Month: July 2007

‘Chicago Sun-Times’ Looks to Redefine Itself as ‘Liberal, Working-Class’ Paper

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I don’t know what this means, but I pray that this means that liberal will be the new black.

‘Chicago Sun-Times’ Looks to Redefine Itself as ‘Liberal, Working-Class’ Paper

By Mark Fitzgerald

Published: July 10, 2007 12:29 PM ET

CHICAGO The Chicago Sun-Times is turning left.

The tabloid that shifted toward political conservatism under the brief ownership of Rupert Murdoch more than two decades ago now says that it is ‘rethinking our stance on several issues, including the most pressing issue facing Americans today: Bush’s war in Iraq.’

Under marching orders from Publisher John Cruickshank and Editor in Chief Michael Cooke, new Editorial Page Editor Cheryl L. Reed introduced a new Commentary section Tuesday with a promise to turn the tabloid back into the liberal-leaning paper it was for decades before the Reagan administration.

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Guilty or No, This Trial is F%$%ed Up

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Kind of like Mumia. I think that Mumia did it, and I think that Mumiw was railroaded.

The trial of Former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) is seriously screwed up.

You have Republicans testifying that it was politically driven. You have a judge who is a long time political enemy of Siegelman, and you have the judge imposing a fine for an offense for which he had been acquitted.

Originally, Siegelman had been ordered to pay the money to reimburse the state for losses based on a warehouse scandal. A jury acquitted Siegelman of charges relating to that scandal, but the prosecution pressed for punishment during the sentencing portion of the trial. The judge changed his mind yesterday, siding with Siegelman’s lawyers.

Judge decided that he had crossed a line in his vengance, I guess.

Still, the fact that HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushyis going to jail too gives me mixed emotions.

Given the politicization of Justice under Bush and Abu Gonzalez (who ever thought that I would miss John f%$#ing Ashcroft) politics almost certainly played an important roll though.

Never Will You Find a More Retched Hive of Scum and Villany

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Here is an interesting story aboutMark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s main political strategist.

Penn is CEO of the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller, which has a union busting division.

It also turns out that he’s done extensive work for the Tobacco industry and the Nuclear Industry, among other unsavory characters, and his work for tobacco has continued since he has been advising Hillary on her senate campaigns.

You judge politicians by the company they keep, and this guy is bad news, perhaps as bad as the dope dealer and his racist father on the Guiliani campaign.

Great Headlines: Ahmadinejobless

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It’s the hed for a Foreign Policy Magazine article about the Iranian president, and how his general cluelessness is leading to his irrelevancy, and possible removal.

That being said, the article is substantive, and right off, it makes the important point:

Iran’s radical president is sinking fast, and he knows it. Now, there’s only one man who can keep Mahmoud Ahmadinejad out of the unemployment line: George W. Bush.

There has been no greater resource for fundamentalist dictatorships and terrorists than George W. Bush, and his crusade against his father the norms of international behavior.

George W. Bush: Generating capital for terrorists and religious fundamentalists since 2001.

Two Million Adjustable Mortgages to Reset

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You heard right, over the next few months, TWO MILLION mortgates will reset:

Borrowers who took out hybrid ARMs in 2004 and 2005 to secure low “teaser” rates for the first two or three years of the loan may see their monthly mortgage payments climb by 35 percentor more.

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“In October alone more than $50 billion in ARMs will reset,” according to Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com. That’s a record, according to Zandi.

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I paid 20% down in 2004 for a 30 year fixed.
I fully expect to be under water at some point in the near future, dispite the fact that the value increased by over 40% from 2004-2006.

More Blood in the Hedge Fund/Derivative Water

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My commentary is at the end.

Italease blow-up stokes derivatives fears
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 1:47am BST 05/07/2007

A derivative blow-up at the Italian bank Italease has sent tremors through Milan’s banking fraternity and exposed the hidden dangers of exotic credit instruments.

The bank has paid off 610 million euros (£419m) in recent days to counter-parties in what amounts to a massive margin call after interest rate rises in Europe caused hedging and derivative losses by clients to mushroom out of control.

The share price has tumbled 9pc so far this week, and is down 64pc since the troubles first began to emerge in April.

“These derivatives were very complex and suddenly turned against us,” said Pierantonio Arrighi, the bank’s spokesman.

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Think about that last statement. They are saying that they do not understand the instruments that that they are investing in.

This is a freaking bank, and they do not understand the instruments that that they are investing in.

Jeebus.

Would someone put adults in charge?

Home Foreclosures: This is Not San Francisco, Florida, or New York.

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One of the things that is going on right now is that the bottom of the housing market has stopped selling.

This IS going to work its way up the chain.

Increasing Rate of Foreclosures Upsets Atlanta
By IKAS BAJAJ

ATLANTA — Despite a vibrant local economy, Atlanta homeowners are falling behind on mortgage payments and losing their homes at one of the highest rates in the nation, offering a troubling glimpse of what experts fear may be in store for other parts of the country.

The real estate slump here and elsewhere is likely to worsen, given that most of the adjustable rate mortgages written in the last three years will be reset with higher interest rates, said Christopher F. Thornberg, an economist with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. As a result, borrowers of an estimated $800 billion in loans will be forced in the next 12 months to 18 months to make bigger monthly payments, refinance or sell their homes.

A big reason the fallout is occurring faster here is a Georgia law that permits lenders to foreclose on properties more quickly than in other states. The problems include not just people losing their homes, but also sharp declines in property values, particularly in lower-income and working-class neighborhoods.

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Some Insites Into a Secret US Radar Spy Satellite

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I’ve heard talk about it for a while, but this is the most I’ve seen in terms of public hard facts.

Of interest is how the name describes the vehicle. The antenna does resemble the business end of a Lacrosse stick.

Russian Telescope Images Top-Secret NRO Lacrosse (Subscription Required)
Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/09/2007, page 28

Craig Covault
Cape Canaveral

Top-secret U.S. space-based radar imaged by Russian telescope

Printed headline: Lacrosse Revealed

After 20 years of secrecy, the overall design of the 15-ton U.S. National Reconnaissance Office Lacrosse space-based radar and its remarkable 25-ft.-dia. imaging radar antenna are revealed in images of Lacrosse-2 at 400 mi. altitude taken by a Russian military ground-based telescope.

The images (above) were taken by a 28-channel adaptive optical system at the Russian Altay Laser/Optical Center. The site is one of several operated by the Science Research Institute for Precision Instrument Engineering. The line-of-sight distance from the Russian optics to the Lockheed Martin Lacrosse was more than 500 mi.


Views taken by a Russian ground-based telescope of a 15-ton NRO Lacrosse space-based imaging radar satellite reveal its secret 25-ft. mesh synthetic aperture radar antenna, developed by Harris Corp. near Cape Canaveral.Credit: RUSSIAN SCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR PRECISION INSTRUMENT ENGINEERING

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No unclassified imagery of a complete Lacrosse has ever been released by the NRO in nearly 20 years of radar satellite operations. The design matches the drawing at center. Credit: CHARLES P. VICK/GLOBALSECURITY.ORG
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US Firms Commit Premeditated Murder.

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Here’s hoping that the people involved, up to the top eventually see the inside of a Columbian prison.

They asked for these guys to be murdered. This is the unavoidable consequence of targeting labor activists by right wing militias in Latin America.

Trial begins for killing of 3 union leaders

By Seattle Times news services

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Jury selection began Monday for a civil trial in which U.S. coal company Drummond is accused of paying right-wing paramilitary gunmen to kill union leaders at a mine it operates in a war-torn corner of northern Colombia.

The civil case is believed to be the first to come to trial under a seldom-used U.S. law that dates back nearly two centuries, which lets foreigners sue U.S. corporations for their conduct abroad.

Drummond has denied involvement in the deaths of the three union leaders in 2001 near the sprawling open-pit mine it operates in Colombia.

The federal lawsuit was filed by the International Labor Rights Fund and Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers union in March 2002 and seeks unspecified damages on behalf of the dead union leaders’ families.

The union leaders, Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler had argued with Drummond about wage and safety issues.

Four witnesses have come forward claiming Drummond gave cash and cars to paramilitary fighters in exchange for killing the men.

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Now They Want My Poop

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Every workplace has it own quirks, where I am now, this is a fairly high volume of company spam email.

While one expects things like the occasional notice of a blood drive or a United Way Campaign, one gets 2-10 emails here a day that are sent to the whole place.

These are things like:

  • Equipment that they want to give away for someone to take home.
  • Equipment that they want to give to another lab.
  • Petty cash status
  • Sales pitches for the health club they have in the basement.
  • Sales pitches for massages available through said health club.
  • Requesting volunteers to provide samples for testing to validate processes.

This time, it’s gone a bit odd. They are offering $20.00 for a stool sample.

It’s just a very odd thing to see first thing Monday Morning.

In any case, they get nothing from me. I must protect my purity of essence.

Dawn Mission Delayed

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Bummer.

NASA Mission to Asteroid Belt Rescheduled for September Launch
WASHINGTON – The launch of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, a mission that will explore the two largest objects in the asteroid belt in an effort to answer questions about the formation of our solar system, has been rescheduled to September.

The decision was made today to move the launch to September after careful review by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate officials, working with Dawn mission managers, the Dawn principal investigator, and with the concurrence of the NASA Administrator.

Primary reasons for the move were a combination of highly limited launch opportunities for Dawn in July and the potential impact to launch preparations for the upcoming Phoenix Mars Lander mission, set for early August. A September launch for Dawn maintains all of the science mission goals a July launch would have provided.

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