub-divide that into eight lots and you’re at $125,000.

Mar 17, 2005 - 3:06 pm 11. Rick Ballard:

Rosett ought to consider a partnership with Sanjuan for a followup to his book. Together they could turn over all the rocks.

Mar 17, 2005 - 3:21 pm 12. PJ:

Just for fun, I’d like to see Rosett investigate the financial connection, if any, between Ward Churchill and Ghadafi. Why else would he meet with him in Libya and then yell about half a million on the phone to the AIM people?

http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=ad2bfcf5-0abe-421a-01dd-a1786d5a19dc&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

Inquiring mind want to know…

Mar 17, 2005 - 4:15 pm 13. yama-arashi:

O.T.!!

Bill Maher has just praised Bush, effusively (especially given his usually moonbat rhetoric), on CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Someone get a transcript.

Mar 17, 2005 - 4:33 pm 14. yama-arashi:

Can it be true? Verification, verification. I can’t believe my own ears. My kingdom for a transcript.

Mar 17, 2005 - 4:37 pm 15. Susan:

I actually saw Maher on the other night. I usually fly right on by him, but I decided to see what new dumb thing he was going to say to tick me off. He actually seemed to be defending Bush to his guests. I just sat there and watched in stunned silence.

Maybe the moonbat spell is subsiding with some of them.

Mar 17, 2005 - 4:43 pm 16. yama-arashi:

Susan,

So I don’t need to check myself into a hospital. I wasn’t hallucinating. Of course, this isn’t praise of the guy, how long has it taken him to begin, and I stress begin, to understand the obvious? But we should applaud quietly, shouldn’t we, the labor pains of a guy beginning to pull his head out of his a…..

Mar 17, 2005 - 4:57 pm 17. richard mcenroe:

Maher? More likely the feculent crapweasel is just chasing the bandwagon…

Mar 17, 2005 - 8:17 pm 18. yama-arashi:

But to realize there is a bandwagon to chase, at the very least makes him sounder in mind than a majority of Democrats. This, again, and I can’t stress it enough, is not a compliment.

“Feculent crapweasel” (with its head up its derriere) was exactly the image I was trying to capture. Most elegantly done, good Richard.

Mar 17, 2005 - 8:29 pm 19. richard mcenroe:

Considering the number of frauds, liars and apologists for monsters who have won Pulitzers in the past, I say Claudia deserves something better.

Mar 17, 2005 - 9:29 pm 20. Kevin P:

Roger:

Ditto on all the Rosett posts. I suspect Mahers partial Bush conversion has more to do with a need for a ratings boost and he will return to the Bush-Idiot- warmonger theme soon.

Mar 17, 2005 - 9:59 pm 21. Buddy Larsen:

Well, ugh, but nice to hear Maher has ‘unblocked’ his GI tract. Claudia Rosett, yow, those eyes, that smile, and now I hear she writes?

Mar 18, 2005 - 4:01 pm 22. charlotte:

“Considering the number of frauds, liars and apologists for monsters who have won Pulitzers in the past, I say Claudia deserves something better,” says richard mcenroe.

How about sainthood? Hitch wouldn’t dare object. Most certainly, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Maybe even her own Wheaties box- no doubt she’s a steroid-free marathon investigator.

A brave, brilliant, and determined soul she. How do you reward the public service she performs? It may be enough for her that Bush & Co. are attempting to reform the corrupt institutions, policies and polities that she is working overtime to expose. I wonder how much she’d even value the approbation from her journo peers.

Mar 18, 2005 - 6:42 pm 23. richard mcenroe:

Charlotte ó The Medal of Freedom might actually be a good idea…

Mar 18, 2005 - 8:02 pm 24. Buddy Larsen:

Y’all are right. What she is doing, there are safer pursuits. I knock wood as I say.

Mar 18, 2005 - 11:44 pm 25. Duke:

I’ve campaigning for her Pulitzer for at least four months and, like you, feel she’ll never get it. However, another really good reporter, Heather MacDonald,—just one of 20 links— deserves one too. She is alone in reporting the 18th Street gang on the West Coast and way ahead of the curve on MS-13. She actually walks into their meetings. Two women Susan Estrich never heard of. BTW, both of them went to that cradle of Communism, Yale. Both seem to be on the Right too. Once out of school everybody learns to think on their own.

Mar 19, 2005 - 7:32 am

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