JT Allen

"Finally, at the same time that some Republicans decided to criticize the President for not reducing the deficit fast enough, they proposed new, un-financed tax cuts that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars."

Firefighters have it tough: WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- One child has died, a firefighter is in serious condition and a dozen people have been displaced after a house fire in Southeast DC. DCFD was called to 3113 Buena Vista Terrace SE for the report of a house fire at approximately 6:25 p.m. Friday, says DC Fire Assistant Chief Ken Crosswhite. Firefighters arrived to find fire coming from a two-story duplex, says Crosswhite. They rescued 5-year-old. He was taken to an area hospital in serious condition suffering from burns. 9NEWS NOW was then told he was in critical condition and shortly after, DC Police told 9NEWS NOW the child had died. One firefighter was burned while making the rescue. His condition is listed as serious.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Officials say a fire broke out at a building near the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, emitting a plume of black smoke and closing area streets. Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas says a building detached from the museum that contains the facility's cooling tower caught fire early Monday. She says it appears the fire started while a contractor was working in the mechanical building. No smoke entered the main building, where millions of artifacts and specimens are housed. The museum opened to visitors Monday shortly after its regular opening of 10 a.m. D.C. Deputy Fire Chief Ken Crosswhite says the fire did not pose a risk to the museum. No injuries were reported.

With a 57,792 km (about 36,000 miles) border, I wish Russia the best of luck guarding all that space. It's going to be tough I think.

I'm a nice guy. I don't make a lot of money (which is like saying the Sun is "hot.") One day two years ago, in the Christmas spirit, I gave 20 dollars to perhaps the Maryland Chiefs of Police for whatever reason. Now, every two weeks, like clockwork, I get solicitation calls asking me for money which I don't have. I guess I have been made an "Easy Mark" by the people who obviously sell these lists (or give them away) to anyone who asks. I don't want to be bothered at work by these people, most of whom are almost crying, asking me if I can "spare 300 dollars in order to salute a wounded soldier." No. I cannot. Not Now. Hopefully, later, but not now. How about calling the a-holes that sent these people to war and asking them for money? I promise whoever's reading this they make well over 10 times what I do, maybe more like 20 times.

Most likely Afghanistan but maybe Pakistan. Amazing we can't find a six-foot-four diabetic IMO. We have over 800,000 people working in the national security industry in America...

Yes Tupur, all government work is in the public domain - our tax dollars at work - so feel free to post!

DID YOU MEAN: "failed fail-safe blow out preventer"?

My personal thought is to cut the top of the pipe(s) off clean, use a machine to make threads on the outside of the pipe (easily done) and screw a like-threaded cap onto the newly machined threads as if it were a screw top on a coke or wine bottle. What is YOUR idea or a good idea that you've heard?? All comers welcome!

If DC stands for Dallas Cowboys than the position of WR, on every football team, stands for Washington Redskins ... are we really having this conversation? hahaha.

So the oil companies were making great technological strides since at least June of 2007 (and the mid-90's for Alaska's oil sands) and then Obama came along and ruined it all, is that what you're saying?

PartyAnimal: You should post these events on the DC Events Calendar, above, between the "Members" tab and the "Washington DC Blogs" tab! We post these events on Twitter now.

Human, I like the original article that started this thread. I remember in the 90's there was a lot of talk about the "oil sands of Alaska" in that there were hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in the sands of the beaches of Alaska, but extraction costs were the main culprit in the tale of the venture being not cost effective. So, my question is to what end have these companies delivered on their astronomical predictions of cheaply delivered ($30/bbl) U.S based oil reserves?

Why would there be a liability cap of 10 billion? Shouldn't the liability cap be, basically bankruptcy for the company found liable? Who pays after the cap? The taxpayers?

I see your point: the investment banks create their own ratings via paid-in-full credit rating agencies. NO ethics, NO fiduciary duty, but heaps and heaps of conflict of interest. How is none of this illegal?

What you folks are missing is that investment banks don't technically rate their own securities. Sure, they say "oh these are great investments" about the information black hole they create when selling garbage, but, (and this might be even worse) they PAY to have their garbage rated by Standard & Poors and Moodys. These ratings companies used to merely provide statistics on investment banks, then they provided "ratings" and then they started getting paid by the investment banks to provide the ratings, and therein lies you enormous-giganitic-cannot-be-overstated Conflict Of Interest. Have a nice day.

There was a circus on Capitol Hill Tuesday April 27, 2010. Many of Goldman's top executives came to face the wrath of a bi-partisan U.S. Congressional committee, specifically, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Senator Carl Levin. The executives at Goldman are very adept at wasting time, with seemingly relentless pleas of "I can't find the chart you're referencing," or, "I've never seen this or that, give me time to catch up." These guys are skilled at least two things: inherently difficult to understand financial instruments ("Synthetic CDO's")and really never answering any of the Subcommittee's questions directly, if at all. If Daniel Sparks (the former head of Goldman's mortgage department - he has since departed the firm) had been in a court of law the judge would have thrown the book at him with coma-inducing force. Sparks claimed to not know what a "stated-income loan" was. Really? That's roughly the equivalent of an auto mechanic claiming he doesn't know what a "headlight" is. it's that obvious. It is a loan based upon your stated income, rather than your verified income. Not a difficult concept to grasp. While we're on the subject of this stated income loan, let's take a little closer look at how this same concept would work in other areas. Say you wanted to start a business: wouldn't it be great to walk into a bank, ask for a 5 million dollar loan and when the bank says "what have you got for collateral" you reply "oh don't worry about it, I make 10 million dollars a year as a cashier at Wal-Mart" and they, in turn, reply "oh well that's no problem, let's just write you a bank-check so you can get out of here." That's what a stated income loan is. Pretty sweet deal, right? The only problem is many people (Goldman execs excluded of course) tend to stretch the truth a bit when it comes to "stated income." But I digress. The Goldman boys (Golden Boys?)are a wily bunch. Though cool as a cucumber, the 31 year old Fabrice Tourre (aka, in his own words, "The Fabulous Fab")wrote an email in which he described the financial instruments he helped create (and sell)as [sic] "pure intellectual masturbation," and "a ‘thing’ which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price" yet, alas, he too is innocent. Sure, the Chairman of the Committee, Carl Levin, threw out a rather salty word (literally, the acronym for "Ship High In Transit")which there appears to be quite a flap about, but in his defense he was merely quoting an internal Goldman email which describes securities they were selling as, precisely, said acronym. I watched the entire proceedings with morbid curiosity. Lloyd Blankfein, the President and CEO of Goldman Sachs, was last to testify. At first he struck me a arrogant and smarmy and I had a profound dislike for him. Then a funny thing happened: as the testimony progressed, I almost (almost) began to like him. This may be a harsh assessment, but he reminded me of a highway accident: you WANT to look away, but you CAN'T look away. Make no mistake: this man was a key player in the destruction of an almost inconceivable number of dreams, plans, futures, college funds, etc, etc. and was compensated to the tune of tens of millions of dollars for the privilege of wreaking havoc on huge numbers of innocent people (to be cont.)

Are all their products made in America? I'm still having a hard time finding American made products; any other help would be appreciated (John Q. Public I'm talkin' to you!!)

Does anyone have a link for that hand made glass ornament? Help!

That is the precise interpretation I have of the "government takeover" of the student loan program: that the government already guaranteed all student loans anyway, and the government was cutting out the middle-man. Is this incorrect? Anyone?

Why does every other civilized, industrialized, first world country have universal health care (aka "Socialized medicine") and are doing quite alright? Is the USA just such an overwhelmingly fantastic place that we can't learn anything from anyone? We're that superior? To Italy? To Sweden? To the Netherlands? Really?

Para pescadito: Dado que este es el primer post sobre este tema, tiene que ser más claro sobre lo que están hablando de ...

Contrary to the quote by Kelly McParland of the National Post, there are not "30 million Californians able to get their baggies filled on the corner" because medical marijuana is legal in California. She is confusing "legal medical marijuana" with "legal marijuana." There are not 30 million marijuana smokers in California any more than there are 550,000 marijuana smokers in DC. McParland's is a short-sighted, BS stance and for that matter, why not just leave it to the states' to decide it they want to legalize medical marijuana? So far it has worked out pretty well from all the reports I've read to date. In Breckenridge, CO, medical marijuana was legalized Jan. 1, 2010 and to make a long story short: NO prescription from an MD, NO marijuana from a dispensary, period, bottom-line, end of story (I witnessed it first-hand).

If anyone reading this thinks Mother Nature cannot take care of herself and is weak under the mighty power of human beings, ask the earthquake victims in Haiti if they feel Mother Nature is weak. Or the tsunami survivors' in Indonesia if they feel Mother Nature is weak. Look: there are tsunami's, earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, drought, landslides, avalanches, hurricanes, lighting, volcanoes, etc, etc, etc. Does anyone actually believe when Mother Nature and God decide they have had enough of us the Earth won't shake all the humans off her back [read: Kill] like a dog shakes off a bad case of fleas?? Really??

Who is Mr. Scotts' boss?? I think it extremely imprudent to deny Mr. Knight (although he is a kind, loving, decent man) is mentally retarded. Mr. Knight is, by definition, "Mildly Mentally Retarded" (aka "developmentally disabled") according to DSM IV (which is the benchmark in the USA). That's a fact. John Allen