Open Letter to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Warriors Owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber on Planned Arena

To San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and NBA Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber:

Your plans to build a modern arena on the San Francisco waterfront are exciting. Your facility will create jobs and add greatly to the entertainment and cultural opportunities in this wonderful city.

Since you've reportedly said that you need 120-200 events per year to make the facility economically viable, I strongly suggest you work early on to find a partner to bring ATP and WTA professional tennis to San Francisco. A Masters 1000 level event could attract over 400,000* ticket buyers and would find substantial sponsorship support from local companies that would value the demographics of this audience.

CBO Study: Federal Employees Paid More than Private

For years, liberals have criticized studies that claimed Federal workers were overpaid because the studies were produced by right-wing think tanks that are obviously not objective.

Yet Another Reason to Hate SUVs

Because SUV owners run over their children at alarming rates, all U.S. car owners will have to pay perhaps $200 to add a rear-view camera, or $2.7 billion a year for the industry, per a new law.

Ry Cooder Sings "The Mutt Romney Blues"

Shamus singin'' the low-down travelin' bluuuueees. Via Nonesuch records. 

Children Victimized by Bank Meltdown

Touching look at homeless children.

Correlation Between Reagan-ism Taking Our Government, Rising Inequality, Income Stagnation

Great graphic from Jeremy Nixon on G+ (click for his post). 

Why The American Economy is Messed Up

Henry Blodget (yes, that Blodget) just published a remarkable set of graphics on Business Insider that clearly demonstrates what has gone wrong with the American economy. 

I've seen versions of many before, some are new, but I've never seen all this data in one place before. 

Google's Chairman: "Current Strategy is Ludicrous .. Government Must Stimulate Demand"

From ABC's Christian Ammanpour via Klein WaPo:

How Too Big Banks Got That Way | Mother Jones

Government policies encouraged big bank consolidation, and now taxpayers are subsidizing the result. 

Did CIA Torture Leaders of Libyan Uprising?

Buried in a trove of covert documents unearthed in Libya by journalists and Human Rights Watch -- the C.I.A.and MI6 tried to capture current leaders and members of the Libyan uprising, including "Abdel Hakim Belhaj, who is now a military leader for the rebels" and turn them over to Gaddafi for torture and interrogation.

The intelligence agencies opposed some of the groups that the U.N. coalition is now helping to overthrow the dictator.