Natalie's Audition at Sudbrook

My daughter, Natalie, is in 5th grade, and so will be going on to middle school next year.

She decided that she wanted to audition for a spot at the Sudbrook arts-magnet middle school. And today she auditioned.

I don't know what happened, parents are not allowed in the auditions.

Natalie has a lovely voice, though she needs training to project her voice, and she is studying violin.

Democracy for Baltimore Meeting Tonight, 7:30pm

7:00 for meet, greet, and eat.

We are hoping to have a representative of the Donna Edwards Campaign
in the MD-4 Congressional district.

At the Cosi Cafe, 9177 Reisterstown Road, Owings Mills, MD 21117

Directions: Located in the Valley Village Plaza Strip Mall, On
the Corner of Reisterstown and McDonough (to the west) and Craddock
(to the east) Roads, diagonally across from the McDonough Road
Proifessional Center.

Free Wireless Internet Available
Closing Time: 9:00 pm.


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Anne Applebaum is Stupid

Really, really, really stupid.

This time, she is claiming that capitalism created beautiful young Russian women.

I went to school with Russian emigres. I've seen what they look like. It was good.

There was no change in appearance. It's just that access to the west was restricted to the well off before the fall of the FSU, and the well off mean middle aged, at least.

Anne Applebaum knows Russia, and I don't. Anne Applebaum has been to Russia, and I haven't. But based on my reading of her work through the years, she does not "hang" with us ordinary plebes, she hangs with the movers and shakers.

Russian women, as the saying goes, "clean up good".

20 Years ago, that did not mean YSL or Chanel's "little black dress". I don't know what Russian fashion was, but it sucked by western standards, though according to my dad, it sucked a lot less in Leningrad than it did in Moscow, at least in 1973.

Of course, Ms. Applebaum is so intent on showing the virtues of the klepto-capitalism that is Russia, she reduces what a woman is to her market value for her appearance.

C-Block Bidding: We Have A Winner, Actually TWO Winners

And one is the American wireless user, because whoever won, and the FCC has not announced a winner yet, will pay $4,713,823,000, more than the $4,600,000,000 required by the FCC in order for open access rules to apply.

The FCC has not announced a winner, and the bidders themselves are technically still gagged, but my guess is that it was not Google. They were willing to bid to win, but they were more interested in getting the open access, and why spend $113,823,000 more than the minimum to get that.

Of course, considering my record on predictions.....

Gains of the Surge Turning Into Ashes

Iraq has gotten me quoting Elvis Costello, you know, "I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused".

The Iraqi insurgency is releasing a new movie, a surge of their own.

We are back on the down slope.

Clean Coal, Toxic Water

Note that I have just added the Washington Independent to my blogroll...It's a good source for news and commentary.

Check out this article on the toxic waste of "clean coal".

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s own research, coal ash dumping can lead to higher rates of cancer, developmental problems in children and adverse effects in women of child-bearing age. Despite the fact that coal ash contains mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium, beryllium, and other toxic metals, the EPA has yet to categorize coal ash as hazardous waste. In addition, coal ash has been found to be up to 100 times more radioactive than nuclear waste, due to the concentrations of uranium and thorium that increase 10-fold after coal is burned.

Trouble in the Russian Arms Export Business

It appears that there has been a near freeze in weapons sales to China.

According to the report, this is driven by an incoherence in Russian technology transfer policy, which has seen extensive development and production deals with India, and very little with China, which has honked off the Chinese military establishment.

Broder Calls Out George F. Will By Name

One of the rules of OP/ED bloviating is that if you disagree with another contributor to the editorial page, you never mention them directly.

Calling them out by name is unheard of.

Well, David S. Broder, the sultan of intellect free conventional inside-the-beltway thinking, just broke that rule, and calls out the bow-tied one.

Unelected conservative ideologues -- such as Rush Limbaugh and George F. Will-- can mutter in frustration, but Republican politicians recognize what was written here as long ago as last Dec. 2: "If the Republican Party really wanted to hold on to the White House in 2009 . . . it would grit its teeth, swallow its doubts and nominate a ticket of John McCain for president and Mike Huckabee for vice president -- and president-in-waiting."

Matthew Yglesias makes much of this, but I disagree.

This is not a sudden abrogation of the rules. Instead it is a conflict between two rules:

• The unwritten first rule of the op-ed page -- you do not talk about other writers on the op-ed page
• John McCain is a straight shooter, and a good guy, and we love him.

In critiquing John McCain, George Will simply joined the Ancient, Hermetic, and Occult Order of the Shrill, and you are supposed to call out the "shrill" ones by name.

If True, the Republican Nomination Is Done

TPM has a report that Romney has not bought any air time in the Feb 5 states, though there are some reports that they are starting to do so now.

If true, Romney has given up, and I don't think that Huckabee can take his place,

New Rule: Our Troops, No Midieval Clerics Get the Power to Judge People

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Hi crime, he "he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed", and "distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University."

He was not allowed a lawyer. He was not allowed to speak.

We've turned the most secular government in the Arab world into an ethnically cleansed theocracy, and because of the resources we pulled from Afghanistan to do that, Afghanistan is heading back towards becoming...well...Afghanistan.

Heck of a job, Bushie.

Economics Update

First-time jobless claims skyrocket to 375 thousand. Last week was 306 thousand, so it's about a 20% increase, and well over the consensus estimate of 320 thousand first time claims, though week to week data points are always noisy.

That being said, Consumer spending slowing in December, up only 0.2% from November is a lot less noisy, and at least as scary. First, 0.2% is a drop in real dollars, and second, this was December, the height of greed and excess season.

And in the "another day, another downgrade department", S&P is looking at downgrading about $500 billion more in mortgage related securities.

We are not near the bottom.

Tom Davis (R-VA) Out

His wife, a state senator, lost in 2006, and I guess he figures that it's a sign or something.

Buh by.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Jim Cramer Trashes "Laissez Fair"

Yes, this is the Cramer of "Mad Money", and yes, he is generally to the right of Atilla the Hun, he supported Alan Keyes in 2008, and at a speech at Bucknell University, he condemned laissez fair politics:

"Do not be fooled by the sirens of laissez faire," he told a packed audience at Bucknell University's Weis Center for the Performing Arts in the continuing national speakers series, "The Bucknell Forum: The Citizen & Politics in America."

"Ever since the (President) Reagan era, our nation has been regressing and repealing years and years worth of safety net and equal economic justice in the name of discrediting and dismantling the federal government's missions to help solve our nation's collective domestic woes," he said. "We call it deregulation … a covert attempt to eliminate the federal government's domestic responsibilities."

When Jim Cramer is forced to come to his senses, you know something is whack.

And Now Bush is Maintaining that He Can Ignore Congress on Spending

In the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008, Congress prohibited the use of federal funds to "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq." it also,

....requires intelligence agencies to turn over "any existing intelligence assessment, report, estimate or legal opinion" requested by the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees within 45 days. If the president wants to assert executive privilege to deny the request, the law says, White House counsel must do so in writing.

Finally, Bush's signing statement raised constitutional questions about a section of the bill that established an independent, bipartisan "Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan" to investigate allegations of waste, mismanagement, and excessive force by contractors.

Bush's response, "Nyah, nyah, nayh, I'm president", in a signing statement.

A prohibition on spending by the congress is legally binding on a president, even it makes his job "hard work".

This is why having impeachment on the table is a necessary thing:

NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
\

Confronting the State Secrets Privilege

The folks at FAS have an interesting post on the House Judiciary committee reviewing abuses of the state secrets privilige.

Basically, it's the wide latitude that courts give the executive to claim that something is too secret for them to be sued, you know, things like torture, kickbacks, and other forms of corruption.

Lots of meaty stuff there.

I wish [the enemy] would just blow mine up so I could be done with it.

The words of a soldier on the Stryker mobile gun system deployed to Iraq.

The reviews from the soldiers are in, and they hate it.

Your military industrial complex at work.

Problems in Florida Voting, Big Surprise

Simply put, government under conservatives does not work, as shown with the voting problems.

Even after what happened in 2000, it did not get fixed.

Screen Actors Guild Strike Update

The short version of this letter to the membership of the SAG is that the Directors Guild of America cut a deal that sucked.

This is not surprising, the DGA is a weak and stupid union, and they have gotten too small a cut, and allowed the producers to define their accounting too loosely.

Economics Update

The Fed cuts rates by 50 basis points.
The discount rate is now at or below the inflation rate, well below the inflation rate using real world inflation.

There are no longer any monetary tools to use that will work, it has to be fiscal (spending), because any lower, and the Fed is paying people to borrow money.

Still, it makes sense, as GDP growth in the 4th quarter was only at a .6% rate annual rate. When you consider the fact that inflation is (at least) 3%, this means that real GDP is falling at more than a 2% rate.

The dollar has fallen currently at $1.4761:€1.0000, and $1.0003:$1.0000 CDN, so the Canadian dollar is above unity again.

And the credit crunch is spreading all over the world, the Swiss bank UBS AG has reported its biggest loss ever, in US real-estate related issues.

We also have Morgan Stanley using some serious weasel words to not call its write downs a loss, when it, "reclassified $7 billion of funded assets and $279 million in unfunded assets from Level 2 to Level 3."

Of course, the fact that the FBI has dropped some subpoenas on their asses isn't good news eithr.

Lever 3 assets are ones in which buyers are not easy to find, and it's rapidly getting to the point where the buyers are getting harder to find than straight Republicans.

It looks like the bond insurers will be downgraded below AAA, which in addition to closing off a lot of their business, and making it harder to raise capital, will likely force investment banks towrite down $70 billion more.

Iraq Forever

Remember Bush's comments about troop cuts in Iraq?

He's "recondidering troop cuts".

To Bush and His Evil Minions^™, winning is staying in, whatever the consequences, because it makes them feel like they did not dodge the draft in the 1960s.

Four months after announcing troop reductions in Iraq, President Bush is now sending signals that the cuts may not continue past this summer, a development likely to infuriate Democrats and renew concerns among military planners about strains on the force.

Mr. Bush has made no decisions on troop reductions to follow those he announced last September. But White House officials said Mr. Bush had been taking the opportunity, as he did in Monday’s State of the Union address, to prepare Americans for the possibility that, when he leaves office a year from now, the military presence in Iraq will be just as large as it was a year ago, or even slightly larger.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Bush wanted to tamp down criticism that a large, sustained presence in Iraq would harm the overall health of the military — a view held not only by Democrats, but by some members of his own Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Fruits of Operation Iraqi Freedom: Afghanistan Risks Becoming Failed State

So says the study co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

We have no resources there, because we are tied down in Iraq.

Don Young (R-AK) Opens Legal Defense Fund

I'm pretty sure why Alaska now appears to be the most corrupt state in the nation, their petro-economy, and now their sole congressman, Don Young is opening a legal defense fund.

The whole state of Alaska has about the same population as the city of Baltimore, but they make Maryland look like Norway, both in absolute, and per capita, terms.

Senator Mitch "Private Handjob" McConnell Gets Wealthy Opponent

McConnell is getting a number of opponents, with Bruce Lunsford throwing his hat into the ring, this gets him, "Andrew Horne and another wealthy candidate, businessman Greg Fischer", all competing in the primary to face him in the general.

This is a campaign Democrats should make a priority, for the following reasons:

• Payback for what they did to Daschle, who my spell checker flogs as "Schlemiel".
• The campaign against Daschle in 2004 was unprecedented, the parties don't go after each other's leaders, and payback is deterrence.
• McConnell has been the most obstructive minority ever, and he has no respect for the Senate.
• Mcconnel is consistently polling below 50%, and that makes him vulnerable.

I have no clue who to support in the primary, but I'm not giving money to the DSCC so that they can waste money Landrieu in the ethnically cleansed Louisiana.

Whoever wins though, will go on my Act Blue page.

Crap. Edwards Leaving Race

Announcement at 1:00pm, according to the pickle.

No endorsement yet.

Damn.

Florida Primary Night Quote of the Day

The generally repulsive Joe Scarborough said that, "McCain's Platform Is 'Less Jobs And More Wars'."

Props to Joe. Is Lori still dead?

Depressing: Arlo Guthrie Endorses Racist Nutbag Ron Paul

Yep, Arlo Guthrie has endorsed Paul, a man who thinks the only thing that government should do is protect private property.

That sound you hear is Woody spinning in his grave.

Have I Mentioned Lately that Albert Wynn is a Complete Tool?

He's trying to claim that organizations that have endorsed Donna Edwards are somehow breaking the law.

"There seems to be a vast, dare I say, left-wing conspiracy designed to circumvent campaign finance laws," Wynn told reporters during a conference call. "Within this scheme, her supporters are coordinating efforts to exceed fundraising limits and engaging in illegal campaign activities."

Here's hoping that you are unemployed come January.

Two More Rats Abandoning a Sinking Ship

Two more Republican Congressmen are not standing for reelection, Kenny Hulshof of Missouri and Ron Lewis of Kentucky.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

The End of the Rudy Clown Show

If anyone out there knows of a source, or sources, of the metaphysical nutrient Schadenfreude sufficient to replace the Rudy clown show, please tell me.

He's dropping out and endorsing the sick, old man.

Are Telcos Trying to Sabotage Open Access Spectrum Auction

It appears that bidders on the C-Block spectrum are colluding to keep the bid price low enough to eliminate open access rules.

Though $8.66 billion has been raised in 12 rounds by the auction so far, it still has a long way to run before it loses steam -- more than 1000 separate bids were submitted in Tuesday’s closing round. The D block still has plenty of time to attract more bidders, particularly as the price of the C block and other regional licenses escalate. (For complete auction results see the FCC’s Auction 73 page)

Such escalation, though, appears to be exactly what the C-block participants are bent on preventing. The C-block bidders slowed down their pace Tuesday, taking turns bidding on the license every other round. That not only prevented the license from crossing the $4.6 billion reserve threshold, it also served to knock down the minimum bids required to take the lead in consecutive rounds. According to the FCC’s rules, the minimum bid falls each round a license fails to attract a new bidder. The strategy has definitely slowed down the momentum of C-block bidding, but even at the rate of one bid every other round, the license will clear the reserve ceiling in the next two days. To secure the top bid in Wednesday’s open Round 13, a participant will have to pony up $4.29 billion.

Also the Block D auction seems to be stalling, my guess is that this is a result of Cyrene Call corruption issues. This block is supposed to be shared with public safety agencies, with said agencies having complete control in an emergency, and to be open access.

House Passes 15 Day FISA Extension

Here.

Technically, it's the Orwellian named Protect America Act, but still, the 'Phants had this won, and got obnoxious.

Call your congresscritter. No Telco Immunity.

The Republican Anthem

Catchy toon. More vids at Spiffworld, the composer is Jonathan Coulton

Bush's Phoney War on Earmarks

When Republicans were in power, he never batted an eyelash at earmarks, which are something like ¾% of the budget, but now he's decided it's a good time to go to war against them.

Oh...me bad...He's thinking that NEXT fiscal year is a good time to start this "war on earmarks", so he's just "announcing" them at this SOTU speach.

Even the Republicans are calling weak:

But if he was seeking to placate the fiercest foes of earmarking, he failed. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) called Bush's plan "weak." Thomas A. Schatz, president of the conservative Citizens Against Government Waste, labeled it "fiscal snake oil."

Well, I guess it meats steroids.

Charlie Pierce Speaks

Charlie Pierce on Altercation:

As I was watching the debate the other night -- the Democratic one where Anderson Cooper came on afterwards and got to pretend to be Angelo Dundee -- I was struck by Senator Obama's resolute assertion that he was the candidate that can come to Washington and work with "independents and Republicans" to get things done. (One of his new ads has him sitting next to Dick Lugar, a Republican senator only slightly more relevant today than is Arthur Vandenberg.) I was struck even harder by it as I watched the Democratic Senate go supine, selling out poor Chris Dodd and the Constitution, and concocting retroactive alibis for the Telecom giants in a week where we finally got the empirical count of prewar Iraq lies. Here's my deal with His Barackosity. Take the list of Republican congresscritters, House and Senate. Make me a list of 10 of them with whom you think you can work to achieve anything close to the progressive goals you have said you want to achieve. Give me an honest run, and I guarantee you that you can't do it. You may get "something done" but it's not going to have anything to do with anything resembling the values of the party you seek to represent. This is a party that has to be forcibly disenthralled from its lunatic base.

Let's make it clear, Obama has a fairly unique background, and he's a bright guy, he was the head of the bleeding Harvard Law Review.

He has been dazzling people for years to convince them to get his way, and if someone does not hate you with a blinding white hot passion, it frequently works.

Republicans live on that level of hate.

They hated Bill and Hillary, etc. too.

Kentucky: Breathalyser Code Must Be Turned Over to Defense

This is a good decision. The idea that one is allowed to present a number from a black box which no one in the court can fully understand is ludicrous.

Excerpts from the Court of Appeals of Kentucky's opinion:
A subpoena may be quashed only upon a showing that compliance therewith would be unreasonable or oppressive. We do not believe the commonwealth and CMI have made this showing.

The request is not unreasonable because its purpose is to challenge the validity of the breath alcohol readings produced by the Intoxilyzer 5000 instrument, which is anticipated to be used at trial in support of the Commonwealth's DUI charge against House. The reading was also used to support the aggravating factor of driving with a breath alcohol reading of .18 or more.

Relevant evidence is admissible unless excluded by some other rule. Because a flaw in the computer source code of the Intoxilyzer 5000 would be consequential to the accuracy of the reading intended to be relied upon by the commonwealth, such evidence is relevant and admissible. Accordingly, requesting the computer code to test the verity of the readings produced by the instrument is not unreasonable.

Prison study to investigate link between junk food and violence

Nope, this is not a punchline. It's an actual study that they are conducting in the UK.

The university will lead the £1.4m study in which 1,000 males aged 16 to 21 from three young offenders' institutions in England and Scotland will be randomly allocated either the vitamin-and-mineral supplements or a placebo, and followed over 12 months.

In a pilot study of 231 prisoners by the same researchers, published in 2002, violent incidents while in custody were cut by a more than a third among those given the supplements. Overall, offences recorded by the prison authorities fell by a quarter.

It certainly would explain the relatively high crime in the US.

We have effectively been giving borderline nutrition to the poor, and it shows up in crime statistics, just like Nixon's removal of lead paint from the market correlates to the crime drop of the 1990s.

Economics Update

Economic schizophrenia, Consumer Confidence Falls, But Durable Orders Jump. Mr. Benanke is not sleeping well tonight.

Home ownership rate has biggest drop ever. A 1.1% drop in the percentage of occupied homes.

Everyone's favorite not-so-whiz kid, Jerome Kerviel, is claiming that his superiors at French Bank Societe Generale knew of his activities, but took no action because it pumped up its profit numbers.

The First Bank Failure of 2008, the Douglass National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri.

The FBI has initiated investigations of 14 firms regarding subprime irregularities. Kind of makes the FBI sound like Metamucil.

They did not identify the companies. But the probes reached across the industry to include developers, subprime lenders, companies that securitized loans and investment banks that held them, said Neil Power, head of the FBI's economic crimes unit.

Contrywide: $422 million Q4, and 1/3 of its sub-prime mortgages are delinquent. Well I got this prediction right.

McCain and Clinton Win Florida

Large margin for Clinton, about 4% for McCain.

McCain winning depresses me.

It's not about his ability to win the election, he's a sick old man who wants eternal war, it's that the Heathers known as the Washington press corps won.

Turkish Ultranationalists Arrested

One of the dirty secrets of Turkey has been that there have been paramilitary ultra-nationalist hit squads operating with the tacit approval of the Turkish state security apparatus.

Well, 13 have now been arrested by Turkish authorities. My guess is that the new religious leadership in Istanbul, such as Erdogan, see the ultra-nationalists as a personal threat (they are correct), and so they are cracking down.

What's with George W. Bush and Bald Guys????

President Bush, shown greeting Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) just before his State of the Union address, made eliminating lawmakers' pet projects, or earmarks, the center of the domestic agenda he laid out in the speech. The executive order cracking down on earmarks, however, would not go into force until fiscal 2009. (By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)

Does this explain Jeff Gannon?

Seriously. One of the questions of the Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert "man whore in the White House" thing is who was he doing.

Bush seems to have a thing for bald guys...Like Mr. Guckert.

The scuttlebutt (pun not intended) was that it was Rove, but maybe it was someone in a higher position.

And now I need this:



It's not a revulsion about gay sex. It's revulsion about Bush sex.

Taking Tips in Africa

Well, after many years, two studies have shown that circumcision reduces AIDS transmission by about 60%. There has been anecdotal data for years.

This answers a question I've always had, why is the US AIDS rate relatively low when the US public health infrastructure sucks, and you have Talibaptists everywhere campaigning against condoms?

The answer is dumb luck. Through historical accident, the US probably has the highest circumcision rate this side of Israel (Moslems do it too).

Unfortunately, studying wasn’t enough. It wasn’t until last March, when the National Institutes of Health stopped the African circumcision trials—it was no longer ethical to continue them, because circumcision was clearly beneficial—that the World Health Organization and other agencies did an about-face.

Top Gear, the Best Show Ever

Duration 7:36

In certain parts of America now, people have started to mate with vegetables.

Blast from the Past

Click image for full size.

The Most Banal Moment of Election 2008

Yes, the good Reverend Gastric Bypass (Huckabee), is criticizing Captain Goodhair (Romney) because he took the skin off his chicken at a KFC before eating it.

While I agree that the skin is the best part, this is silly.

1. You are arguing over how someone eats fried chicken.
2. It's not real fried chicken, its KFC.
3. Huckabee does not eat fried chicken himself to keep his weight down.
4. You are arguing over how someone eats fried chicken.
5. It's not real fried chicken, its KFC.

Dumbasses.

Bankrupt Your Company, Get a Better Paying Job Somewhere Else

The Times has a story that has got me thinking that all of Wall Street is one giant criminal conspiracy.

People keep falling up.

High (low) points cut and pasted from the article:

• UNDER the stewardship of Dow Kim and Thomas G. Maheras, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup built positions in subprime-related securities that led to $34 billion in write-downs last year. The debacle cost chief executives their jobs and brought two of the world’s premier financial institutions to their knees.
• Mr. Maheras, who left his job as co-president of Citigroup’s investment bank ... has had serious discussions with several investment banks, including Bear Stearns, about taking on a top management position, people who have been briefed on the situation said. And he has also been approached by investment firms willing to back him to the tune of $1 billion or more if he decides to start his own hedge fund, these people said.
• Mr. Kim, who until this spring was a co-president at Merrill Lynch with oversight of the firm’s trading and market operations, has been crisscrossing the globe in recent months raising money for his new hedge fund, Diamond Lake Capital.
• Zoe Cruz, the Morgan Stanley co-president who was forced to leave her job after $10.8 billion in subprime losses, has been approached by investment banks, hedge funds and private equity funds about a senior management role.
• John Meriwether. Ousted from Salomon Brothers in 1991 for his role in a bond trading scandal, he became a co-founder of Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that nearly collapsed in 1998, rattling markets worldwide. He has since founded a second fund, JWM Partners, with assets of around $3 billion.
• So he was fired for corruption, and then he went on to found LTCM, which the Federal Reserve had to structure a bail out for, and he's got another hedged fund?
  
• More recently, Brian Hunter, the energy trader at Amaranth Advisors whose disastrous bets led to the disintegration of that $9 billion hedge fund, is now advising a private equity fund called Peak Ridge on starting a hedge fund. Howard A. Rubin, a trader at Merrill Lynch, who lost $377 million in 1987, quickly landed a job at Bear Stearns, where he had a successful career.

I used to think that somehow or other, GW Bush's history of failing upwards was the exception. It's not. It's the rule. Our financial markets are irredeemably corrupt.

Fallout of US Attorney Firing Scandal

We have more politically motivated prosecutions, this time of pathologist Cyril Wecht, and that of attorney Geoff Fieger. (I've noted to the prosecutions in Mississippi ( here and here) and Don Siegelman before.)

In the case of Wecht:

Prosecutors plan to prove that Wecht used county resources in his private business, defrauded private clients with bogus travel invoices, and submitted falsified mileage receipts to surrounding counties. His attorneys say the charges are either false or amount to minor infractions, such as the improper use of fax machines.

The initial indictment charged 84 counts, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings recently dropped more than half of them to "streamline" the case for the jury. Wecht's attorneys called the gutted indictment signs of a rush to judgment and shoddy investigating.

In the two years since the indictment, Wecht's attorneys have attacked prosecutors for alleged political biases, although the judge won't allow them to argue political motives to the jury.

They have even accused the judge of bias. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request for a new judge while chiding Schwab for admitting 300,000 pages of documents into evidence over the objections of the defense.

So we have an intensely sloppy prosecution, over an amounts that are miniscule, they are including misuse of the office fax machine.

And the US Attorney is involved.

With Feiger, best known as Kevorkiann's lawyer, but also a major Democratic party contributor (shades of Mississippi), you have a number of irregularities:

• The U.S. Attorney two aids , were recused , and the Judge has had to compel the office to give the reasons to Feiger's lawyers.
• The size of the raid by the FBI is such that the Judge has directed the FBI to give examples of similarly sized raids.
  
• Prosecutors violated rules in not getting DoJ authorization of the investigation.
• Typically, the FEC handles such probes.
  

There will be decades of fallout of the corruption and politicization of the DoJ by Bush and His Evil Minions^™.

France and India Define Special Nuclear Relationship

Not much of a surprise.

Considering the American record on nuclear power, the terms over budget and behind schedule come to mind, the negotiations between France and India on nuclear power should come as no surprise.

They will get the job done right, and given the direct involvement of the French government, if the contractors screw up, they won't go running to the government to get their money, as a number of US plants built in India have (IIRC one tied to Enron).

So, Bush's agreement with India probably won't generate a whole bunch of business for US companies, and it makes us less safe too...lovely.

Spamford Wallace's Is Back, Like a Cockroach

While I do not ensorse such things as Assassination markets, Wallace's latest identity theft/spam escapade leads me to believe that I would have a hard time voting to convict on any Jury upon which I sat.

I'd say that this guy is like a cockroach, but I think that he is far hardier.

I don't think that Polonium 210 would take him out.

I Was Wrong on the Next Gen DVD Wars

El Reg is reporting that Woolworths stores to stop selling HD DVD.

Umm...there are still Woolworths out there?

Obama Fundraiser Tony Rezko Arrested

No clue as to what this means. The prosecutor got his bail revoked.

He's accused of, "conspiracy, influence peddling and demanding kickbacks from companies seeking Illinois state business".

Whether fair or not, we will hear a lot of him in the next few days.

Economics Update

New home sales plummet. New home sales were down 26% from 2006, the biggest drop ever, surpassing the 23% decline posted of 1980.

Regulators opposes oppose increasing the GSE's lending limit, with the director of OFHEO, James Lockhart saying, "We are very disappointed in the proposal to increase the conforming loan limit as we believe it is a mistake to do so in the absence of comprehensive GSE regulatory reform."

I agree, the solution to too many people hanging themselves is not more rope.

Adblock

CBS News reporter Steve Croft has an interesting report on the mess on 60 minutes (click to view, but there is a 30 second ad at the beginning). Too narrow in scope, the big sh$%pile is about more than subprime.

European hedge funds are suspending redemptions.

Why India (and China) Won't Catch Up With The West Soon

While this article on issues with India's procurement of a military helicopter purchase, it acutally shows a deep problem throughout Indian society that can be extrapolated to most of the emerging Asian economies. (Paid subscription required)

The illegal use of middlemen, impending 2009 elections and regional geopolitical issues are all likely to slow India’s weapons acquisition process just as the world’s industry is gaining unprecedented access to what is expected to be a $40-billion market.

India’s army is the most recent casualty. The government halted the acquisition of 197 Eurocopter AS550 C3 Fennec helicopters as replacements for 1970s-vintage Chetak and Cheetahs when allegations surfaced that middlemen had been used to seal the deal. Indian law prohibits their involvement in military procurements.

As corrupt and self-serving as the Western and Russian defense industries are, you don't find this as the rule. It's the exception.

In the West, they shave the rules, in much of the developing world, the rules are observed, at best, in the breach.

I think that this will present a barrier to further development at some point.

Newsweek's Bearish Economists

Newsweek has an article where, "Fifteen key economists, policymakers and strategists weigh in on a week of volatility and economic turmoil," including Nouriel Roubini who is my favorite bear economist. It's a good read.

Request for Information: Eglin Steel

It's a very high strength steel, wiki here.

I'm looking at a hobby application, so I need a bit more information, like suppliers I can get a quote from, mechanical properties when dead soft, and corrosion resistance.

Anyone have more info out there?

No, I didn't Watch the SOTU.

It makes me what you would call "metaphysically ill" to listen to him.

Seeing as how I'm feeling a bit queasy today, something has not sat right in my stomach, I don't want to start screaming at the TV.

Some Interesting Insights on How Obama Gets It Wrong

Read all 4 articles. Even if you are a big Obama supporter, they ware well worth reading.

First, as always is Paul Krugman, who teaches an important lesson, don't pick a useless fight with someone who buys ink by the truckload. He looks at Bill Clinton's election of 1992, and he finds the message of Barack Obama to be a classic example of people who neither know, or understand, their history.

He makes the point, an accurate one, that Clinton ran as an agent of change and an outsider from Washington, and notes that the partisanship of that era was the result of, an "all out assault from conservatives determined to use any means at hand to discredit a Democratic president".

He makes the point that the deliberate vagueness of Clinton in his 1992 campaign was a mistake, which, "left the business of producing an actual plan until after the election".

His warning is that, "Otherwise, even if a Democrat wins the general election, it will be 1992 all over again."

He's right.


Then, on Open Left, we have a number of very good critiques of Obama and his (mis)understanding of history.

First up, Paul Rosenberg explaining why the history is wrong.

In the wake of the disasterous Bush presidency there are two possible responses. One is that, just like the last time conservatives controlled the country--1920-1932--they are destroying the country. The second is that both sides are to blame. They're both fighting, instead of solving the problems we face. Obama represents the second response, and he is, quite simply, utterly, totally and dangerously wrong. Whatever his intentions may be, action based on this worldview cannot fundamentally reverse the damage that movement conservatism has done to our country. Because of the fierceness of movement conservative opposition, his worldview demands that we change things only modestly in the grand scheme of things.

Then we have Rosenberg (again, it's a 2-fer) explaining why it's wrong through rhetorical analysis. He takes a typical Obama quote, "....The believer condemns the non-believer as immoral, and the non-believer chides the believer as intolerant", and explains a very simple point: what if someone is actually intolerant? What if one side is simply wrong, and the other is right?

Some are lying. And some are telling the truth.

And when Obama condemns both equally, as equally destructive?

That's a lie, too. However rhetorically neat it may be.

He's arguing, effectively to my mind, that in embracing the idea that the problem is not the problem, but that the dispute is the problem, he is enabling those who would be the least moral and least tolerant and least honest amongst us.

Chris Bowers looks at Obama too, and it's not pretty:

Second, Obama puts forth one of his central arguments that change has not happened because we are bitterly divided:

[about 5:10 in] We are looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington. It's a status quo that extends beyond any particular party. And right now, that status quo is fighting back with everything it's got, with the same old tactics that divide and district us from solving the problems that people face, whether those problems are health care that folks cannot afford or mortgage they can not pay.(…)

[about 6:40 in] We are up against decades of bitter partisanship that cause politicians to demonize their opponents instead of coming together to make college affordable or energy cleaner.

The lack of affordable health care, the ongoing mortgage crisis, the lack of renewable energy, and the cost of college were caused by bitter partisanship? That just doesn't make any sense to me. The failure to pass progressive solutions on all of those areas of policy might be due to partisanship, but it is due to Republicans in the Senate and the White House staunchly opposing solutions to all of these problems. Unless one believes that Republicans oppose solutions on these issues simply out of spite and resentment from the vicious attacks we Democrats have sent their way, I have a difficult time seeing how partisanship that goes beyond one party is responsible for the lack of positive legislation on these issues.

Senate FISA Vote Update

Well, according to FDL, read the live blogging there, I cannot do justice to it, nothing is going to come out of the Senate. The 'Phants are still blocking it.

Of interest, however, is that both Arlen Specter (R-PA) and
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will be voting with the Democrats.

Specter, of course, makes noises, and toes the line, and Rockefeller has been the champion of retroactive telco immunity.

It's odd.

I do not know what is going on, but this is very, very odd.

FWIW, Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) voted with the Republicans to end debate and amendments on the bill.

FWIW, Landrieu is up next year in LA, but she will lose, as the ethnic cleansing of New Orleans has ensured that.

No money to the DSCC. Give directly to races, because otherwise, it will go to folks like Pryor, Lincoln, Nelson, and Landrieu.

It's wasted money.

I Need to Send Dick Cheney a Hard Hat

But first, I have to magnetize it.

U.S. Spy Satellite, Power Gone, May Hit Earth - New York Times

Just a second, the Secret Service is knocking at my door.

I'm Gonna Live Forever

Any my lovely wife will outlive me by millennia, if this study that says married couples that express anger outlive those that suppress anger.

I'm just sayin'.

Listening to Santorum

Mike Lux overheard him on a train ride, seriously hating on John McCain.

Best quote:

He was saying that there are people like Susan Collins who vote moderate sometimes, but at least she is a team player who always plays with the team and never plays against the conservative side even if she has to give the liberals a vote because she's from Maine.

Go read it.

And In the "Real America"

Daniel Dean Thompson, a man at the heart of the effort to strip out profanity from PG-143 and R rated DVDs, has been arrested for paying 14-year-olds for sexual favors.



Once again confirming that the blue nose brigades are driven by their own personal demons more than anything else.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Press Call Out "Straight Talker" McCain on Bald Faced Lie

McCain lies about Romney's position on the Iraq war^*, and Time's Michael Scherer calls him out on it.

I'm stunned.

What happened to the media's role as "fluffer" for John McCain?

Bush Threatens Veto on FISA Extension, Reid Calls Him "Shamefully Irresponsible"

Bush is ratcheting up the rhetoric on the "give the phone companies a blow job" version of the FISA update, and Harry Reid is pushing back.

Bush is threatening a veto of an extension of the so called "Protect America Act", because, even though it protects phone companies for current warrantless domestic spying, it does not indemnify them for prior spying, some of which began in February 2001, more than 7 months before 911.

Let's be clear. Indemnification is not about getting phone companies to cooperate. It is about helping phone companies conceal the details of this activity, so that Bush and His Evil Minions^™ will never face legal consequences of their law breaking.

Well, $%#@ that.

Faster, Better, Cheaper, So It's Opposed By the Military Industrial Complex

Noah Shachtman reports on a new concept in weapons systems procurement competition. and the pushback that it is getting from defense contractors and their pet politicians.

It's about the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), a missile system, designed to replace the Hellfire and Maverick missiles. (It's probably a family of missiles, as the 50 kg Hellfire has a 8-9 kg warhead, and the 200-300 kg Maverick has a 57-135 kg warhead).

They are going to select two different groups to compete the missile program, which is not surprising, but they will base the competition on actual physical prototypes, as opposed to paper proposals.

.... Last September, Young issued a policy that went beyond competitive bidding and resurrected an old idea: competitive proto-typing.

.......

But Young’s memo decried a pattern among “many troubled programs” that were pushed forward before they were ready, wasting time and billions of dollars. The problem, in part, was that defense officials often made decisions “based largely on paper proposals that provided inadequate knowledge of technical risk and a weak foundation for estimating develop- ment and procurement costs,” he wrote ..... hence, the decision to change the acquisition strategy for the JAGM program before it proceeded too far, too fast.

The defense contractors are apoplectic over this, which to my mind shows that it's a good idea.

Earlier verification through prototype may add a few bucks, and a few months, early in the process, but it will likely result in better, and cheaper, products.

Stocks Tanking in Asia

It really looks like that Fed rate cut helped a lot, huh?

Trading day is half over, and stocks are down over 2%.

Breaking: Clinton and Obama to Show Up to Oppose Cloture on FISA Update

Care of Firedoglake, they will both show up to vote against cloture on the "give the phone companies a blow job" version of the FISA update.

Good for them, or more accurately, their pollsters. Someone told them that this was more important than a fund raising meeting.

Telco immunity is about Bush and His Evil Minions^&trade covering up their illegal wiretapping activities that started before 9/11.

Good Analysis of Pushback (Bushback) Against Bush

I noticed that Americans United for Change will be spending $8.5 million on ads to keep Bush's approval numbers down for the rest of his term.

My first reaction was that this was a waste of money, public disapproval has never prevented Bush from doing the wrong thing. After all, he has a year left, and who cares.

Steve Benen, of the Carpetbagger, sets me right, and he makes the point that the Republicans have welded themselves to Bush for at least this election cycle, and they won't begin to extricate themselves from his toxic embrace until after tie 2008 elections.

It's true, the weaker Bush is, weaker 'Phants are, and there is this little bon mot of Mr. Benen.

And, one assumes, if John McCain gets the Republican nomination, this initiative, coupled with a ubiquitous picture of McCain hugging Bush, should help tilt the scales a little.

True.

I just wish that I hadn't been drinking when I read that. Steve Benen ows me a screen cleaner.

Edwards Calls for Action Against Telco Immunity

Edwards is calling on people to call their Senators to act against Telco immunity.

Clinton and Obama???

crickets.

I guess it's tough to do the job you have sworn to do in the Senate when you are busy campaigning for Prez.

What is going on With FISA

Firedog Lake asks What The F*!k Is Up With FISA?

Reid is now saying that if there is not an extension, than there will be nothing when the current misbegotten bill expires on February 1.

According to Think Progress, this is Reid's Statement:

The White House threat to veto a short extension of the Protect America Act is shamefully irresponsible. The President is simply posturing in advance of Monday’s State of the Union address.

When it comes to providing a strong long-term Foreign Intelligence Surveillance bill, Democrats in Congress are focused on solutions, while Republicans are obviously playing politics.

The House has already passed a FISA bill, and the Senate was ready to pass its own bill until Republicans blocked all amendments. At the same time, Democrats are ready to extend current law for as long as necessary, but Republicans are blocking that extension and the White House is threatening a veto.

It is shenanigans like this that make Americans so eager for change. We hope the American public will remember these Republican stunts when they go to the polling booth this November.

In any event, current law ensures that no ongoing collection activity will be cut off on February 1. There will be no terrorism intelligence collection gap. But if there is any problem, the blame will clearly and unequivocally fall where it belongs: on President Bush and his allies in Congress.

The 'Phants overreached. They were going to get everything that they wanted this, so they wanted this, and a pony...OK, it wasn't a pony, they wanted to be able to humiliate the Democrats too.

Paul Krugman Runs the Numbers On the Stimulus Package

The TOP 40% of the nation gets 58.1% of the money.



This is not bipartisanship. It is capitulation.

Noonan Says That Bush has Destroyed the GOP

Of course, she opens up with a slam against Bill Clinton, though she forgot to pimp her friendly dolphins.

That being said, there is one paragraph about Bush that I find amusing:

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Bush had inflicted damage on the GOP, but this has not been a failure of George W. Bush, but an artifact of his success.

He has been remarkably successful in producing results in the Republican agenda:

• Never ending war.
• Fear of those who appear different from us.
• The privatization of essential government services.
• A widespread belief that the government cannot work.

The problem, is that the Republican agenda has consequences:

• It has destroyed the US Army.
• It has destroyed the US Marines.
• It has destroyed our respect worldwide.
• It has destroyed our economy.
• etc.

George W. Bush did not destroy the Republican Party, no has he wounded our nation for years to come, movement conservatism has.

Bank's Solution for the Credit Crunch: F$%k the Small Depositor

Yep, they banks are looking at implementing new larger fees on holders of small accounts.

I guess that they need to stick it to the little guy because of all the money that they are losing on the high rollers that they gave exotic mortgage packages to.

Today, the average ATM fee is $1.78, while five years ago it cost a little more than a $1 to retrieve money from a bank with which you didn't have an account.

In some areas, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wachovia fees have hit $3 for non-customers.

Bankers and the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

On Whether Y. Pestis Caused the Black Death

I discussed this on the Usenet^* group Rec.Org.SCA about three years ago.

I was watching something on the Discovery Channel, and some people were making arguments that the Black Death could not have been Yerisnia Pestis, because some of its characteristics were simply completely at odds with what is observed in modern Bubonic Plague outbreaks.

Looking back at the archives, my assessment was that it was likely a variant of the Plague with a higher affinity for lung tissues (I mention the Marmot sub-variant as an example).

In any case, Tara C. Smith just did a 4 part blog series on Y. pestis as the black death, which thoroughly convinces me that Y. pestis was Black Death.

• Part 1: Objections to Y. pestis causation
• Part 2: Examination of the criticisms
• Part 3: Paleomicrobiology and the detection of Y. pestis in corpses
• Part 4: Plague in modern times.

It's a very good read.

^*Originally called UUCP, it was a system for bouncing public BBS type messages through the internet. You can still access it, and it works fairly well, but the signal to noise ratio degraded to the point of near uselessness when AOL gave it's (l)users access to the system during the Eternal September, with the inevitable tragedy of the commons.

More on Fascist Catholic Archbishop in St. Louis

Saint Louis University's basketball couch Rick Majerus tells fascist Archbishop to piss off regarding said cleric's suggestion that disciplinary action be taken against him because he showed up to a Hillary Clinton rally, and made pro-choice statements.

Ignoring the towering idiocy of demanding that a basketball coach towing anti-woman, anti sex line of Archbishop Raymond Burke, there is also the matter, rasied in my last post on this issue, that St. Louis University just won a court case regarding a tax financing for a new sports arena because they had demonstrated they were not, "controlled by a religious creed".

This is not the first time that this moron has damaged both the reputation and the institution of the Catholic Church:

Burke has spoken out before against Catholics or Catholic institutions that stray from church doctrine. During the 2004 election, he said he would not administer Holy Communion to presidential candidate John Kerry, a Catholic, because he supported abortion rights.

Last year, Burke dropped his seat on the board of a charity that let singer Sheryl Crow perform at a benefit concert. Crow supports abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research.

On Tuesday, Burke said he would ask Saint Louis University officials to take "appropriate action" against Majerus after the coach gave a TV interview at the Clinton rally during which he said he was Catholic and pro-choice.

In 1942, the Bishop of Father Coughlin to STFU. Perhaps it might be advisable for someone in Burke's chain of command to do the same.

Michelle Malkin, Are Her Children in Danger?

She has two children, and we've already had instances of what can only be called deranged behavior, such as her stalking of the Graeme Frost family.

Well, now she is saying that she is claiming that John McCain is an agent of George Soros. (H/T Whisky Fire for the catch)

I read Whiskey Fire, and I was amused, and then I read her article, and I was frightened.

Not of George Soros, as was her intent, and not of her wit or intellect, which honestly does not impress me.

I was frightened that in a few years, she would snap, and we would see another one of those stories where the police break down the door, and find that she has drowned her children in the bathtub.

It's probably not fair, after all, my writing is not indicative of sanity, but I just get this sense that we're going to read this story in the paper.

Anyone know of a way to help?

I'm sorry, but going to CPS based on my gut, no matter how ample, is just wrong, particularly considering how often my predictions are wrong.

But it's like watching a slow motion train wreck.

Final SC Results

98% Reporting: Obama 55%, Clinton 27%, Edwards 18%

Of note is the fact that Democrats out polled Republicans 521,078 to 442,918, in one of the more Republican states in the nation.

Foot Tapping Republican Opposition to Bush's ATF Pick

Yes, everyone's favorite foot tapping senator Larry Craig, and as well as Senator Crap Crapo oppose him because he enforces the law.

They have both put "holds" on his nomination, because as acting head of the ATF, "The ATF stripped the license of Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls, Idaho, in March after an audit found numerous record-keeping violations over a five-year period," though this license is still in effect pending litigation.

Senate Democrats Mull Adding Retirees to Rebate Plan, Extending Jobless Benefits

Senate Democrats are looking about, "giving retirees tax rebates, extending unemployment benefits, boosting heating subsidies for the poor and temporarily increasing food stamp payments."

This is great politics!!!, and here's why:

• Republican or Democrat, the Senate is smarting at having not been involved in the negociations, and there is a bipartisan consensus, in fact a near unanimous consensus that the Senate's prerogatives should be respected in that body.
• Getting more money to retirees is a politically powerful thing, because senior citizens vote.
• There is widespread political support for extending unemployment benefits in the real (i.e. outside of DC) world.
• Increasing food stamp payments will be seen as being good for American farmers, who figure prominently in a number of red states.
• Heating subsidies for the poor is also very popular nationwide.

On a policy level, if they were to strike the business tax credits, which will take months to have any effect, and are very inefficient, that would be a good thing.

Fatah Refuses Egyptian Offer of Talks with Hamas

Notwithstanding the Israeli disengagement there, I think that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recognizes how inconsequential and how screwed up Gaza is, and so he is snubbing the Egyptian offer of mediating talks with Hamas because he does not want the region.

That makes three governmental entities that have said they don't want anything to do with it now.

Ignoring Israeli-Palestinian issues, Gaza has nothing going for it as a geographical entity.

Let's see what you have by way of pluses and minuses with Gaza:

Minuses:

• Overpopulated.
• No economy to speak of.
• This is independent of the blockade. There is simply thing there in the way of meaningful economic development.
• Not enough drinkable water, the water in Gaza is increasingly saline, and now well beyond UN health standards, as a result of over subscription of the aquifer, and subsequent infiltration from the Med.
• BTW, this has their only industry, agriculture, living on borrowed time.
• Medieval social structure, even by the standards of Arab society, with clan loyalties trumping everything else.
  

Pluses:

• Ummmm.....Maybe a decent soccer team?

Lame Even By Republican Standards

One of Freddie Thompson's former campaign staff is calling for a, "boycott of all shows and products affiliated with martial arts thespian Chuck Norris because of his endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee."

The lamitude^* of this snollygoster^†, "Darrel Ng, a former traveling press secretary for Thompson" just boggles the mind.

^*I know that lamitude is not not a real word.
^†But "snollygoster" is a real word.

Obama Projjected Winner in SC

Looks like he did fairly well too, around 52% to around 33% for Clinton, and around 15% for Edwards from the CNN page right now.

Better Now Than in The General Obama-Rezko Edition

More Obama-Rezko stuff; this time it's the fact that the Obama campaign has not returned all the Rezko related donations.

Truth be told, I don't find this particularly meaningful from a policy or corruption position, but I do see it as significant from from a political perspective.

As I've said before, one of my concerns about Obama (ignoring the whole gay baiting McClurkin thing) is that he has never been in a serious campaign against a Republican.

He has always run in a dead girl/live boy* safe Democratic district, except for his Senate campaign, which was against Alan Keys, who is so obviously seriously mentally ill that it counts as the same thing.

What he is getting now is less than one one thousandth of what the Republicans would throw at him in the general election, and the his response, and that of his campaign, has generally been pretty good.

Besides, getting this cleared up in the primary, is better than waiting for the general.

^*Edwin Edwards, when discovering that he would be facing David Duke in the Louisiana governor's race, said that the the only way that he would lose were if he were, "caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy".

$750 Million for Hypersonic Demonstrator

DARPA is getting$750 million for its "Blackswift" hypersonic demonstrator.

It's performance is fairly mild as hypersonics go, about Mach 6-7, but it will take off and land under its own power, and use conventional hydrocarbon, as opposed to cryogenic fuels, so the utility of such a craft is significantly more than a lot of the other demonstrators.

It won't need fuel tanks that are basically Dewar flasks, and it's tanks should be much smaller, since hydrogen is much less dense than conventional jet fuel.

It integrates a turbine for low speed propulsion, using an, "inward turning inlet"





As you can see, this concept looks a bit less "tubby" than hydrogen powered systems/

The John Edwards "Grown Up" Ad

I think that this is an effective ad.

When Not To Hyphenate Your Name

This is an open thread, and I'll see both of you Saturday night.

When not to hyphenate (H/t to Old Pinko):

Edwards Runs Ads Claiming to be from the "Adult Wing of the Democratic Party"

I am amused.

When all is said and done, this may hurt Clinton, but this will kill Obama.

Clinton is running on the ticket that, "She may be a scary bitch, but she's our scary bitch", while Obama is running against his own message.

In any case, I have not seen the ad, so if someone finds it on Youtube, put it in the comments.

Economics Update

Profits are still tanking, we now have Commerce Bank and Harley Davidson way down, and I see Harley as a real bellwether of a recession.

When middle aged guys don't feel secure enough to buy their toys, it's game over.

And we have another insurance downgrade, this time Security Capital is downgraded by Fitch.

And we have Nobel winning economist Joseph Stiglitz warning that we may sliding into a 1930s type 'liquidity trap'.

Reports of Corruption in FCC D Block Auction

Once again, I would direct you to Harold Feld's "Tales of the Sausage Factory", here, and here, with a backup from Morningstar and News.com.

The short story is as follows, a company was formed, Frontline, to bid on the portions D block auction.

Frontline actively lobbied for the partnership with public safety agencies, and based its entire business model on such a network.

The idea was that whoever built the network would then sell access at a discounted basis to the public safety community. Any spare capacity would then be sold to the commercial wireless industry.

Frontline was expected to bid for 10 megahertz of spectrum, which would give the winner a national license with which they could build a next-generation wireless broadband cellphone and communications network.

...

O'Brien also told Frontline that in addition to negotiating for public safety agencies, Cyren Call intended to become the "monopoly buyer" of broadband service on the network once it was complete.

Under this arrangement, Frontline would be obliged to negotiate with Cyren Call when discussing terms of how the network would be built, and then be forced to sell the bulk of the access to Cyren Call once it was up and running.

OK, this seems straightforward, if a bit involved, but the FCC added something else, "In order to ensure the winner of the D-block license cooperates with the public safety community, the FCC rules say if it is deemed the licensee wasn't negotiating in "good faith" it could be forced to forfeit more than $100 million and lose all rights to the spectrum it had acquired."

But the FCC gave no direction as to what it meant. So it was completely vague.

It gets worse, Cyren Call, an organization set up by Morgan O'Brien (the Billionaire who founded Nextel) was negociating "on behalf of the public safety community", but it is clear that his end goal was that he be the one of control of this spectrum, and so he was throwing around outrageous demands, such as a $500 million dollar fee.

He deliberately scared off Frontline's investors so that he could be in control, despite the fact that he was representing the public safety providers and had a fiduciary responsibility to them.

One of the Joys of the Internet: Finding People Smarter Than Me

I don't know his name, but the person known as "the Scanner" is one of them.

He has an ingenious proposal for dealing with the issue of bailing out financial institutions that are drowning in the "Big Sh%$pile".

Here’s my proposal. I offer it at no charge to any member of Congress, presidential candidate or editorial writer willing to bear the calvary of getting the stink-eye next time at Harry Cipriani. If it becomes necessary to bail out the monoliners to prevent a depression, there will be terms. For once, the highly-paid beneficiaries of a taxpayer-financed bailout will not get off scot-free.

Congress shall specify that no bailout will take place unless and until (a) every bailed out monoliner and (b) every financial institution holding a bailed-out policy certifies that its employees have voluntarily agreed to accept a 25% federal income tax surcharge on every dollar earned above $200,000 for a period of 5 years. A young hotshot earning $300,000 would see $25,000 added to his tax bill. An elder pulling down $1 million would owe an extra $200,000. Since some of the biggest Wall Street multinationals are policyholders, and since this would apply to every one of their employees over $200,000, we could be talking about a lot of people and a lot of money. It could even go some way towards making the bailout pay for itself.

Politically, it’s a winner. Fiscally, it’s sound. It’s extraordinarily well-targeted to precisely the assholes who got us into this mess in the first place. John Edwards: Have your staff contact me through the comments box.

My only difference would be that I would go for a higher surcharge, perhaps something like 50%.

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) to Retire

Another Republican has decided not to stand for reelection.

There have been 22 retirees so far.

Part of it is an increasingly difficult political environment, but it's also that being in the minority is much less fun, particularly if you have been in the majority.

Egypt begins closing Gaza border, five killed in airstrikes - 3rd Update : Middle East World

Now that the Israelis are saying, fine, "you broke the border, you own it", to Egypt, it appears that Egypt has started cracking down on the border.

Gaza has no real economy, not enough water, no resources, and a bunch of very pissed off residents, so it's no surprise that it's becoming a hot potato.

Senate Looking at Well Endowed Schools

Get your mind out of the gutter, this is about the Senate is looking at tuitions exploding as university endowments skyrocket.

It's a legitimate question. The US government spends billions sending students to increasingly expensive colleges and universities, but these same not for profit institutions are amassing increasingly large endowments as they hike costs for the students.

As Richard Vedder noted, there is a whole lot of excess going on in higher education.

The example that he gives is Whitman College at Princeton, a residence hall that, "cost $388,571 per room unit, nearly identical to what Donald Trump spent on his luxury resort Ocean Club Panama."

The explosion in college costs started during the Vietnam War, where the alternative to college was combat, and it has continued unabated for the next 40 years, helped along by collusion among the top schools in tuition and financial aid.

Simply expanding student loan and grand programs make this worse. Regulation is needed to ensure that the managers educational institutions don't take the money and build monuments to their own egos.

Constitutional Issue for Bush and His Evil Minions™ "Iraq Forever" Plan

Bush's intent to make permanent and binding security arrangements with Iraq without congressional approval do appear to be unprecedented.

There were formal treaties for Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and NATO, and when Reagan entered into security arrangements with Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, this was submitted to the congress for approval.

You know it's out there when Dana Freaking Rohrabacher is saying that this is "arrogant".

Tape Probe Update: One Hacked Off Judge

Judge Richard W. Roberts of the DC court has given the Justice Department 3 weeks to explain how the tape destruction in November 2005 did not violate his July 2005 order not to do so.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Financial Times Columnist Calls for Regulation of Bankers' Pay

Martin Wolf, a columnist and editor for the Financial Times, is calling for regulations regarding the remuneration of banking executives.

Basically, he sees the current pay structures of banking, with enormous bonuses for short term results, as being a major factor in the current banking/credit crisis.

Further, he sees banking as an industry with an amazing talent for, "privatising gains and socialising losses."

He says, "My attitude to the banking industry is not a prejudice. It is a 'postjudice'.", or to be translated into more prosaic language, he learns from the mistakes he observes, and prior behavior colors his attitude towards the industry.

It is the nature of limited liability businesses to create conflicts of interest – between management and shareholders, between management and other employees, between the business and customers and between the business and regulators. Yet the conflicts of interest created by large financial institutions are far harder to manage than in any other industry.

That is so for three fundamental reasons: first, these are virtually the only businesses able to devastate entire economies; second, in no other industry is uncertainty so pervasive; and, finally, in no other industry is it as hard for outsiders to judge the quality of decision-making, at least in the short run. This industry is, in consequence, exceptional in the extent of both regulation and subsidisation. Yet this combination can hardly be deemed a success. The present crisis in the world’s most sophisticated financial system demonstrates that.

Basically, he is saying that these institutions are immature and short sighted in outlook, but they possess the ability to destroy the output of the most of the rest of society, and so they need aggressive regulation.

Word up.

NYT Endorses Clinton and McCain

I've just finished reading the New York Times endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

They basically buy into the "experience" meme, and I think that they also don't see any "there" there for Obama.

Their reasons for not endorsing Edwards, are pretty mainstream, basically the alibis rich and comfortable people use because so they don't care about his issues.

I would disagree with them on "changing the tone of the campaign".

Honestly, since Obama has taken a more combative turn, I have been more impressed with him as a candidate, if just because it shows some facility for dealing with the Republican Slime Machine.

If you want a good read though, I would suggest that you read the Times endorsement of McCain.

It's not that they say such lofty things about McCain, but rather the degree to which they go after the Rudolph Giuliani clown show:

Why, as a New York-based paper, are we not backing Rudolph Giuliani? Why not choose the man we endorsed for re-election in 1997 after a first term in which he showed that a dirty, dangerous, supposedly ungovernable city could become clean, safe and orderly? What about the man who stood fast on Sept. 11, when others, including President Bush, went AWOL?

That man is not running for president.

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.

Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.

Meow!!!!

Remember That "Russian" Cyber Attack on Estonia? Not So Much

This might refresh your memory.

It turns out that the Russians did not do it. It was an Estonian script kiddie, see here, and here.

My Letters to My Senators on Telco Immunity

I had to send two very different letters, because Ben Cardin voted against retroactive Telco immunity, and Barbara Mikulski voted for it.

To the Honorable Barbara Mikulski:

I have no idea why you were one of the 12 Democratic Senators to vote for Telecommunications Company immunity in the recent vote on the FISA update.

However, I will tell you as a lifelong Democrat, I can find no reason for you to do so.

Given the electoral dynamics of Maryland, you are at no risk, and in any case, you are not up for election this year.

The activity that you voted to indemnify PRE-DATED THE 911 ATTACKS, and the demands of the Bush administration, and were CLEARLY illegal.

Indemnification is an attempt to cover up the clearly illegal actions of the Bush administration and the NSA to illegally spy on Americans.

Absent a convincing justification for this vote, I cannot support you, or vote for you in the future.

This is not an issue of national security. FISA as it exists already includes the necessary mechanisms to make our country secure, notwithstanding DNI Michael McConnell's lies on this matter.

This is not a matter for politics, or for listening to lobbyists employed by the telecommunications industry.

These actions were clearly illegal, which is why Qwest refused this access, and given the intensity of the desire of the Bush administration on this issue, I can only conclude that the purpose of this immunity is to cover up systematic surveillance of political opponents.

To the Honorable Benjamin Cardin:

I appreciate your vote on to remove telecommunications immunity from the FISA update.

This is a matter beyond politics, and it strikes at core of our constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches.

Much of the illegal activity in question was taken months before the attacks on 9-11, and it was unequivocally illegal.

The desire for immunity on the part of the Bush administration is clearly driven by a desire to cover up their role in illegally spying on American citizens, which very likely involved spying political opponents.

Personally, I would consider any vote to create retroactive immunity to be unacceptable, and dangerous to our republic.

You can find a list of the Democratic Senators who betrayed their oaths of office here.

Bush: "Osama Who???"

In an interview with (who else) Fox News, Bush is saying that it's no big deal that Osama bin Laden is still breathing free air.

Interesting comment from George W. "Dead or Alive" Bush, don't you think?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot????

Just when I think that I've become so jaded and cynical that Bush and His Evil Minions^™ are incapable of horrifying me, they prove me wrong.

Paul Wolfowitz has been named by the State Department to sit on an arms control panel.

I guess because that whole WMD in Iraq thing worked out so well.

Serioualy Neat SH%$: Air Force Declassifies Constant Peg

Constant Peg, where the USAF evaluated Warsaw Pact aircraft, largely from defections, during the Cold War, has been declassified.

I had no idea that it was still classified, as I recall reading about the program in the context of the death of a USAF Brigadier General around 1984, but it means that this information is now available to the public.

F-16IN to Get Supercruise

I have no clue as to the reliability of the source, but we have a report that Lockheed Martin will be offering the F-16 with a supercruise capability to India for it's massive mid size fighter purchase.

I would assume that this would involve a growth version of either the F-100 or F-110 engines, probably the former, as it is lighter, and possibly some aerodynamic tweaks.

I also know that a clean F-15 exhibited low supercruise (below Mach 1.2) nearly a decade ago in a clean (no external stores) configuration.

I'm a little dubious of the report, there are a number of errors in the article, it states that the F-35 supercruises, and implies that the Typhoon does not.

Additionally, the F-16's wing configuration tends to be draggy in the transonic and supersonic regime, and for meanigful supercruise, this ability would have to be exhibited while carrying at least 4 air-to-air missles, 2 on the wing tips, and two under the wings.

I'm Confused on the FISA Progress

First, Harriy Reid attempts to exhibit some intestinal fortitude, and demands real filibusters, and then 12 Democrats (Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Tom Carper (D-DE), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Ken Salazar (D-CO)) voted with the Republicans to keep Telco immunity.

I have to figure that this is Reid playing both ends against the middle. He says, "Real Filibuster", and defuses efforts to remove him as leader, but then twists arms to get Dem Senators to vote to support bush's position.

It still appears, however, that George W. Bush won't get what he wants from the house easily, so he hasreleased White House wiretap docs to the house.

NOTE: When reading this article, there is a significant factual error, "The companies were helping the administration carry out the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program, a still classified effort that intercepted communications on U.S. soil without oversight from the FISA court from Sept. 11, 2001 to January 17, 2007."

This is not true.

This program was initiated in February, 2001, predating the attacks by 7 months.

Kucinich Drops Out

I don't think that it was lack of money that led Kucinich to drop out of the Presidential race, he continued "running" all the way to the convention in 2004, and he's never had any money.

I think it's the fact that he has some credible primary challengers, and that his constituents don't like being grist for the late night talk shows.

Scientology Vs. The Internet: All Your Bases Are Belong To Us

Well, it appears that a group of anonymous internet vigilantes, calling themselves "Anonymous" (not a whole bunch of imagination there), have decided, since the attempted suppression of Tom Cruise's "crazy as a bed bug" Scientology tape, have decided to go after the organization, see here, here, and here.

It appears that the people involved call this "Chanology".

While I understand how these folks feel, someone, and I don't mean a member of Scientology, is going to end up dead.

I used to follow Alt.Religion.Scientolgy on Usenet, and I will simply note that this organization browbeat the Internal Revenue Service into submission.

Here is the "official" "Anonymous" video.



OK, it wasn't their official video, that is here, at least until Youtube is forced to kill it:

Bush to Renominate War Criminal to DoJ Position

Stephen J. Bradbury wrote the memoranda that authorized torture, and so the Senate has refused to confirm, but George W. Bush, in a fit of pique I guess, has decided that there are not enough war criminals in the Department of Justice, so he's sending him back again.

If there is a level of lawlessnesses that demands impeachment, it was reached some time ago, and by not addressing this with an investigation, the Congress is ignoring their constitutional responsibility.


NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
\

Israel Moving Toward Full Disengagement From Gaza

"Total disengagement" means no electricity, no fuel, no nothing, no kidding.

In response to the southern wall (or is it a fence...whatever) between Egypt and Gaza, Israel is no longer in control of all of Gaza's access point, and so there are elements in the Israeli government arguing that:

Matan Vilnai, deputy minister of Defence, speaking on an army radio station said that: "We have to understand that when Gaza is open on the other side it is no longer our responsibility, consequently we want to separate ourselves from it". Vilnai added that, following the withdrawal of Hebrew colonists in 2005, "we want to continue our disengagement from Gaza and stop delivering electricity, water and medicines so that they can be supplied by someone else: we will act responsibly until an alternative comes up"

(See here, here, here, here, and here)

In response to these suggestions, Egypt is moving to regain control of the boarder.

It would appear that no one wants responsibility for Gaza. I think that this concept is less appetizing than Plutonium toothpaste.

ECB Eschews Rate Cut

The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided not to cut interest rates, but instead fucus on minimizing Euro zone inflation (here and here)

Given the different financial situations in Europe and the US, the Euro Zone is not having a housing collapse, this is not surprising. Additionally, the ECB does not have a portfolio is just controlling inflation, unemployment is not a part of its mission.

This does, however, limit the Fed, as it places yet more downward pressure on the US Dollar.

Deal Reached on Tax Rebates for Stimulus - washingtonpost.com

Deal Reached on Tax Rebates for Stimulus - washingtonpost.com

High points:

• 1200 Per couple for the middle class


• $300 credit for children.


• Limits of $75K/150K for single/family

Low Points:

• No unemployment or food stamp spending, the BEST way to stimulate the economy.
• Only $300 for the working poor.
• Completely bogus tax giveaways to businesses that will take months if not years to show effect, and generate less economic activity
  
• An increase from $417,000 to as much as $700,000 for "jumbo" mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Like we need to involve the government in bad mortgages for rich people. It's a bailout of the rich, and it's bad policy.

If the Democrats had any guts, they would have held out for better, but I guess that guts is just ,"not on the table".

I won't do the Pelosi pic again.

It Looks Like Musharraf is Toast

I think that he is done, and that his options will be death or exile.he's losing retired military officers, the new Pakistani Chief of Staff, General Ashfaq Kiyani, is forbidding active duty military men from meeting with him, etc.

Of course, through all this, Bush and His Evil Minions^™ are without a clue:

Frustration is growing among Musharraf's military and political allies partly because he is not listening to their advice, U.S. and Pakistani analysts said. "He's locked in his own bubble that 'l'etat, c'est moi' -- the state is me. He doesn't understand how anti-democratic he is. He's not thinking clearly anymore," said the senior congressional official.

The Bush administration is still backing Musharraf, even as officials speak more frequently of working with "the Pakistani people," instead of "the Pakistani leader." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday met Musharraf on the outskirts of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in the highest-level contact since he declared emergency rule in November.

Rice pressed him to ensure that the vote is free and fair and that the Pakistani people have confidence in the results, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Such remarks suggest that the administration is discounting the new assessments on Musharraf from intelligence and congressional officials.

This is unlikely to end well.

Missouri Republicans Left At Loss By Blunt's Withdrawal From Race

I'm amused, and Republicans are scrambling for a replacement.

This is important, because whoever succeeds Blunt will to a large degree control the redistricting following the 2010 census.

Economics Update

It appears that the the markets are expecting another 75 basis point rate cut by the Fed at their regular meeting next week. The futures market on the Fed rate cut puts the chance at 81%.

I have no clue what sh$# they are smoking, but I wants some. It's gotta be some seriously good stuff.

Could someone please explain to me how this is not making book over the telephone and internet, and hence illegal?

Then we have George Soros warning that he is seeing a possibility of "systemic failure" in the markets. He expects that at the end of the US Dollar as the sole world reserve currency, which has been obvious for years, and that the era of "superleverage" is over, and that, ""I question how far the Fed can go, given the reluctance of people to hold dollars", and, "We need a new sheriff, not Washington consensus."

Basically, he's saying that we are in 1930, and we need the restoration of FDR market regulations. I agree, but, of course, I didn't break the Bank of England because I understood world currency markets better than the English Ministry of the Exchequer, and he has, so his opinion carries more weight.

In real estate, we have Credit Suisse predicting losses of $16 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and we have a year over year price drop of 6% in the US, and that median sale prices in 2007 was 1.3% lower than 2006, the first yearly drop ever.

And in employment and automotive, Ford is reported to be offering buyouts to all of its 54,000 hourly employees.

Every salesman, every buyer, every secretary, every engineer, etc.

Another Republican Retires from a Competitive District

Jim Walsh (R-NY 25) will not stand for reelection.

He's had some close races, and as a relatively moderate Republican, he's a typical New York Republican, as opposed to a Long Island Neanderthal, he probably realizes that the current Republican leadership does not listen to him.

His district went Kerry in 2004.

People Who Should Have Their Asses Kicked, IBM Edition

This might also be titled, "Management victims who really need to join a union".

You know, after 10 years of thinking of IBM as the antiChrist, I had finally replaced them with Microsoft, but this story has me reevaluating.

If they are not the antiChrist, they are at least a minor minion of Chtulhu.

As often happens, companies sometimes get spanked for not paying overtime to its workers, usually for being stupid. It happened to IBM, and they had to pay $65 million in back pay, and they reclassified about 7600 workers as "non-exempt", meaning qualifying for overtime pay.

IBM took another step too, they cut the base pay of these workers by 15%.

If you do the math, they have to work 45 hours to earn what they previously made at 40.

And economists wonder why the average American is not satisfied with our "wonderful" economy.

BTW, I think you could make an argument that this is illegal retaliation. Talk to a class action lawyer.

Robert J. "I Hate Poor People" Samuelson Comes Out Against Corporate Excess

This guy has been infesting the Washington Post for years, and if you know the topic, you generally don't have to read him.

His standard schtick is something like, "Social Security and Medicare? They are bad, they make you stupid. You should be an overpaid pundit like me," so you could have knocked me over with an adolescent tuna when I came across Mr. Samuelson railing against excess salaries and lack of accountability:

Here are estimates for 2007:

Investment banker: $2.1 million, consisting of $275,000 in base pay plus $1.2 million in cash bonus and $625,000 in long-term bonus. (An investment banker helps firms raise capital by selling new stocks and bonds and also advises on mergers and acquisitions.)

Bond trader: $1.5 million, with $240,000 in base pay, $975,000 in cash bonus and $310,000 in long-term bonus.

Hedge fund manager: $1.8 million, split between a salary of $265,000 and $1.5 million bonus.

Just why investment bankers and traders out-earn, say, doctors or computer engineers is a question I've never heard convincingly answered. Are they smarter? Unlikely. Do they contribute more to the economy? Questionable. True, Wall Street often performs a vital function. It channels savings into productive investments. It helps provide access to capital and credit. In 2006, U.S. companies raised nearly $4 trillion through new stocks and bonds. Many financial innovations, including mortgage-backed securities, have benefited individuals and companies.

But Wall Street also frequently misallocates capital and credit. The "tech bubble" of the late 1990s was one episode. Now we have subprime mortgages. Why? Well, the herd mentality of financial crazes has a long history. But compensation practices skewed so heavily toward bonuses based on annual profits make matters worse.

You know, these lessons are not only the same ones that were used to change public policy (Glass-Steagal anyone?) following the Great Depression, but they are actually predicted by free market theory.

If I can make a million or so dollars, and and do not lose this money when the crash comes, why the hell should I care about long term consequences?

One hopes that the current crisis will lead to a re-evaluation of the slavish devotion to the unregulated market as a solver of all problems.

OK, It's Official, I am a Purveyor of Weapons of Mass Destruction

Many years ago, around the turn of the millennium, I worked at Loral Vought Systems.....Lockheed Martin Vought Systems.....Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control^* in Grand Prairie, TX.

One of the items that I worked on was the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS.
I've also worked on the Armies ongoing but truly misbegotten Future Combat System^† (FCS), it's largest procurement program.

So now, I'm beginning to see just how tied into the Military Industrial Complex I am.

Maybe I should ditch engineering and become a Klezmer^‡.






Yes, I worked on this, and that little flare behind the head is for additional volume for the motor to increase range. The original PAC-3 had straight sides.

It looks like they are still using ProEngineer^™ as the CAD package. After a while, you can kind of get a sense of which cad packate it is from how it renders.











Yep, worked on this too, looking at a more flexible launch cannister than the PAC-3 launch cannister.

















Worked on most of these too.

Worst place I ever worked. It was so bad that people who never worked at Stewart & Stevenson, Tactical Vehicle Systems would hang up when they heard Sealy, TX.

Made Dilbert^™ and his workplace look like "Nerdvana".

They ended up screwing up in reverse. Their final drawing package was bad enough that no one else wants to bid on FMTV contracts, because they can't make heads or tails of the drawings.









^*It was all the same place, it just went through one merger, and two name changes.
^†Note to self, need to finish article about FCS for my blog. It's been sitting in my draft folder for months.
^‡An itinerant Jewish musician, more specifically, one who plays music typical of Eastern European Jews.

The Feddie Thompson Clown Show, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

You gotta love the guy.

He drops out of the presidential campaign, and a few hours later, he wins the Louisiana caucuses.

Thank you Freddie Thompson, you've made my week.

At Least the Republicans are "Classy"

Roger Stone, who has the distinction of being the youngest of Nixon's "dirty tricksters", has founded a 527 organization, Citizens United Not Timid, to oppose Hillary Clinton.

I guess he has to do something when he is not swapping spouses.

Here is their logo, and they are selling a T-shirt:



So very classy.

You Don't Destroy the Army You Want, You Destroy the Army You Have

The US Army has missed its recruiting benchmarks by an alarming margin:

• For the third consecutive year, the Army missed DoD benchmarks set for educational attainment and scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test. (Important, because non HS grads drop out of service in their first term at a much higher rate)
• Scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) continue to fall. 60.8% of the recuits scored average or higher, well below the Army's now abandoned goal of 67%.
• Overall recruit quality, a figure derived largely from the above two factors, has fallen, with high quality recruits plummeting to 44.6%, down from 56.2% in 2007.
• Bonuses for reenlistments have skyrocketed in amount, and scope.

Heck of a job there, Rummie.

Microflaccid Accellerating Deployment of Vista Successor

In yet another sign that they jumped the shark with Vista, there are now reports that Microsoft is moving up the release date of Windows 7, Vista's successor from 2010 to 2009.

This is a lot of additional effort, and a lot of lost revenue, but they realize that they have a pig^* on their hands.

^*No offense intended towards pigs.

Maybe Now Mukasye Can Say if Waterboarding is Torture

During his confirmation hearings, Mukasey said that he would not be able to make a determination as to whether waterboarding was torture until after he consulted with the DoJ and intelligence officials about what was going on, and what legal justifications were used.

Well, Mukasey is appearing before the Senate next week, and Senators have figured that he has had plenty of time to get their answer:

January 23, 2008
The Honorable Michael Mukasey
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

On October 23, 2007, we wrote to you to ask you whether the abusive interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal.

On October 30, you responded that waterboarding and other abusive techniques “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me.” You said that you could not offer an opinion on the legality of waterboarding based on “hypothetical facts and circumstances” because you had not been briefed on the government's interrogation techniques: “Legal opinions should treat real issues. I have not been briefed on techniques used in any classified interrogation program conducted by any government agency.” However, you committed that, “if confirmed I will review any coercive interrogation techniques currently used by the United States Government and the legal analysis authorizing their use to assess whether such techniques comply with the law.”

You were confirmed as Attorney General on November 8, 2007. On November 9, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham sent you a letter stating, “The scenarios you previously described as hypothetical are no longer so, and you now have the benefit of full access to classified programs and memoranda. We urge you to acquaint yourself immediately with these matters and take the opportunity to make clear that waterboarding is illegal and can never be employed.”

It has been over two months since then, ample time for you to study this issue and reach a conclusion. On November 27, State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger said you were giving “high priority” to reviewing interrogation techniques, claiming, “I think there is a growing recognition ... about the need for greater clarity about what is permitted and what is prohibited.”

Your failure to say whether waterboarding is legal has placed Judge Mark Filip, the nominee for Deputy Attorney General, in a difficult position. When Judge Filip was asked at his confirmation hearing whether waterboarding was unlawful, he was unwilling to answer because you were studying the issue: “[T]he Attorney General of the United States is presently reviewing that legal question. … I don’t think I can, or anyone who could potentially [be] considered for his deputy, could get out in front of him on that question while it’s under review.”

We are concerned that your silence poses a more serious threat to American servicemembers. As we noted in our October 23rd letter:

Your unwillingness to state that waterboarding is illegal may place Americans at risk of being subjected to this abusive technique. If the United States does not explicitly and publicly condemn waterboarding, it will be more difficult to argue that enemy forces cannot waterboard American prisoners.

This concern was highlighted recently during “The Legal Rights of Guantanamo Detainees: What Are They, Should They Be Changed, and Is an End in Sight?” a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security on December 11. Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, Legal Advisor to the Convening Authority for the Office of Military Commissions, refused to say whether it would be legal for the Iranian government to subject an American citizen to waterboarding. He also testified that it is possible that information obtained through waterboarding could be introduced as evidence in a military commission.

In stark contrast to Brigadier General Hartmann’s refusal to say whether it would be illegal to waterboard an American, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell recently opined that waterboarding would be torture if used against him. According to The New Yorker, DNI McConnell said, “If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can't imagine how painful! Whether it’s torture by anybody else’s definition, for me it would be torture.”

Please respond to the following questions:
1. Is the use of waterboading as an interrogation technique illegal under U.S. law, including treaty obligations?

2. Based on your review of other coercive interrogation techniques and the legal analysis authorizing their use, what is your assessment of whether such techniques comply with the law?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Durbin
Patrick J. Leahy
Edward M. Kennedy
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Herb Kohl
Dianne Feinstein
Russell D. Feingold
Charles E. Schumer
Benjamin L. Cardin
Sheldon Whitehouse

Pelosi Caves to Republicans....AGAIN

Yes, Nancy Pelosi, in discussions with Republicansgave up more in food food stamps and an extension to unemployment benefits to get tax rebates for the working poor.

She also gave in on tax breaks for business.

I heard on the radio that 1$ in unemployment benefits generates about $1.60 in economic activity, and $1.70 for the food stamps, while the business tax cuts generate about 25¢ for every dollar.

The unemployment and food stamps also hit the economy in weeks, as opposed to about 6 months for business tax breaks.

Thank you for knuckling under and screwing the economy to give tax breaks to Bush's buddies.

Yes, Nancy Pelosi, good old Ms.
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
\

How many New York Times reporters it takes to cover the death of an actor with just a few movies to his credit:?

15

Heath Ledger, Actor, Is Found Dead at 28
By JAMES BARRON¹

...

Reporting was contributed by Al Baker², Anne Barnard³, Brooks Barnes⁴, David Carr⁵, Sewell Chan⁶, John Eligon⁷, David S. Hirschman⁸, Thomas J. Lueck⁹, Angela Macropoulos¹⁰, Jennifer Mascia¹¹, Colin Moynihan¹², Campbell Robertson¹³, Melena Ryzik¹⁴ and Paula Schwartz¹⁵.

H/T Altercation.

House 15 Votes Short on SCHIP Veto Override

Not great, so change a period to a comma, and send it back for another veto and another override vote.

Make Republicthug congressmen vote against the fabulously popular SCHIP program again, and again, and again.

Make them cut their own throat.

In Other Unsurprising News, the MPAA is a Bunch of Lying Jackals*

Well, Harold Feld ads some fact checking to MPAA claims that, "40% of industry loses from internet piracy could be traced to file sharing at universities."

LEK Consulting Services, which did the research for the MPAA, has now released its methodology, and based on their own numbers, the file sharing through university computing services is about 3%.

They used this study to justify attempts to use legislation to coerce universities to lock down their networks in very expensive ways, and to make the penalties for such activities worse than murder.

^*No offense intended to Jackals.

Reports of Iranian Political Pressure DelayingIsraeli Satellite Launch

The Jerusalem Post is reportingIranian "sabotage" delayed the launch of the TecSar Satellite.

Sabotage is the JPost's term, not mine.

It appears that Iran was using its contacts with India's Marxist and Muslim parties to apply pressure against the government launching Israel's satellite.

Israel has its own organic launch capabilities, but they have to do a retrograde launch over the Med to avoid Diplomatic issues.

Economics Update

According to "reliable sources", Ben Bernanke thinks that the downturn will be very severe, and that's why there was the very large, unscheduled rate cuts.

Additionally, as reported by Calculated risk the market is expecting another 50 basis point rate cut at the regular meeting next week.

This would leave the Fed at a 3% discount rate, and I think that beyond that point, they are pushing on a string. Monetary controls of the economy are pretty much at their limits now.

In the real estate world, Merrill Lynch is saying that nationwide U.S. home prices could decline 25% to 30% over the next three years.

I think that they are optimistic.

Then we have student loan giant Sallie Mae reporting a $1.6 billion quarterly loss, which raises the obvious question, "How the hell do you lose money on GSLs?" These are government guaranteed loans, and the fact that borrowing costs have shot up so much that they cannot profit on them is ...ominous.

There are indications that Bank of America's deal to buy Countrywide may be getting into trouble. At least that what the market is saying, literally. BoA is offering the equivalent of $7.1058, but Countrywide is trading at $5.54.

This spread is a measure of the market's opinion that the deal won't actually be consummated, this spread implies that "there is roughly a 77.9 percent consensus among Wall Street's risk arb desks and their hedge fund brethren that the deal goes through at the agreed upon terms. That also means that more than 22 percent of risk arbitrageurs don't think the deal will go through".

You also have Capital One taking a major earnings hit, both from the closing of its GreenPoint Mortgage arm, and from higher credit card losses.

Finally, you have talks between New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo and major US banks about a bailout of bond insurers. There is an implication that there will be some sort of government involvement, if not outright government sponsorship of such a bailout.

Saudi Arabia to Allow Women to Drive

Gee, next thing you know, the House of Saud will stop funding terrorists and Jihadi schools.

Naaahhhh.

Adventures in Unfortunate Branding

Many years ago, when Allegheny Airlines, aka Agony Airlines, announced it's name change to USAir, the name "Useless Air" was coined at the press conference announcing the new name.

Well, Apple just announced a new iPod in pink, and journalist John Paczkowski in a flash of genius, has named it iPod Pepto.



Bummer of a birth mark, Hal.

A Friend of Mine Died Today

Her name was Lynn Hunter, but I knew her though our mutual activities in the SCA as, "Baroness Roana di Laci", but usually, she was just Ro, as she she did not put on airs.

She had cancer, and she was about 3 months younger than me.

She is one of the few friends of mine with whom I never talked politics.

When I first met her, the subject of her employment came up, and it turned out that she had been fired by her previous employer, the Heritage Foundation.

I blurted out that I could probably find a lawyer willing to represent her pro bono, but she demurred.

I may be clueless, but even I figured out that we had differing views.

She was fun, and accessible, and welcomed my wife and I when we came to the area, and I'll miss her.

Good journey, Ro.

Fresno Bee Endorses Edwards and McCain

While I appreciate their Edwards endorsmennt, I still cannot figure out why the press has their tongue so far up the rectum of John McCain.

Interestingly enough, they are endorsing McCain because of his populist message, when the mainstream press is ridiculing him because of it.

And From the Fascist Wing of the Catholic Church

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke calling for Rick Majerus, the St. Louis University basketball coach, to be disciplined for making a campaign appearance for Hillary Clinton and expressing support for Roe v. Wade.

This is not a priest, this is not a professor in the divinity department, this is a freaking BASKETBALL COACH.

I understand that St. Louis University is a Catholic school, but demanding that employees who have absolutely nothing to do with the religious mission of the school have to toe their political is outrageous, particularly given this:

Last year, St. Louis U. celebrated a legal victory that affirmed it is not controlled by the Catholic church or by its Catholic beliefs.

The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the school in handing down a decision that the city of St. Louis did not violate state and federal constitutions by granting the university $8 million in tax increment financing for its new arena.

Opponents of the $80 million arena sued the school in 2004, halting construction.

The Missouri Constitution prohibits public funding to support any "... college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever."

The debate came down to two words: "control" and "creed." Does the guiding mission of a Catholic university align with the specific system of religious faith espoused by the Catholic church? And if so, does that system of faith control the actions of the university?

In a 6-1 decision, the court said SLU "is not controlled by a religious creed."

As I recall^*, Rush Limbaugh's cousin, Stephn N. Limbaugh, Jr. serves on this court, and had been nominated by Bush to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Hmmm....I guess that Rush is the smart one of his family...Scary thought.

^*And by, "As I recall", I mean checking the Wiki.

Dems Delay Contempt Vote...Again

I guess the Democrats are waiting until after the statutes of limitations have expired, because they've yet again delayed a contempt vote. It appears that they don't want to, "Step on their message" regarding economic stimulus.

The reality is that they are reinforcing their message that they are a group of people who cannot be trusted to stand up for the right thing.

Iraq's de-Baathification, Heck of a Job, Bushie

Yes, it appears that the new de-Baathification law that the Iraqi parliament passed, the one that Bush and His Evil Minions^™ have been crowing about, isn't a de-Baathification law, it's actually an even more aggressive purge of Baath party members, and Sunnis, than the previous law.

And it gets even better, because everyone's favorite double crossing thief, Achmed Chalabi, is heading the de-Baathification commission.

AT&T: The Borg is Back.

AT&T sells you bandwidth, and now they want to charge the people from whom you download a second time for the privilidge of using the wires that you have already paid for.

They are claiming that they want to help crack down on copyright infringement, but let's be clear, this is a lie.

They want the RIAA and MPAA to support their efforts, so that later, they can charge the RIAA's and MPAA's clients for selling AT&T customers online music and movies.


We don't care. We don't have to. (snort) We're the Phone Company!"

And in the Department of the Amazingly Obvious,

Bush and His Evil Minions^™ are lying sacks of sh$@!

Lying about the Iraq, here, and here.

NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE LIES


Bush comes in number two on the lie parade, but number two is a bit of a surprise:

The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein's possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq's links to al Qaeda.

...

The study, released Tuesday, says Powell had the second-highest number of false statements, with 244 about weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.

Yep, the most overrated man in America lied to us more than anyone except for Bush himself.

Can we please stop calling "respected".

Telethon For Democrats Without Balls, FISA Edition

Really. I'm serious.

Here is Harry Reid, getting ready to completely capitulate on civil rights protection and telco immunity in the FISA update.

I should note that once again, Chris Dodd is excluded from my approbiation, as he is still threatening a filibuster on telco immunity.

Glenn Greenwald nails it:

Here we have a perfect expression of the most self-destructive Democratic disease which they seem unable to cure. More than anything, they fear looking 'weak.' To avoid this, they 'cave' and surrender and capitulate and stand for nothing. As a result, they are, as here, endlessly described in the media as 'caving' and surrendering. As a result, they look (and are) weak. It's a self-destructive cycle that has no end.

I want my party back.

How about we try voodoo to raise Harry S Truman and Lyndon Baines Johnson from the grave, and send them to Congress to bitch slap Reid and Pelosi.

It's like throwing away an impeachment investigation, even as just a technique to extract documents, because it trumps executive privilege.

NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
\

Missouri: Matt Blunt Not Seeking Reelection

The decision by right wing Missouri Matt Blunt, son of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt not to run for another term has come as a surprise, as he had already raised millions of dollars for his campaign.

The Fired Up! Missouri blog suggests a scandal and lists about a dozen potential ones, and mentions that he spent $100k in legal fees.

If baby Blunt is in legal trouble, his dad is too, as Blunt won't take a crap without his dad's permission.

FISA Bill in Limbo

Harry Reidwants a one mongh extension to the disgraceful "Protect America Act", so that they can have time to work on the bill.

Once again, the Republicans are going with an all or nothing approch, with Kit Bond and Mitch McConnell blocking the extension in an attempt to give Bush and His Evil Minions^™ everything that they want.

Um....Guys, this is a clue....In 11½ months Hillary and Her Evil Minions^™, or Barack and His Evil Minions^™ may have the reins of the state security apparatus, and one of the things that I like about her is that, unlike Bill, she appears to have an inclination for vengeance.

You don't want to go there.

FWIW, the case for the changes provided by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has proven to be completely fraudulent.

Padilla Sentenced to 17 Years

The prosecution asked for life, and for the U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to ignore the fact that he was tortured for 3½ years, but the judge disagreed, and further disagreed about the severity of the offense

"There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere," Cooke said. "There was never a plot to overthrow the United States government."

...


In arriving at Padilla's sentence, Cooke said she took into account the harsh, isolated conditions he faced during his time in a brig as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest. Defense lawyers claim he was tortured by the military, but U.S. officials denied that and Cooke never used the word torture.

Sentencing guidelines had suggested a range of between 30 years and life for all three, but Cooke used her discretion to go below even the minimum. Besides Padilla's sentence, Hassoun got 15 years and eight months and Jayyousi 12 years and eight months.

It's nice to see the prosecutors getting slapped down, at least a little over torture.

It's Official, We are Insane

A number of former defense officials from NATO Countries, including former JCS Chairman, and son of a Waffen SS member, John Shalikashvili, have recommended that NATO should reorganize to allow it to incorporate nuclear first strikes into it's tactics.

Calling for a major change to Nato's approach to defending its members and their interests, the authors of the report, which has been handed to Nato and Pentagon chiefs, said the first-strike use of nuclear weapons was a "indispensable instrument".

I'm sorry, but anyone who says, "The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction," is simply, and deeply nuts.

The fact that this is not just laughed out of NATO and Pentagon HQ is an indication that something is truly broken about the way we think.

Let's Get Rid of Bush Dog Leonard Boswell

Ed Fallon is challenging Leonard Boswell in the Iowa primary. (I guess that they only do the caucus for presidential stuff, could someone confirm?

It's a good idea to take

FWIW, Gore barely won in 2000, and Bush barely won in 2004, so it's a competitive district, but if this isn't a year for Democrats, particularly given the economy, it I'll eat my hat.)

You can contribute via Act Blue, Fallon's web site is not yet up.

Fallon is popular in the district, he carried it in the gubernatorial primary that he lost state wide, and Boswell has never connected well with the district, he moved following redistricting in 2000, and he's voted for the war without condition and the Patriot act.

The primary is on June 3.

Nobel Prize Winning Advice on Stimulus

From Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz:

• Improving unemployment, which Pelosi has already bargained away.
• Provide assistance to state and local governments who will be hit with tax shortfalls, particularly in property taxes.
• More spending on education.
• Find a way to help victims of predatory lenders without bailing out the perps.

On Bush's ideas for tax cuts, he says:

The Bush administration has long taken the view that tax cuts (especially permanent tax cuts for the rich) are the solution to every problem. This is wrong. Tax cuts in general perpetuate the excessive consumption that has marked the American economy. But middle- and lower-income Americans have been suffering for the last seven years — median family income is lower today than it was in 2000. A tax rebate aimed at lower- and middle-income households makes sense, especially since it would be fast-acting.

Bush Begging People Who Sowed the Seeds of 911

Yep, this is the result of 6 years of failed Bush policies, he goes to the House of Saud to beg for help.

This must be some sort of definition of "returning honor and dignity to the White House" that I was unawa