One night in January after a lot of dancing at a friend’s house party in Brooklyn, a male neighbor and I made our way back to our building less than a mile away. We’d both consumed alcoholic beverages but nothing unusual for twenty-somethings on a Saturday night. My roommate had a new love interest at home with him, so to give him some privacy I went back to the neighbor’s apartment to crash, which I’d done several times before. I felt safe going back there as I’d spent a lot of time with this neighbor in a Will & Grace, Glee-watching, Katy Perry-listening kind of way.

The movie of the life of US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is going to be great. I just hope it ends well.

Democrats and Democratic leaning independents are not enthusiastic about voting in the upcoming Presidential election according to Gallup polling. There is some very bad news for President Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party when it comes to the issue of base engagement in the upcoming election.

A couple stories today show regulators engaging in the absolutely shameful tactic of looking backward and not forward when it comes to the systemic fraud in the mortgage market, in the mistaken belief that crimes perpetrated in the past should be punished. I don’t know where they got this idea.

As we’ve seen with SB5, in Ohio citizens can gather signatures and put anything that the legislature passes and the Governor signs to a referendum, a kind of “citizens veto.” Until the measure gets a public vote, the law is suspended rather than being enacted. So SB 5 is not yet the law of the state, awaiting the outcome of the citizens veto.

Never mind Solyndra. That puffed up bit of White House political interference in agency determinations is small potatoes compared to what the U.S. State Department is doing to corrupt the environmental evaluation of the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

Let’s review the bill together! The legislation is an amalgam of two different efforts. A bill co-sponsored by Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) would give unions and industries greater ability to file claims against illegal Chinese trade practices on a case-by-case basis, and would allow the Commerce Department to factor in currency manipulation into any tariffs the US puts up as a result. This would increase duties against Chinese products, which are being effectively subsidized by currency manipulation. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that such a measure would collect $125 million in new tariff revenues, but the main impact would be to put political pressure on China to revalue its currency.

It seemed like S&P was never going to be held accountable for their actions. But after a months-long investigation, the SEC has declared that they may soon take action against S&P for their misleading mortgage ratings in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Reports indicate the SEC just issued a Wells Note indicating they were weighing ‘civil action’ against S&P — but that could amount amount to a pittance of a fine compared to the enormous profits reaped by S&P’s misdeeds.

The executive board of the New York City’s Local 100 Transit Workers’ Union has endorsed Occupy Wall Street. The decision means they will be holding a “coordinating meeting,” according to Lisa Sabater of The Daily Gotham, with community and labor organization to decide how to “come together and better support the Occupy Wall Street campaign.” This is very significant news. It gives the action further credibility and adds to the support New York postal workers and the PSC union of City University of New York have shown to the occupation.

As I noted the other day, Maxine Waters (D-CA) didn’t care for the President’s strange tirade at the Congressional Black Caucus’ award dinner — and as it turns out, neither did James Clyburn.