Notes in the margin

CNN.com recently published the article, Want to work for Obama? Get ready to spill all. In a sidebar, they also posted a PDF of the questionnaire the transition team is sending to every Cabinet and “other high-ranking positions”.

The PDF is an optical scan of a printed questionnaire. Other than being posted on the CNN site there’s not much information about the source of the document. The PDF meta-data is clean (Created on Mac OS X via Acrobat 8.11), there’s the odd 2x file name extension (“.pdf.pdf”) but not much more.

The interesting bit is that in the margin to the left of quesiton (31) someone has written in what appears to be the name “Clinton”.

Question (31): Are there any categories of personal financial records (e.g., individual, partnership or sole proprietorship, tax returns, mortgage doucents, lona agreements) that you (or your spouse) will not release publicly if necessary? If so, please identify these records and state the reasons for withholding them.

[click on the image above to see the annotation]

BLDGBLOG: Minor Landscapes and the Geography of American Political Campaigns

“Press This”/Block Quotes are a kind of blogging cop out, but I’m busy with work stuffs right now. Laura K forwarded this to me last night, it is well worth the read.

I simply want to point out that political campaigning in the United States seems almost deliberately to take place in a landscape that no longer has genuine relevance to the majority of U.S. citizens.

The idea that “an old-fashioned soda shop” might give someone access to the mind of the United States seems so absurd as to be almost impossible to ridicule thoroughly.

BLDGBLOG: Minor Landscapes and the Geography of American Political Campaigns

4.0%

Four point ‘oh’ percent.

It’s getting hot in here

Democratic criticism, conservative Republican opposition, quotes I’d rather not be reading right now.

“I understand speed is important, but I’m far more interested in whether or not we get this right.” — Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

“I believe if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, that our credit rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon, GDP will contract, that the economy will just not be able to recover in a normal, healthy way.” — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

“Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t mean we have to pass this bill in seven days,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas

“I am emphatically against it.” –Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

“You worry about taxpayers being on the hook?” he replied at one point. “Guess what — they’re already on the hook.” — U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

“This massive bailout is not a solution. It is financial socialism and it’s un-American.” — Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.

Quotes are from: “Bernanke: Recession certain without bailout“, By Julie Davis and Jeannine Aversa, The Associated Press (denverpost.com)

3.2%

Three point two percent