Fasting for Yom Kippur

No food or drink for the next 26 hours, and I will be off line, though I have stuff queued up.

Vote For Me You C@cksucking Losers Is Not a Good Campaign Slogan…

But it is the apparent strategy of Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions^™ for the mid terms.

Here's the story, a group of activists lobby the Obama administration to put Jimmy Carter's solar panels back on the White House. They do a tour with a panel, and get people to sign a petition, and the panel gets on Letterman.

Truth be told, this is precisely the sort of guerrilla theater agitprop that I hate, but you know, whatever floats their boat.

So, they get their meeting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and what what happens next is illustrative: They meet with a couple of low level drones, who try to filibuster the meeting by reading Washington Post articles to them about how pro-environment they are, and then they refuse to have their pictures taken with either the panel or for the presentation of the petition.

When asked why, their response is, "If reporters call and ask us, we will provide our rationale," and then they, "pass out Xeroxed copies of a 2009 memorandum from Vice President Biden," and end the meeting.

So, here is your pamphlet, now get the f%$# out.

You know, whoever decided on this response, because it is clear that the drones were just following orders, are as Ronald Reagan, Jr. said about Dick Cheney, "[Not] a mindful human being. That's probably the nicest way I can put it."

Economics Update

It's jobless Thursday, and the initial claims numbers are out, with initial claims falling to 450,000, the 4 week moving average falling to 464,750 last week's 478,250, continuing claims falling 84,000 to 4.49 million, and emergency claims fell by over 500,000, which is all a good thing, though the story also mentions that the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's general economic index missed expectations, remaining in the contractionary range, while the New York Fed's Empire State Index fell but remained in positive territory.

In terms of other general measures, we have conflicting data, with inventories rising strongly, retail sales rising in more sedately, and the NFIB's small business confidence rising modestly to an anemic 88, while on the other side we see industrial growth slowing in August.

Real estate, on the other hand is pretty grim in the post-tax credit days, with home repossession spiking, and CoreLogic's home price index showing no year over year gain for the first time in five months, and home mortgage applications fell this week.

On the inflation front, the Producer Price Index came out, and while there is still little inflation in the core rate, but food and energy costs are rising more sharply, though still well below a 6% annual rate.

Beating a Bald Eagle to Death With a Koran

Best metaphor for the Democratic Party ever.



I love Jon Stewart.<sup>*

*</sup>In a 110% purely heterosexual kind of way, of course, as the General would say.

Why is the Federal Reserve Freaking Out?

It appears that the Federal Reserve is putting out signals that it will be engaging in more quantitative easing (printing money) toward the end of this year:

The U.S. Federal Reserve could announce a new program of asset purchases to support a weak economy as early as November, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“We don’t expect this at the Sept. 21 meeting, but in November or December there’s certainly a possibility that it will be announced,” Jan Hatzius, chief economist at the bank, said Tuesday. He added the Fed is likely to buy U.S. Treasurys worth around $1.0 trillion to kick-start the economy.

Maybe I am being alarmist, but I as Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Fed have already proven themselves to be remarkably blase about the unemployment levels, so I have to assume that they are expecting to see someting major shake loose in the financial markets, and they want to restart their sh%$pile for cash program to forestall this.

It might not be an economic or financial issue that is getting them to move though, as they are currently hamstrung by the intersection of the law and Barack Obama's general unwillingness to challenge republicans on the stonewalling of even the most benign nominees.

As a result, 3 nominees for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are cooling their heels, and with the retirement of Donald Kohn, the board membership is down to 4 members, which means that they cannot make the emergency loans that they did following the collapse of Lehman:

Here's a scary thought: Let's say the European sovereign debt crisis flares up again, and one or two Euro banks fail. (Not a bank like UBS or Deutsche Bank, but a medium-sized bank like Bank of Greece or a Landesbank.) That, in turn, causes a U.S. money market fund — many of which have large exposures to Euro banks — to "break the buck," which leads to another run on money market funds.

The Fed would be powerless to help. The Fed's emergency lending authority (the famed Section 13(3)) requires that any emergency lending facility to non-banks be approved "by the affirmative vote of not less than five members" of the Fed Board of Governors. Currently, there are only four members of the Fed board: Bernanke, Warsh, Elizabeth Duke, and Dan Tarullo. Donald Kohn retired earlier this month, and the Senate has yet to vote on Obama's three nominees (Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond, and Sarah Bloom Raskin).

Indeed.

Of course, Obama could fix this by making a recess apportionment, I would suggest that he actually appoint Jamie Galbraith, because it would freak the Republicans out, but he doesn't have the guts for that, or much else.

Edwin Newman, Dead at 91

He was an old school journalist, though I best remember him for his curmudgeonly defense of the English language from those who would debase the tongue.

Japan Makes Banzai Charge Against Chinese Currency Manipulation

As a result of Chinese currency manipulation, the Bank or Japan has started selling Yen to keep it from strengthening it too much, which wold kill exports and likely create a trade deficit.

This the first time that this has happened in 6 years, but there is a twist to what the BoJ is doing:

At first glance, the action looks like a something-must-be-done-this-is-something -therefore-this-must-be-done move: a new prime minister and a “bold action” doomed to be proved ineffectual. The FX markets are so enormous (dollar/yen alone trades some $750 billion per day) that it’s hard to believe a single sale of less than $20 billion in yen could even have the short-term effect we saw last night, let alone have any lasting consequences.

But this isn’t just about FX-market intervention. This is also about monetary policy, and that could make a real difference:

………

In other words, the Bank of Japan isn’t simply selling yen, it’s printing yen. (And then selling them.) Given (a) that it’s the central bank and that it can print as many yen as it likes, and (b) that it would actually welcome a bit of inflation, there’s actually a non-negligible chance that this kind of non-sterilized intervention could work.

The term "non-sterilized" means printing money.

The Federal Reserve could do the same thing, and getting the dollar to a reasonable level versus the Chinese Yuan, and some inflation right now would be a good thing.

Basel III

Click for full size

---

Additional Capital Requirements


Phase In Schedule

I've been looking at the Basel III international banking proposals, and I find them rather weak tea.

The 10¢ tour of the proposal is that they are requiring more capital, 4.5% tier 1 capital (basically capital that can be redeemed for cash in a market essentially immediately), a further capital conservation buffer, and a "counter-cyclical" buffer that would kick in when times are good.

This will all be phased in over a 5 year period starting in 2013.

As to what it all means, I agree with Yves Smith that, "the reality is that a Basel III world will not look hugely different to the one from which the last crisis sprang."

In particular, there is next to nothing on synchronizing accounting standards, which will send banks to places where they can call a bouquet of flowers a Tier 1 asset, does not deal with the shadow banking system in any meaningful way, and ignores the vast pit of putrescence that is the ratings agencies.

The Next Chapter of the Airbus/Boeing Pissing Contest

And it does not involve the tanker.

The WTO, after ruling that Airbus was the recipient of illegal state subsidies, has now ruled that Boeing has also received billions of dollars in illegal state subsidies:

The long-running trans-Atlantic spat over government support of the world’s two biggest aircraft makers gained fresh momentum on Wednesday as a trade panel found that Boeing had received subsidies that violated global trade rules, people briefed on the decision said.

American lawmakers said on Wednesday that the subsidies, $5 billion from federal and state agencies, were just a fraction of the $24 billion that Europe had alleged and were far less sweeping than the benefits its rival, Airbus, had received.

But European leaders said that the finding, by a panel of the World Trade Organization, showed that the United States had also relied on subsidies in the fight for plane sales, and that the ruling would help prompt negotiations to resolve the problems.

What is interesting here is that they cite the military contracts that Boeing gets, but also the tax abatements with the WTO board determining that, "Boeing had received subsidies through some of the research contracts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, as well as through tax incentives linked to its facilities in Washington State, Kansas and Illinois." (emphasis mine)

This is about more than just the Airbus/Boeing subsidies. The WTO just ruled that the shakedowns that business inflict on communities by way of tax breaks are illegal subsidies under the current international trade regime..

This is a good thing.

I'd like to see Congress to find a way to ban this little bit of corporate pay-to play.

I Called It

This is what the betrayal feels like to me, and I never believed in him.

Remember when I said that Obama would not recess appoint Elizabeth Warren, or use the law to allow her to be the interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, because that's what the DFH's^* would want?

Well, I was right. The White House is now shopping its plan to the media, and ABC's Jake Tapper has the scoop:

President Obama will announce this week that Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor who first proposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be named to a special position reporting to both him and to the Treasury Department and tasked with heading the effort to get the new federal agency standing, a knowledgeable Democrat told ABC News.

So she will be a "special advisor", not a recess appointment, nor the better alternative of an interim appointment.

So, she won't have authority to:

• Set budgets.
• Hire staff.
• Fire staff.
• Explicitly write policy.
• Direct investigations.

But I guess that she will be writing some really nice policy papers.

Matthew Yglesias nails what is going on:

With Warren, Obama showing real innovation in developing odd, satisfying to nobody compromises.

If this is what demoralizes your base. They follow this stuff closely, and the people who stuff envelopes and go door to door are the sorts who do follow this stuff closely, and it takes about 3 minutes to realize that this is a canard.

Honestly, appointing Warren is a no pain all gain alternative, because the American people hate the bankers, but they are afraid of offending people.

<Facepalm>

^*Dirty F%$#ing Hippies.

Primary Results

The races that are of interest to me, and were at all competitive in Maryland are:

• Democratic primary for Congress in MD-4, where Donna Edwards, who took down the corrupt PG county machine politician Al Wynn last time is facing a challenge from the PG county machine:
• Results: Edwards sails to victory.
  
  
• Democratic primary for Baltimore County Executive, where I favor Joe Bartenfelder over Kevin Kamanetz, whose mission in life is to put cameras in every parking lot on the county.
• Results: Kamanetz wins, damn.
  
  
• Republican Primary for Governor: I dislike former Maryland Governor Bob "Bad Hair" Ehrlich, and his opponent, Brian Murphy, won't win, but it will be interesting to see just how much the fact that Sarah Palin endorsed him gets him votes:
• Results: Bobby didn't even break a sweat. Palin does not carry much weight here.
  
  
• I will note that Andrew duck won in the6^th Congressional district, so he will face Roscoe Bartlett for the 2^nd time in 4 years. He ran a creditable race in a very tough district in 2006. I met him, and he's a good guy, albeit he is a bit to the right of me. Also note that he is on Matthew Saroff's Act Blue Page.

Outside of the Free State, we have some interesting elections as well, mostly on the Republican side, looking at how well the teabaggers do:

• The biggest election is probably the primary in Delaware, where Christine O'Donnell, a teabagger who is so outrageous that Dick Armey's Freedomworks Teabagger AstroTurf org endorsed moderate Republican Mike Castle.
• Results: The teabagger nutjob won by what looks to be about 6%.
  
  
• In the New York Primaries, we have the always happless perennial loser Republican mainstay Rick Lazio running against the batsh%$ insane (he wants to put the unemployed in jail) Carl Paladino.
• Results: Paladino wins, and Lazio once again proves himself to be the Washington Generals of politics, and Andrew Cuomo is going to be the next governor unless he is found with a dead girl in his bed.
  
  
• And we have the Democratic Party primary in the 15^th district, where the scandal plagued Charles Rangel is being challenged by the grandson of the man he beat to become a Representative, Adam Clayton Powell IV.
• Results: Rangel wins, though he got barely 50% of the vote against his 5 opponents.
  
  
• We have the New Hampshire primary, where in the Republican Senate primary, you have Ovide Lamontagne, who was endorsed by the Manchester Union Leader and is considered more teabaggy versus Kelly Ayotte, who was endorsed by the Palin bot and is considered more mainstream (Yeah, NH is weird).
• Results: It appears that Ayotte has won, by something like 900 votes out of the over 100,000 cast.
  
  
• Also in New Hampshire, we have the primary in the 2^nd CD, where Blue Dog wannabee Katrina Swett is running against Act Blue fave from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, Ann Kuster
• Results: Kusters wins in a walk, which is a surprise, because Katrina Swett is political royalty in New Hampshire, being the daughter of Tom Lantos and the wife of former Congressman Dick Swett.
  
  
• The Washington DC Mayor's race, where the polls have the incumbent, Adrian Fenty behind Vincent Gray, largely because he is a complete jerk, he is generally considered to have done a good job, and because he has completely alienated the African American middle class in the city, largely because of his support of School Chancellor Michelle Rhee's policies, which are perceived as having engaged in, "a well-calculated strategy to weed out African Americans from positions in the public school management and classrooms," in order to pander to the influx of rich white families in the district.
• Results: Gray wins, and which probably means that Rhee is gone as well, if just because she was , "she abandoned the role of a politically impartial school administrator," by actively campaigning for Fenty.

I'll post the updates tomorrow,

A bit of Meta

With the reorg of Digg, I now have a 40 Years In The Desert Digg page set up.

If you use digg, you might want to access the blog that way, or Digg some of my posts to bring it to the attention of a wider audience.

That Will Leave a Mark

Leon H. Wolf reviews Meghan McCain's book Dirty, Sexy Politics:

This article, of course, is not about capital punishment. It is a book review of Dirty, Sexy Politics by Meghan McCain. However, the above discussion is relevant because I initially had reservations about writing this book review at all. After all, it is clear to everyone who has read Meghan McCain’s twitter feed, her “articles” on The Daily Beast, or her ill-fated campaign blog that Meghan is not a paragon of clear reasoning, exemplar of familiarity with facts, nor a model of English language expertise. And after subjecting myself to 194 continuous pages of her “writing,” it became clear that none of the above-described works truly plumbed the depths of mental vacuity in which Ms. McCain aimlessly and cluelessly drifts.

This presented a dilemma.

It is impossible to read Dirty, Sexy Politics and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot. This being a professional website for which I have a great deal of respect, I searched for a more eloquent or gentle way to accurately phrase the previous sentence – but could not find one.

Sometimes a bad review is a joy, though I would argue that this one is a longer than it needs to be.

Go read.

H/t Ken Silverstein.

Great Googly Moogly!

There was a guy in Amarillo who wanted to burn a Koran on September 11, but a skater dude took the book away from him. No big deal I guess.

Induhvidual in question, one David Grisham, is a lone crazy, though, seeing as how he is from Texas, he's not quite so lonely: Texas breeds this sort of Nutjob, see Koresh, David, and the Republican Party of Texas.

What does distinguish this guy from your run of the mill crazy is his day job, he guards a a nuclear weapons plant:

According to George Schwarz, the editor and publisher of the Amarillo Independent, Grisham is an armed guard at the B&W Pantax plutonium plant, north of Amarillo, Texas.

The Pantex plant describes its mission as "maintaining the safety, security and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The facility is managed and operated by B&W Pantex for the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration."

The Wiki callse Pantex, "America's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility."

It's a good thing that Timothy McVeigh didn't know this guy, or his bomb wouldn't have been a bunch of fertilizer.

Un-Dirtyword-believable.

This is Called Polishing a Turd*

The corn syrup industry has applied to the FDA to be able to call its high fructose corn syrup "corn sugar":

The Corn Refiners Association, which represents firms that make the syrup, has been trying to improve the image of the much maligned sweetener with ad campaigns promoting it as a natural ingredient made from corn. Now, the group has petitioned the United States Food and Drug Administration to start calling the ingredient “corn sugar,” arguing that a name change is the only way to clear up consumer confusion about the product.

I have seen other similar things, the rebranding of prunes as dried plums, for example, but in the case of corn syrup, where we have an an industry producing a product that produces a product that generates significant about its safety, as opposed to a product like prunes whose use as a regularity aid has made it the butt^† of jokes.

I don't approve, but I do not see a place to comment on the FDA's web site.

^*Yes, I am aware that the Mythbusters did in fact polish turds using a Japanese technique called Dorodango, but we are referring to the cliche, not reality.
^†Pun not intended.

Jon Stewart on Religious Tolerance

Well really, it's less about tolerance than it is an equal opportunity slam at the extremists in general, noting that when you take the Tanakh, Christian Bible, or Koran literally, you see violence, and hatred, and perhaps the problem is that taking the text literally.

There is also the prize line, "Who's funding these radical Christian clerics?"

FCC Finally Approves White Spaces

Basically, the FCC will be developing standard for unlicensed spectrum used on the spaces between TV channels to create a sort of super WiFi, using what is called "Sense and Avoid" technology.

It's taken a long time to get here, largely because two groups, the broadcasters who wanted to be paid for something they didn't have a license for and never used, they claimed interference issues, and the users and manufacturers of many wireless microphones, who had been using the spectrum illegally for years.

Technically, it is a good range of spectrum, it's the analogue TV spectrum, so it goes a decent distance and penetrates walls and basements well, but more important is that it is unlicensed, which means that the use of the spectrum will be highly competitive, because, unlike wire, or the spectrum owned by wireless telcos, anyone can supply a service, as long as it complies with the technical requirements.

"Unlicensed" here means that anyone can operate the equipment, but that the equipment itself would have to be approved by the FCC before a sale is made.

This has a real potential to compete with the incumbents, and the barriers to providing service are low enough that there should be a fair number of entrants.

Not Gonna Happen……

The latest polling on the Texas governor's race has the Republican Rick Perry leading Bill White by 42% to 41%, which, given that undecideds generally swing against the incumbent (Perry) means that White could actually win this election, and might therefore be able to have a significant influence on redistricting.

The same goes for this poll, which has Perry up by 39% to 33% shows that the race is pretty close.

Obviously, the specifics of the polls make a difference, but this should be interesting in November, particularly given the ability of Governor Goodhair to put his foot in his mouth.

In any case, the phrase, "Margin of Error" figures prominently, as will the dynamics of early voting.

I Now Know How The Daily Show Writers Feel…

The Mustache of Insanity

Because former recess appointee UN ambassador John Bolton is saying that he might run for President:

During recent appearances on Fox News, Bolton has been asked whether he would run for president. "Well, you know it's a great honor when people ask me that question, and I have been asked that question," Bolton said on Wednesday. "I don't think anybody involved with politics should worry about that until after the elections this fall."

He also said: "I'm not saying no. That's right."

This promises to be easier to ridicule, and even more funny, than the Freddie Thompson Clown Show presidential campaign of 2008.

I so want him to run.

Do you know that it's been over 100 years since we elected a president with facial hair (Taft, 1908).

IRS Investigates Chamber of Commerce for Tax Fraud

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether or not, "the group mixed funds for charitable and noncharitable political purposes in violation of tax codes."

It's pretty clear that most of the 501(c)3s that are attached to lobbying groups have nothing to do with what should be educational purposes:

Cyrus Mehri, a Washington lawyer who brought the I.R.S. complaint on behalf of U.S. Chamber Watch, said in an interview that the chamber’s current political activities were, in effect, being underwritten with money intended for charitable work.

The complaint focuses on loans and grants totaling about $18 million that were made beginning in 2003 to a nonprofit affiliate, the National Chamber Foundation, by the Starr Foundation, a charity started by the founder of A.I.G. and now led by Maurice R. Greenberg, the insurer’s former chairman.

Lawyers for Chamber Watch said their research, based largely on public tax filings, found that none of the principal on some $12 million in loans had been paid back and that the money appeared to have been given to the chamber’s foundation for unrestricted use.

This actually strikes close to home for me, as I actually incorporated a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization, Arisia, and while I don't regret doing so, it got the organization a lower postal rate in its early, pre everyone-has-email, days, which helped a lot.

That being said, it's a group that basically holds a science fiction convention every year, and the fact that it was legal to register as a tax exempt educational organization, as opposed to a non-profit membership organization, a 501(c)7 where contributions are not tax deductible, still bothers me.

There is a lot of abuse in the tax exempt organization regulations, whether it is science fiction conventions generally, the Chamber of Commerce's faux charity, or the various think tanks out there, and it really needs to be fixed.

There is a Reason that I Declared them "They Who Must Not Be Named"

But that hasn't stopped the Voice of American from recruiting them to try and pacify angry people in the Middle East:

In what is evidently an attempt to mitigate the damage caused by Koran-burning pastors, the US government will attempt to dissuade outraged citizens of the Middle East from joining al-Qaeda by beaming Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears across the Voice of America's airwaves.

According to Press Gazette, Splash News and Pictures will provide a half-hour weekly show packed with meaty celebutardiness, aimed at winning the hearts and minds of those still undecided whether Holy War or Hollywood is the way to go.

First, I will note that if VoA is doing this, the Arab world is going to try and beat us to death with their bare hands.

Second, I have not yet put Kim Kardashian on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named, but ………

Wait for it ………

Wait for it ………

Wait for it ………

She is now.

Great googly moogley.

SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY

The Democrats, Again, of course.

After Boehner's surprise statement, it looks like the Obama White House is trying to take advantage of this, and paint the Republicans with the "Daddy Warbucks" brush and splinter the Republican caucus, which is good, but a aide for the House leadership just said that the house will not vote on the tax cuts, which is significant because the Constitution says that tax bills have to start with the house.

My guess is that this is someone Steny Hoyer's office, who is attempting to suck up to the Blue Dog types, who are trying to insist on tax cuts for the big donors.

And on the Senate, we have the preening sociopath narcissists Ben Nelson says that he might support a filibuster, while Mr. "That contemptible rat-f%$# who isn't with us on everything but the war" Joe Lieberman both saying that he will support a filibuster.

What is good politics and good policy right now is for Barack Obama to say that he will veto any bill that grants tax breaks to people making more than a $¼ million.

It would be useful to show that Obama can draw a line in the sand, because at this point, no one believes that he can.

So Not Done In Iraq

More combat action from our troops, notwithstanding the fact that our combat presence has ended:

American military units fired on insurgents while supporting Iraqi troops northeast of the capital on Sunday, Iraqi officials said. It was the second such episode since the United States declared an end to its combat operations in Iraq less than two weeks ago.

There were no American casualties in the fighting in Hudaidy, a village about 50 miles from Baghdad that has long harbored members of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

They are just, "advisers," and Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.

How Barack Obama Could Appoint Elizabeth Warren, and Why He Won't

Under the Dodd-Frank bill, there is a provision that allows Timothy Geithner to appoint a head to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until such time as the Senate approves a nominee:

According to the bill's language, the Treasury Secretary has sole authority to build the new agency before it's ultimately transferred to the Federal Reserve. That includes anointing a person to head the effort on his behalf, and under his authority. The interim head would serve until the President's nominee is confirmed by the Senate.

That person could be Elizabeth Warren.

And the legislation doesn't appear to contain a deadline for a Presidential nomination, experts say, which means Warren could start the agency from scratch, put her people in, begin cracking down on predatory and abusive lenders, and initiate a culture that would put consumers' interests above those of the nation's most powerful financial institutions.

What is interesting here is that this is not a recess appointment, and so is not subject to the limitations, such as the requirement that their appointment expires at the end of the current Congress in January, 2010.

Theoretically, if Warren were appointed, she could serve for decades without Senatoriual approval.

So, Warren could be appointed, and be on the job, tomorrow, and the only way to remove her would be for the Republicans not to filibuster her in the Senate, and hope that she is defeated by 51 votes on the floor, which won't happen, because any Democrat who votes against her has the party base campaigning against him or her in the next election cycle.

So, why don't I think that Obama will do this? Because in so doing, he would energize the Democratic Party base, who would then come out and vote for Democrats in 2010:

Within hours and possibly minutes I expect the president will name Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer protection agency, and if he does, the Democratic base will erupt and turn out to vote in far greater numbers than any current poll suggests.^*

The thing is that I believe that there are two dominant schools of thought in the White House:

• Those who believe that appealing the the base will always be a net loser in terms of elections. (Rahm)
• Those who actively hate the Democratic Party base, which they see as irrational, unrealistic, a part of the hyper-partisan atmosphere in Washington, and terrifying to the fictitious middle of the road voters in off year elections. (Barack Obama)

Basically, in order for such an act to be taken, the core philosophies of the power centers in the White House have to be repudiated by the people who hold them.

This won't happen, because even if these decisions help the party, they diminish the power of Emanuel and Obama's philosophies within the party, which makes it a sort of perverse manifestation of the Iron Law of Institutions, (on edit see this Google link, because one of the purity asshole brigade at Wikipedia deleted the link) which states that, "the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself."

^*I would note that the author is already wrong, having posted this on Thursday, September 9, and we have had no announcement.

Boehner Blinks

After threatening to take down any tax proposal that did not keep the tax breaks for the Leona "Only the little people pay taxes" Helmsley rich folk, David "Nicotine Stained Face" Boehner has agreed to support tax cuts for the remaining 98% of us.

I think that this is really a change in tactics: He knows that he cannot stop the tax cuts from expiring in the House, and that there is a realistic chance of taking the house, so he will go with the electoral politics that show that over ⅔ of voters support letting the "rich bitch" tax cuts expire, so he will let the Senate, where the chances of a Republican take over are smaller, filibuster this to death.

My response to both of them would be to remind them that the inheritance tax goes way up next year if nothing is done, and if something reasonable does not get through the Congress, then there all the taxes come back full force, but of course, I'm not being all hopey-changey and attempting bipartisanship.

Personally, I'd take the top rate, cutting at somewhere north of 10 million a year, back to around 94%, but then again, I'm just a DFH.<sup>*

*</sup>Dirty F%$#ing Hippy.

This is a Google Adsense On Drugs, Any Questions?

One Step Forward, One Step Back

Well, Google™ Adsense™ gets one right, for a change.

I live in Maryland, and I am a Democrat, and in any case Robert "Bad Hair" Ehrlich is a complete prat.

I would also note that in 2004, I exchanged about 20 words with Martin O'Malley, and was convinced that he would be president one day.

He is an impressive candidate, and I think that it is likely that he will throw his hat into the ring in 2012 2016.

This ad takes you to Martin O'Malley/Anthony Brown campaign's home page.

But after they get one right, they put up an ad for the Freedom Works teabagger AstroTurf 9/12 rally. (sorry, no link to those evil f%$#s, not even with the "nofollow" tag.)

I wonder why about 95% of the political ads that show up on my page are all about conservative causes though.

As for the rest, they seem to be HAMP scams.

**sigh**

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Ruled Unconstitutional

One of the interesting things here is that the judge, Virginia Phillips, has ruled that, the policy has a, " 'direct and deleterious effect' on the armed services, which will make the overturn at the appellate level more difficult, since appeals are typically based on matters of law, and this is a determination of fact, but note that I'm an engineer, not a lawyer, dammit!^*

The judge will be issuing an injunction against separations, but will be giving the government time to appeal before doing so, so I expect another round of accelerated witch hunts in the Pentagon over the next few weeks.

This is an acid test of the Obama administration's dedication to gay rights. If they go for a stay, i.e. keep expelling gays from the military, during appeals, they are not merely doing their duty to defend existing laws, as they have previously argued, they are actively and aggressively anti-gay rights.

My money is on Obama making the wrong decision both morally and politically, and going full bore against this decision, because I think that, much like Bill Clinton, there is a level of political, if not personal revulsion, against "te ghay" that drives them to do truly stupid and hateful things.

^*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

It Looks Like a Commenter on the Blog Will Become Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors

Austan Goolsbee, who I've posted about a dozen times or so, objected to a post of mine, and I (with permission) posted his response to my blog.

Well, Goolsbee has written extensively suggesting that things like Obama's proposed R&D tax cut don't offer a whole bunch of bang for the buck, though he has argued that he thinks the current situation **cough** incipient deflationary spiral **cough** create a somewhat different dynamic.

Well, the scuttlebutt is that Dr. Gooolsbee is going to replace Christina Romer as the chairman of the President's CEA, and J.W. Mason has the best line that I've heard in a while about this:

Looks like Goolsbee is the perfect pick to succeed Romer -- his advice is already being ignored even before he's been hired.

It's a reference to the fact that Romer's thoughts on the stimulus were not even passed on to Barack Obama for review, and the point being made is that in a choice between economists and the economy (Goolsbee, Volker), and shills for finance and the finance industry (Summers, Geithner), that Obama will go with the latter unless absolutely forced to do so.

It's a great line.

It's Bank Failure Friday!!!! (on Saturday Night)

I've been off line for Rosh Hashana, so this is a day late.

And the FDIC is back in action, albeit in a low key way, with only 1 bank closure:

119. Horizon Bank , Bradenton, FL

I am not sure why a small suburb in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area has had 4 banks fail in the past 4 years, see the Full FDIC list, but only one bank failure is a slow day.

Also, here is the Full NCUA list of credit union closings.

So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):



I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I'm keeping it here for historical purposes.

Actually, it may have more use. There seems to be a pattern of a lull, and then an outbreak, so Yom Kippur, next Friday, may be a bad day for banks.

I Haven't Posted, Because I Have Nothing to Say

Claire McCaskill tweets the following about the burn the Koran guy:



The Senator from the great state of Missouri captures my feelings to a "t".

H/t David Kurtz at TPM.

911, 9 Years on

I don't think that I can really say anthing about the 9^th anniversary of the 911 attacks, beyond the humor and sociology in this picture:



I find this really, Really funny.

I think that I would have always found this funny, but it's not an amusement that I would have felt comfortable sharing until very recently, and now, it's the sort of thing that I would email to friends.

I'm not sure what it all means, but then again, I rarely am sure.

H/t Dc at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.

Offline for 3 Days

It's Rosh Hashanah starting this evening, so between this and the Shabbos^* following I am offline until Saturday evening, though I have queued stuff various non time-sensitive stuff up, so scroll down.

Note that this notice will stay at the top of the blog until Saturday evening.

^*The Jewish Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening through Saturday Sundown.

Dummies on 51 Park and Religious Tolerance

Not The Daily Show, but close.



It had to be put up on September 11.

BTW, watch the entire thing. There is this bit at the end that is prize.

Swiss Freeze Fighter Purchase

I think that the Swiss decision to delay any decision on fighter purchases has a number of causes.

First, they realize that changes in banking regulation may cut seriously into their revenues, and second, I think that they may be able to get some lightly used fighters cheaply from bankrupt nations like Spain, who is on the hook for a significant numbers of Eurofighter Typhoon:

Switzerland on Wednesday postponed its search for new air force fighter jets for several years, just weeks before it was expected to announce a decision on the multibillion dollar tender.

Swiss Defence Minister Ueli Maurer said at a news conference that the postponement of the replacement of about half of the Swiss army's ageing fleet of F-5 Tiger aircraft "will last at most until 2015".

The tender launched in January 2008 led to a fierce battle between European aerospace group EADS's Eurofighter, French firm Dassault's Rafale and the Gripen built by Sweden's Saab.

I think that this impacts Saab more than Dassault or Eurofighter, as they really need a foreign client for their Gripen NG.

Isreali Tank Video Pr0n

The Merkava 4.

I would have liked to see it using its mortar in a city environment, but it is still a fun vid.




H/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog.

I Expect This to Be a Prelude to Regulatory Capitulation

The FCC is now saying that it will delay any ruling on net neutrality until after the election.

I take this as a sign that Obama, and FCC Chair Genachowski intend to sell out completely to the incumbent telcos and cable companies, but they do not want to enrage the netroots base, as well of the users of a little service called Facebook, see the survey numbers on social media users, really care about preserving net neutrality.

In my opinion, they are waiting until after the election to screw the base in order to benefit the big players, and they know that this will cost them votes if it comes out in September of October.

I should note however, that the redoubtable Harold Feld, who does this for a living, is more optimistic than I am about such things.

Another Moment of Geek.

In case you are wondering how a Wankel engine works, here is an animated GIF.

One of the things that might note is that this engine does not need valves, but you will also note that the combustion are is rather flat, and so has a high surface area, which makes for high thermal losses, and hence lower efficiency.

H/t The World of Technology.

Obama is Losing Bob Reich

He cuts Obama a new one over his proposed corporate giveaways:

President Obama reportedly will propose two big corporate tax cuts this week.

……

The economy needs two whopping corporate tax cuts right now as much as someone with a serious heart condition needs Botox.

Mr. Reich took a lot of crap when he endorsed Barack Obama early in the primary cycle, because he was Bill Clinton's former Labor Secretary, and has pretty consistently been an Obama fanboi.

When you are pissing off people like him, you are driving your somewhat less involved and motivated voters who might vote for you deeply into their couches.

This will be an ugly election.

I am Forced to Admit That a Mime Can Serve a Constructive Function:

It makes Natalie Imbruglia tolerable.



H/t Salamir Abulamahalamatandra Slitskins.

Deep Thought

Why yes, it does apply to me.