I Love My Daughter

She lost her cell phone again, and found it a week later, in exactly the same place she found it last time.

Great googly moogly!

It's Official, The PRC Will Be Operating a Carrier

This has probably been the worst kept secret in Asia, but the head of the Chinese General Staff has admitted that they are refitting the former Soviet carrier Varyag as an operational aircraft carrier:

The head of China's General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has confirmed that China's first aircraft carrier is under construction.

Gen Chen Bingde refused to say when the carrier - a remodelled Soviet-era vessel, the Varyag - would be ready.

I don't think that this ship will have any real military significance, but neither did the USS Langley.

This is not the development of a significant military capability, but rather like the Langley, it represents the ability to develop procedures and doctrine for later, and one would assume more capable, ships.

It's Official, Libya is a Bug Hunt

So a NATO Spokesman has just admitted that NATO is attempting to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi:

A U.N. resolution justifies the targeting of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a senior NATO military official with operational knowledge of the Libya mission told CNN Thursday.

Asked by CNN whether Gadhafi was being targeted, the NATO official declined to give a direct answer. The resolution applies to Gadhafi because, as head of the military, he is part of the control and command structure and therefore a legitimate target, the official said.

NATO has been ramping up pressure on the regime, employing helicopters last weekend for the first time against Gadhafi's forces. Explosions are heard often in Tripoli, evidence of allied air strikes.

NATO began bombing Libya on March 31, under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians who have been targeted by Gadhafi's military.

Unsurprising. Since Gadhafi's forces are not folding up under the air assault, the French and the British are desperate to avoid defeat, or worse, the need to send in ground troops, either of which will sink both UK PM Cameron and French President Sarkosy.

This was intended to be a neat neo-colonial adventure with the attendant electoral boost,  killing a few "wogs" for a few votes, but now its looking like a complete clusterf%$#.

Pot, Kettle, Black

Michael "Heck of a Job, Brownie" Brown, the FEMA chair who botched the Hurricane Katrina disaster, just called George W. Bush an inattentive fratboy.

Heh.

2 Years Too Late, Timmeh

So, the US Treasury is finally taking action against banks who have not engaged in HAMP in good faith:

As the nation’s housing market continues to teeter, the Treasury Department on Thursday penalized three of the nation’s largest banks for subpar performance in administrating a government-sponsored program to modify mortgage loans for distressed homeowners.

As part of a new assessment of mortgage servicers, Treasury officials said they would withhold incentive payments for the three banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — until the problems are resolved. At that point, those payments would be made, a Treasury spokeswoman said.

In May, the three banks received $24 million in incentives as part of the modification program.

The Treasury Department has previously withheld payments from mortgage servicers, but Thursday’s action focused on some of the biggest players in the program. Called the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, it is voluntary for mortgage servicers. Nearly all of the nation’s largest banks have signed contracts to participate.

Only, as Yves Smith observes, this is not accountability, it's accountability theater, from the folks who so f%$#ed up HANP so badly that, "HAMP was so clearly a disaster that Treasury Department officials didn’t try very hard to defend it in a meeting with bloggers that I [Yves Smith] participated in last August. The best they could do was claim that it helped the housing market by spreading out foreclosures over a long time period," so in this bit of atmospherics, the banks still get their money, they just won't get it today.

Someone must have informed Timothy "Eddie Haskell" Geithner that even if Barack Obama would never fire him,^* if the voters fire Obama, he's still out of job.

^*This fact that Geithner is unfirable makes a pretty argument against a 2^nd Obama term.^†
†We now have revelations that Larry Summers was more on the ball than he.

What the Shrill One Said

Paul Krugman offers a data point that shows that default and devaluation works better than austerity and debt peonage.

The spread on an Icelandic CDS is now about a third that of the Irish CDS, which means that their borrowing costs are lower, as is the confidence of the market in their credit.

Rolling the Nobel Laureate:

Why, it’s almost as if defaulting on debts run up by runaway bankers and letting your currency depreciate works better — even from the point of view of investors — than socializing private-sector losses and grimly sticking with a fixed exchange rate.

Or to put this in earthier terms, if you want to survive this sort of financial meltdown, f%$# the banks, not the average citizen.

This is Going to be an Amusing Campaign Season

As a result of the train wreck that is Newt Gingrich, his entire campaign staff resigned.

The proximate cause was his decision to go on a cruise ship vacation while everyone else in the race is hitting places like Iowa and New Hampshire.

I'm beginning to think that this is all just a variation of his "Gingrich, Inc." scam which Rachel Maddow had detailed, and he's doing this because his little money making operation pretty much demands that he eventually run.

It raises a kind of a meta-media question: The standard narrative for the Washington Press whores corps about Gingrich is that he an intellectual colossus of the conservative movement, a meme which the beltway bozos continue to push, but we are seeing increasing evidence that he's just a self serving clown.

In any case, I find the clown show, and the contortions of his fans in the media, an amusing show.

It's Jobless Thursday

And once again, the initial claims numbers suck wet farts from dead pigeons, rising by 1000 to 427,000, as opposed to falling to 419,000 as forecast, though the 4-week moving average, the continuing, and extended claims all fell slightly.

This is not a glass half full, or too big a glass, this just sucks.

While Washington, DC is obsessing on making things good for the banks, which is what all this deficit cutting/austerity is really all about, this economy remains in the dump.

I Love Our Healthcare System

My wife has spent much of today finding who we need to call in order to get a certificate of what is called "creditable coverage," which we need to get or pre existing conditions covered.

I am seriously considering moving to Vermont when their single-payer plan becomes operational.

Posted via mobile.

Why the Recess Appointment Exists

Because when some narcissistic sociopath gets a bee in his bonnet and blocks a Nobel prize winner in economics from a seat on the Federal Reserve:

The decision by a noted economist Monday to end a 14-month wait for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is renewing concerns among some Democrats about the fighting spirit of the Obama administration.

The candidate, Peter A. Diamond, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Nobel Prize laureate for his work on labor markets, cited Republican opposition in asking the White House to withdraw his nomination.

But Democratic leadership did not press for a vote on the nomination, and Congressional aides said that the White House invested relatively little energy in fighting for Mr. Diamond. Moreover, they said that the administration had not submitted nominations for vacancies atop several of the federal agencies charged with overhauling and improving financial regulation in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

“There’s a deep feeling of frustration,” said one Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. “No one wants to insult the administration or put them in a position that’s uncomfortable for them or worse for them. So you’re just sitting around waiting for them to take the lead.”

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said on Monday that the White House did everything it could to push the nomination, and he lamented the “partisan obstructionism” that had prevented approval of Mr. Diamond.

(emphasis mine)

Yes, "partisan obstructionism", and the fact that your boss is a hopeless clueless chump.

Or maybe he really does not want meaningful regulation, and so he's leaving seats empty, so that Geithner can continue to run things for the benefit of the banksters.

Your call, but I am leaning toward door number 2.

Giving into hostage takers just encourages more hostage taking.

BTW, you can read Diamond's take on all of this here.

Gawd This is a Day for Te Stoopid!

First Weiner, and now in response to Sarah Palin's Paul Revere gaffe, her Evil Minions^™ are attempting to edit Wikipedia to make it agree with her.

Well, this answers an important question: Just how brain damaged a Republican fanboi has to be in order to have Little Green Footballs mock them.

The Term Here is Credible Allegations of Fraud

Pass the popcorn

On the recall front in Wisconsin, Judge John Markson ruled that the Government Accountability Board (GAB) can have an extension to review irregularities in the petition process against the Democratic senators.

What this means is that the allegations of fraud by Rebublicans have enough merit to warrant an investigation, while the allegations of irregularities by Democrats do not:

A Dane County judge has granted the Government Accountability Board's request for additional time to finish its review of the recall petitions filed against Dems Dave Hansen, Jim Holperin and Bob Wirch.

The GAB now has until June 10 -- next Friday -- to certify those elections and has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday to review the petitions.

Judge John Markson denied a request from Republicans to delay the recall elections of Republican senators that have already been certified until the Dem reviews are completed.

Markson also specified that today's original deadline for the GAB to certify those recalls remains in effect, setting up recall elections for six GOP senators for July 12.

If approved and certified next week, the three Dem recalls would take place July 19.

Markson said the GAB had shown good cause to extend the deadline, noting the unprecedented level of recall activity along with the passage of voter ID legislation and completing a statewide Supreme Court recount.

Part of the reason for the need for additional time is that the Republicans did not get half again as many signatures as was necessary.

The Republicans are desperate to have all the elections at once, because they want to make sure that the Dem get out the vote is diluted across additional districts.

I am amused, but I figure that the reactionary corrupt f%$#s on the Wisconsin Supreme Court who hold a 4-3 majority will find a way to mess with this.

Bummer

So, Anthony Weiner fessed up to sexting. That sucks a little bit, but the fact that (for once) Andrew Breitbart was telling the truth really sucks.

Nothing to add, but I am So watching Stewart tonight to see what he wants to say.

(on edit)

Offline, I'll be spending the evening making "Weiner" puns.

I Believe That This Crosses the Stupidity Event Horizon

Sarah Speaks


Revere's official response

So, because she is in New England, she makes reference to Paul Revere, only she gets it really wrong, "He who warned, uh, the, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and, um, makin’ sure as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free and we were gonna be armed."

The fact that anyone listens to Sarah Palin or takes her seriously says worse things about the USA than anything that Osama could have dreamed.

I pray for the day that her 15 minutes of fame is done.

H/t UM at the Stellar Parthenon BBS for catching the story, and finding the Revere pic.

I Should Have Taken the Blue Pill

Well, it looks like we now have a chronology, methodology, and the perps in l'affaire Weiner.

It's a pretty good layout of how a not-so vast right wing conspiracy fabricated all this.

The frightening thing, is that it looks to be somewhere around 1 or 2 dozen people who did all this, and they did it in a particularly ham-handed way, and still you had CNN bringing admitted liar, and un-admitted drunk, Andrew Breitbart on to discuss it.

You can click on the link, and click through to the the links beyond the link, or not:

You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Deep Thought

Yesterday, we were driving to a distant SCA (medieval recreation group) event, about 200 km (120 miles), and my almost-14 year old and my 11 year old were being annoying, both to each other as well as to Sharon^* and me.

I finally told them that they were acting like the 3 Stooges, without the Stooges level of maturity.

The scary thing is that it's true.

^*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

A Really Bad Day at the Office

The vid is mis-titled

Stephen Trimble found this video of an Iranian Il-76 MD AWACS crash.

They had an engine fire, declared an inflight emergency, and the radome came off, and took off the tail.

Woah.

Meow!!!!!

Pass the Popcorn

So, Lockheed-Martin, on a plane that is not really in production yet, and one for whom the cost numbers are very fluid, decided to call out the McDonnell Douglas Boeing F/A-18 E/F by name on operating costs, and Boeing's response was, "Oh no you didn't bitch!".

We now have a contractor cat fight:

Lockheed Martin is peddling untruths about the relative cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Super Hornet, according to Boeing Military Aircraft president Chris Chadwick.

In a Tuesday morning teleconference, Chadwick not only called Lockheed Martin's claims "fundamentally untrue" but named business development vice-president Steve O'Bryan as the source, and the fact that the claims were denied formally also points to a developing war between the two programs.

The offending statement, quoted in Air Force Magazine's Daily Report last week (here, search for May 26), claimed that a fully operational F-16E or F/A-18E would be "the same cost" as an F-35 at maturity, around $65 million in 2010 dollars. Not so, Chadwick says, claiming a comparable (recurring flyaway) cost of $53 million for a Super Hornet -- including a set of external tanks, an ATFLIR targeting pod and "working" helmet mounted displays.

Any F-35 cost figure, Chadwick pointed out, "is an estimate based on numbers of unsold aircraft."

Moreover, Chadwick added, current figures show that the JSF -- even in its F-35A variant -- will cost more to operate than the Super Hornet. Citing a $16,400 cost-per-hour F-35A estimate (in 2002 dollars) in the latest Selected Acquisition Report, Chadwick says that a comparable number for the Super Hornet is $12,200 -- less than either the F/A-18C/D or the F-16C/D.

Cat fight!

Though I would note that the F-16, should be cheaper than both to operate, and it should get you there quicker than both too, at least until calling bingo fuel.

IOKIYAR*

So John Edwards has been indicted for potential misuse of campaign funds to hide his affair, but the Department of Justice, despite the the fact that the normally weaselly Senate Ethics Committee was seriously considering expulsion, and referred their files to the DoJ for a criminal investigation, appears to be doing nothing:

"There is no question that I have done wrong," John Edwards said Friday in front of the North Carolina courtroom where he pleaded not guilty to six counts of violating federal campaign laws. "I take full responsibility for having done wrong."

But, Edwards said, he did not violate federal law.

"I will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that I have done," the former Democratic presidential candidate said, "but I did not break the law and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law.

Compare that to the web of conspiracy and money laundering that Senators Ensign and Coburn engaged in, and one begins to wonder why the DoJ is so hands off on that.

My only answer is that Reagan, Bush, and Bush spend an awful lot of time politicizing the Justice Department, and we are now harvesting the fruits of this.

^*It's OK If You Are A Republican.

Now the New York Times is Calling it a Coverup

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Round up the Usual Suspects

Specifically, they note that in the matter of indicted trader Fabrice Tourre, it appears that he is being singled out as a scape goat, while the SEC is studiously ignoring the fact that he was acting in pretty much the same way as everyone else at Goldman Sachs:

Hundreds of employees worked closely in teams, devising mortgage-based securities — billions of dollars’ worth — that were examined by lawyers, approved by management, then sold to investors like hedge funds, commercial banks and insurance companies.

At one trading desk sat Fabrice Tourre, a midlevel 28-year-old Frenchman who was little known not just outside Goldman but even inside the firm. That changed three years later, in 2010, when he achieved the dubious distinction of becoming the only individual at Goldman and across Wall Street sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for helping to sell a mortgage-securities investment, in one of the hundreds of mortgage deals created during the bubble years.

How Mr. Tourre alone came to be the face of mortgage-securities fraud has raised questions among former prosecutors and Congressional officials about how aggressive and thorough the government’s investigations have been into Wall Street’s role in the mortgage crisis.

The tell here is the fact that he was set up by Goldman, and the SEC, as a patsie is the fact that he was told that he had to use a Goldman Sachs lawyer to represent himself:

In April 2010, when the S.E.C. filed its case against the bank and Mr. Tourre, the young banker told friends that he believed Goldman had been chosen to be the commission’s “case study,” according to several who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The friends also said they were concerned that Mr. Tourre’s dependence on Goldman for advice and legal counsel was not in his best interest.

In September 2009, for instance, Mr. Tourre told friends he thought he had to use a lawyer from a list of lawyers at three firms that Goldman gave him.

Robert Follie, a lawyer in Paris, said Mr. Tourre told him he was not authorized to use lawyers other than those Goldman selected. Mr. Follie said he cautioned Mr. Tourre that his interests might diverge from Goldman’s, so he should consider hiring his own counsel.

“As a practitioner, I mentioned to him that I felt the risk in the long run was that the lawyer who was acting for him might end up in a near conflict-of-interest situation,” Mr. Follie, whose daughter is friends with Mr. Tourre, said in an interview last December.

After the S.E.C. case was filed in summer 2010, Mr. Follie wondered how Mr. Tourre had wound up as the only defendant. “I felt that somewhere down the line, he must have done or not done the proper things to get out of this. I was personally wondering if he had sufficient representation disassociated from Goldman,” he said.

Mr. van Praag, the Goldman spokesman, said the bank did not impose lawyers on its workers and had not done so on Mr. Tourre. He said that “ultimately the decision is for the individual and counsel to determine whether they are right for each other.”

Well, Mr. van Praag, if that is in fact your real name, I am sure that Goldman management worked scrupulously to ensure that there was no paper trail of them instructing Tourre to take a lawyer who worked for them instead of him, but that is a far cry from what any honest employer would do.

Vampire Squid Subpoenaed

It sounds like a big deal:

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, was subpoenaed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for information on the firm’s activities leading into the credit crisis, two people familiar with the matter said.

The subpoena relates to the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on Wall Street’s role in the collapse of the financial markets, which accused New York- based Goldman Sachs of misleading buyers of mortgage-linked investments, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the inquiry isn’t public.

But it isn't, because even the most overzealous prosecutor out there, and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. is not one of those, would be told in no uncertain terms that any prosecution would destroy our economy, and so it would result in their own destruction (See Spitzer, Eliot) so it will just be a few bucks in fines, and no admission of wrong-doing.

Christie Blinks

After claiming that there was no need to reimburse the state for taking a state helicopter to watch his son play baseball (see earlier post), because the pilots need the hours to maintain their current rating, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has agreed to reimburse the state for the cost of the flight:

Reversing course, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reimbursed the state for personal and political travel on a state police helicopter, including a trip to meet with Republicans urging him to consider a presidential run.

Christie, a Republican, personally paid the state treasury $2,151.50 for his use of the chopper on two occasions in the last week to attend his son's games in a state baseball tournament.

I don't think that Christie, and his fans amongst the press and the Washington, DC crowd, realize just damaging this will be for him.

First, of course, is the whole "tight with a dollar, unless it applies to him" bit, but the second, and possibly more important, thing is that this lets the air out of his political personae as a "tough guy", and reveals him to be a just another bully who has no guts when push comes to shove.

If the voters of New Jersey did not get that before, perhaps they do so now.

It's Jobless Thursday

And the initial claims numbers show no signs of recovery in the job market, with initial claims remaining excessively high, at 422,000, though the 4-week moving average did fall by 14K to 425,500, and continuing and emergency/extended claims were basically flat.

So, the employment numbers are crap, and stuck in a no-recovery "sweet spot," and it looks like the real estate market is still crashing, a rebound in manufacturing would take years for the capital to be assembled and constructed, and we still have Wall Street sitting athwart our economy, extracting its unearned vigorish that saps both resources and intellect from productive activity.

Another Obama Cave

And this time it's the for profit colleges, who pretend to educate, or at least credential, people:

The Department of Education on Wednesday tightened its regulation of for-profit colleges and other vocational programs that get billions of dollars in federal aid but leave many students with crushing debt and credentials worth little on the job market.

Under the new rules, programs would lose their eligibility to dispense federal student aid — and as a practical matter, be shut down — if, over the next four years, their graduates fail to meet new benchmarks for loan repayment and ratio of debt to income. But amid intense lobbying by the for-profit college industry and pressure from Republican lawmakers, the department significantly eased the rules from an earlier draft: officials said, for example, that no program would lose eligibility until 2015.

“We believe that very few programs will be forcibly closed by our standards,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “We want to give people a chance to reform. As a country, we need this sector to succeed. This is not about ‘gotcha.’ ”

These rules, which try to define how such programs prepare students for “gainful employment,” have been the hardest-fought issue in the debate over exploitive and fraudulent practices in the industry. The colleges and their allies spent $12 million lobbying against the rules since the start of 2010, and this spring, the House passed a budget amendment that would have blocked the department’s work on them. The rules were supposed to be issued last summer, but were delayed after the Education Department received a record 90,000 comments on its draft proposal.

What does this mean? Let's see what the market thinks:

For-profit colleges rallied as the U.S. Education Department gave the industry more time to comply with rules that will cut off federal aid to institutions whose students struggle the most to repay their government loans.

ITT Educational Services Inc. (ESI) soared 21 percent to $85.67. Career Education Corp. (CECO) rose 5.4 percent to $24.10. Strayer Education Inc. (STRA) gained 19 percent to $144.95. Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) advanced 11 percent to $46.90. DeVry Inc. (DV) rose 15 percent to $61.86.

Corinthian Colleges Inc. (COCO) jumped 27 percent to $5.06. Education Management Corp. (EDMC) increased 22 percent to $24.76. Grand Canyon Education Inc. (LOPE) advanced 9 percent to $13.97. Bridgepoint Education Inc. (BPI) rose 3.4 percent to $24.48. Capella Education Co. (CPLA) climbed 3.3 percent to $49.58.

Washington Post Co. (WPO) , owner of the Kaplan for- profit education business, advanced 5 percent to $426.42.

It's pretty clear that they took meaningful rules, and gutted them, probably because they figure that a good way to get a bit closer to their $1 billion goal for campaign donations in 2012.

So real reform is replaced with phony reform.  How Hopey Changey.

Recall Elections Against 6 Wisconsin State Senators a Go

So the final three recall drives against Republicans have been approved, but the Government Accountability Board (GAB) is asking for an extension to rule on the drives against 3 Democratic senators:

GAB announced on Friday that it would need to delay consideration of petitions against Democratic Sens. Robert Wirch of Pleasant Prairie, Jim Holperin of Conover and Dave Hansen of Green Bay because election staff needed more time to review the Democratic challenges to the petitions. Staff Counsel Shane Falk said staff worked significant overtime during the holiday weekend to complete their review of the Darling petition before focusing on the petitions targeting Democrats, which had more complex legal issues.

The translation here is that the allegations of fraud made by the Republicans about the volunteer recall petitions targeting them were laughable, but the allegations made against the mostly-out-of-state for profit signature collectors are credible.

Additionally, the margins for the drives are different, which makes the impact of any irregularities less significant, because, after all, a for profit firm won't collect a single more signature than is necessary.

What this means is that, absent a court ruling, the Republican and the Democratic (if any) recall elections, at least the 1^st round, would be on different dates if the GAB gets permission from the judges.

Of course, the final ruling may very well be from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, so all bets are off.

JoAnne Kloppenberg Concedes Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

She made some noises about electoral reforms in the unspecified future, but absent an adversarial proceeding with full discovery, i.e. a full legal challenge which she eschewed, it's not gonna happen.

If the election were just about a difference in philosophy, as opposed to the explicit statements by David Prosser that he would specifically support Scott Walker's agenda, perhaps there could be an excuse for playing nice, but in this case there is no such excuse.

There were clearly extensive and pervasive irregularities, particularly in Waukesha County, and even in a losing effort, exposing the corruption and incompetence of that county clerk is an independent good that any officer of the court should pursue.

Feh on her.

And Still, They Blather About the Deficit

ADP's private payroll report showed an increase of only 38,000 in May, which, when you consider the obvious cuts in state and local payrolls, and lord knows what in the non-profit sector, means that we are looking about a decline in the workforce if the federal numbers come close to matching this report.

Additionally, the Conference Board's consumer confidence report fell, and auto sales fell for all the major auto manufacturers.

And still the Democrats are buying into the Republican meme that our problem is the deficit.

To quote Robin Williams, "Shazbat!"

What is it With 'Phants Governors and Helos?

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Not Just a Helo, but a Big MoFo Helo

First, it was Jane Swift, and now everyone's Republican asshole "it" girl Chris Christie, who took a state police medevac helicopter to his son's baseball game, so that he could get back in time to talk with some wealthy Iowa donors:

A brand-new State Police helicopter was Gov. Chris Christie’s ride of choice yesterday as he traveled to and from his son’s baseball game in Bergen County.

His office won’t say where he came from or where he went afterward. But about an hour and 10 minutes after leaving the game, Christie arrived, by car, at the governor’s mansion in Princeton to meet with a group of Iowa businessmen trying to recruit him for a presidential run.

The use of state helicopters has opened New Jersey governors to criticism for decades, especially when it did not involve official state business.

“It is a means of transportation that is occasionally used as the schedule demands. This has historically been the case in prior administrations as well, and we continue to be judicious in limiting its use,” said Christie’s spokesman Michael Drewniak in an e-mail. He declined to answer additional questions.

(emphasis mine)

Yeah, right, "Judiciious in limiting its use."

It gets better though, that fat f%$# couldn't even be bothered to walk from where he landed to the ball park:

As the game at St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale was about to begin, a noise from above distracted the spectators who watched the 55-foot-long helicopter buzz over the trees in left field, circle the outfield and land in an adjacent football field. Christie left the helicopter and got into a black car with tinted windows that drove him about 100 yards to the baseball field. The governor watched from the bleachers as his eldest son, Andrew, played starting catcher for Delbarton School. Christie played the position of catcher in high school as well.

He's governor after all, you cannot let his foot touch the ground.

The thing here is that Christie has a long history of this sort of crap, 4 star hotels, buying off people that he's run down going the wrong way on a one way street, etc.

Of course, while he was running for governor, the press ignored this, so one wonders whether he's going to finally lose the undeserved man crush that they have on him.

I Got Nothing, Roll Jon Stewart

Over the past few days, it appears that Congressman Anthony Weiner has been fingered^* as having sent a picture of his package (underwear clad) on Twitter.

The evidence, as near as I can tell is that someone, with the active aid of right wing Rat F%$#er Andrew Breitbart, is Rat F%$#ing, because that is what Rat F%$#ers do.

Basically, I have nothing to add beyond what Jon Stewart, who actually swam with Weiner in his Younger days, and notes that his recollection is that, "This cat had a lot more Anthony and a lot less weiner."

Just watch it.

I so envy The Daily Show writing staff.
^*Pun not intended.

This is Called Coopting a Threat

It appears that the Democratic party is trying to encourage Elizabeth Warren to run for Senate in Massachusetts:

Officials in the Democratic Party are wooing Elizabeth Warren to run for the Senate against the Massachusetts Republican Scott P. Brown rather than have her continue to set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Ms. Warren has become a lightning rod for controversy over the new agency, which she conceived and is helping create. Consumer groups and some Democrats have demanded her appointment as its first director. A group of 44 Senate Republicans, with applause from the financial industry, has promised to block any nominee.

In seeking to enlist Ms. Warren for a different campaign, Democrats are taking aim at two birds. They can lay the groundwork for a potential compromise over a different candidate to lead the new agency and, they hope, they can increase their chances of reclaiming Mr. Brown’s seat by sending against him a woman who has won considerable acclaim and popularity among liberals for taking on the financial industry.

This is not about having a viable Senate candidate, though she would probably be a credible challenge to Scott Brown, but about removing here from any position of influence in financial regulation.

Warren is not the choice of either the Democratic Party or the Obama administration, are about as interested in her having real authority over the excesses of  Wall Street and the big banks as they are over investigating torture and abuse of power by Bush and His Evil Minions^™.

If she wins, she won't have any influence in the boys club that is the Senate, and my money would be on her not even getting a seat on the banking committee.

They want to give her a shiny hat to shut her up.

Well, At Least It's Not My Employer

Lockheed had to locked down its network after it was massively hacked:

By all accounts, Lockheed Martin's swift detection of the attack helped avert potential disaster. "The good news here is that the contractor was able to detect an intrusion then did the right things to deal with it," Cringely said. "A breach like this is very subtle and not easy to spot." Furthermore, he said, the same day that Lockheed Martin detected the attack, all remote access for employees was disabled, and the company told all telecommuters to work from company offices for at least a week. Then on Wednesday, the company informed all remote workers that they'd receive new RSA SecurID tokens and told all 133,000 employees to reset their network passwords.

In a statement released Sunday, EMC said it was "premature to speculate" on the details of the attack. But if attackers did use information stolen from RSA to hack into the SecurID system used by Lockheed Martin, then EMC could be forced to finally reveal, publicly, any risks that the use of its system might now pose to the 40 million users of SecurID hardware token customers and 250 million users of its SecurID software.

I'm a contractor, so even if my employer were hacked in this manner, it would not effect me, since that don't give mercenaries like me remote access to their networks.

Of course, they should have locked down their system months ago, when RSA, the company that supplies the keys for their VPN systems, and a lot of other companies out there, was hacked.

The DoJ Has Been Thoroughly Politicized by Republicans Since 1980

Investigative reporter Murray Waas, has a rundown of John Ensign's law breaking, and the fact that the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute him, or Tom Coburn, who is hip deep in the web of back door payoffs, coverups, and a conspiracy to obstruct justice.

But, as Nicole Belle observes, they have still found time to indict John Edwards for paying off a mistress.

What we need to understand here is that since Ronald Reagan, successive Republican administrations have done their level best to politicize the DoJ, and it's worked.

The professional staff of the Justice Department is no longer professional.

I do not know what the fix is, but Obama's decision to allow 2^nd rate political hacks from the Bush administration to remain on staff, even though civil service regulations were flouted, was exactly the wrong thing to do.

It's a Memorial Day Tradition

Cookout time.

Pretty standard fare, I did steaks for Sharon, Natalie, and Me, and knockwurst for Charlie.

A twist on all this was that I grilled some fruit, mangoes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and bananas, which turned out nicely.

Next time though, I'll not bring the fire down as much before grilling the fruit. I think that the higher temperatures will help caramelize the sugars.

I Had Fun....

We went to Annapolis today.

It was fun, but I am completely wiped.

The Cute!!!! It Burns Us!!!! It Burns Us!!!

Not my cat, but anyone who does any Friday cat blogging needs to post this:

It Appears that My Prescription for Europe is Not Completely Nuts

Because Roosevelt Institute fellow Marshall Auerback thinks that the solution is to get Germany out of the Euro zone as well:

…

Perhaps we’re looking at this the wrong way around: Given the continued German aversion to more broadly-based pan European style fiscal programs, which its populace continues to see as nothing but bailouts for lazy Mediterranean free-loaders, there is another way to solve the euro crisis.

Let Germany leave the euro zone.

Let’s leave aside the politics for a moment as there are many who believe that a German exit from the euro zone in effect means the end of the euro because a number of other countries would leave.

So consider this exercise solely from an economic context: The likely result of a German exit would be a huge surge in the value of the newly reconstituted DM. In effect, then, everybody devalues against the economic powerhouse which is Germany and the onus for fiscal reflation is now placed on the most recalcitrant member of the European Union. Germany will likely have to bail out its banks, but this is more politically palatable than, say, bailing out the Greek banks (at least from the perspective of the German populace).

I'm not sure if it is reassuring or terrifying that some people who actually know about this sh%$ are agreeing with me.

Fundamentally, the Euro, at Germany's insistence, was constructed as a bankster's paradise, and their actions since the meltdown have only made this worse.

Read the full article, and the comment thread, it's good stuff.

Good News Out of the Balkans

Ratko Mladic has been arrested.  It is expected that he will be extradited to the Hague Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Not a Good Economic News Day

First, initial jobless claims jumped unexpectedly,with initial claims unexpectedly rising to 424,000, though the less noisy 4-week moving average fell slightly, as did continuing and extended claims.

Additionally, the revised 1^st quarter GDP numbers missed expectations, with weak consumer spending being much of the shortfall.

With no one in Washington talking about anything besides austerity and cuts, this is going to get ugly.

I think that Krugman is right when he worries that this might be shaping up to be a 3 depression, one more in the vein of the Long Depression of 1873-1890 than the shorter, but more intense Great Depression of the 1930s.

Supreme Court Rules that State Can Impose Sanctions for Violating Immigration Law

The Supreme Court ruled that the Arizona law penalizing employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens is constitutional.

Note that this law is a distinct entity from Arizona's "Papers Please" law, this law simply applies penalties on employers who are found to have deliberately hired illegals, which is a pretty high bar in the real world:

The 2007 law in question, known as the Legal Arizona Workers Act, or LAWA, allows state authorities to suspend, and if necessary, to revoke the business licences of employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Even more striking, the law also mandates that employers adopt a workplace verification system known as "E-Verify" to screen prospective employees based on their legal status.

Two lower courts ruled in 2008 that LAWA was constitutional, despite furious challenges from a coalition of civil rights and immigration rights organisations, and business groups, which saw the sanctions law as likely to interfere with their ability to hire cheap foreign labour. The two lower courts, and now the US supreme court, cited a critical but little-known 1976 supreme court decision upholding a state employer sanctions law in California, as well as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, or IRCA, which established a new federal employer sanctions regime, but explicitly excluded issues relating to "business licencing" from the scope of the law.

I have mixed emotions on this.

On the whole, an aggressive program of sanctions against employers who flout immigration laws to save money is a good thing, but I also believe that this action should be done at the federal, not the state level.

Vermont Governor Signs Single Payer Law

Of course implementing the law over the next 3-5 years is problematic, since it requires a waiver from HHS, and I don't think that Obama will stop sucking up to the insurance and finance industries and allow that to happen:

In order to actually enact the system, the state needs a waiver from the Affordable Care Act health reform law. Currently, the federal government will start handing out state waivers in 2017 — three years after Vermont wants to implement its system. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) has introduced an amendment that would move the waiver date up to 2014, an idea that President Obama has endorsed.

While I am sure that Obama would love to have the ability grant a waiver moved up, he is as insistent of the prerogatives of the executive as Dick Cheney ever was, there is no way that he would allow Vermont to set in motion a series of events that would transform healthcare delivery nationwide.

Basically, if Vermont is allowed to implement single payer,  businesses will start to move there, because healthcare is such a huge part of their personnel costs, and other states will start to feel pressure to follow suit, which should, eventually, lead to something like single payer being implemented nation wide.