By way of explanation:
Top cop predicts robot crimewave
Technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says.
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Clearances for Felons?
SSCI Warns Against Clearances for Ex-Convicts.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence endorsed a statutory prohibition that prevents the Department of Defense from granting security clearances to former convicts who have served a year or more in jail, individuals who are mentally incompetent, are drug addicts, or have been dishonorably discharged from the military.The Pentagon had requested a repeal of that provision, first enacted in 2000, and the request was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“The [Intelligence] Committee understands DoD’s desire to have more flexibility to give clearances to otherwise qualified individuals who are currently barred from receiving or renewing their security clearances.”
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They are so short on people that they want to clear felons?
But still, they are engaging in anti-gay witchunts.
Welcome to our broken military.
Even by the standards of the WSJ editorial page, which has a relationship to truth analogous to the relationship that Ebola has to French kissing.
Mark Thoma, an economist, blogs writes about the vicissitudes of the Laffer curve.
What the Laffer curve says is that there is a point where tax increases, through depressing economic activity, and encouraging tax avoidance behavior, will actually depress revenue.
It’s fairly straightforward. the question is where this point.
So Kevin Hasset, comes up with the following graph:
What’s wrong with the graph? He’s plotting through three points out of over a dozen to push a lie.
A least squares regression gets this:
Tax receipts increase as taxes go up, now there’s a shocker.
In fact Laffer himself suggested that the point where tax receipts would drop would be well north of 50%.
There is the additional lie that much of what they are showing by way of Norway’s revenues are as a direct result of revenues generated by it’s massive reserves in fossil fuels.
Deliberately and transparently dishonest editorials are being given legitimacy because of the sterling news operation of the Journal, and is why there is a part of me that hopes that Murdock destroys the WSJ.
It appears that Blackstone partners may avoid taxes on their IPO profits completely.
Here is the short form:
...
The paper says that of the $4.75 billion raised by the Blackstone IPO, the firm attributed $3.7 billion to good will, an accounting term that estimates the value of the intangible assets rather than tangible assets such as buildings and equipment owned by the firm.That $3.7 billion is taxed at a 15 percent tax rate used for capital gains, meaning that the firms’ partners had to pay taxes of $553 million on their gain.
But by transferring that good will to a new corporate structure, the firm is able to deduct that $3.7 billion as a business expense at a 35 percent tax rate, reducing taxes by $1.3 billion over a 15-year period, according to the report.
The Times reports that under terms of the IPO, the Blackstone partners are entitled to 85 percent of those tax savings, or $1.1 billion. They are also able to account for those savings as a lump sum, when adjusting for the current value of those savings over the next 15 years. That brings current tax savings to $751 million, or $198 more than they had been required to pay in taxes on the $3.7 billion gain seen from the IPO.
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Damn!!! It’s enough to make one a Marxist.
Truth is, I am, but Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo, not Karl.
Well, it appears that my report of the jury being deadlocked was a bit premature. They just found Conrad Black guilty of guilty of three counts of mail fraud and one charge of obstruction of justice.
One wonders about some of his well connected board members, like Richard Pearle and Henry Kissinger, who might now be at some risk of either civil or criminal proceedings for enabling his larcenous habits.
One can hope.
Retail sales fell 0.9 percent in June.
While one bad month does not a trend make (May was OK), when juxtaposed to rising oil and gas prices, a crashing housing market, and the dollar dropping, I’m concerned.
Crooks and liars has the vid of Olbermann’s special comment On Michael Chertoff’s Gut.
Watch it.
Once again, he’s on fire.
well, it appears that a bunch of deranged right wing bigots decided to disrupt the Senate invocation.
This is intolerant and un American. And all real Americans should condemn this in the strongest possible terms.
These folks hate us for our freedom.
Bush just quietly announced that he willVeto any measure that limits his ability to bomb Iran.
From the White House Statement of Administration Policy(pdf):
Amendments on Iran: The Administration strongly opposes amendments to the bill to restrict the ability of the United States to deal effectively with the threats to regional security posed by the conduct of Iran, including Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Administration also notes that provisions of law that purport to direct or prohibit international negotiations, covert action, or use of the armed forces are inconsistent with the Constitution’s commitment exclusively to the presidency of the executive power, the function of Commander-in-Chief, and the authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign policy. If the bill were presented to the President with provisions that would prevent the President from protecting America and allied and cooperating nations from threats posed by Iran, the President’ senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.
I’m feeling much better now.
This hobby, blogging, to support another hobby, my annual printed on paper newsletter is just that a hobby.
My opinions ans analysis are my own, and if I say something bad about a government program, campaign, etc., most likely I will not be contacting that government program, campaign, etc. before posting.
If you think that it’s wrong, post in the comments, or send to my email, and I will consider your points.
If you convince me that I’m wrong, I’ll retract or take other appropriate measures.
It appears that astronomers have found water on an extrasolar planet.
While this planet, HD 189733b, probably does not support life, it’s a gas giant, this implies that water is rather common in the system, and life of some sort might be found on other planets.
The 305. A send up of the 300. Laughed my ass off.
TPM Cafe flagged this statement by Joe Biden on Bush’s load of crap interim progress report on Iraq:
This progress report is like the guy who’s falling from a 100-story building and says half-way down that ‘everything’s fine.’
He’s not my first (or even 3rd) choice for the Democratic nominee, but major props to him.
It comes from the other Matt, Matthew Yglesias:
Jim Geraghty reports that Tony Snow is calling for a ‘surge of facts.’ I presume that means he’ll be resigning.
Seriously. I’m going to need to set up a house of prostitution at the next Republican convention. I’ll make enough money to never have to work again.
Other Republicans:
Please pass the popcorn.
It turns out that the Bush administration forbade the Surgeon General from going to the special Olympics.
The reason given?
Why couldn’t he attend? Because of the games’ association with a certain “prominent family.”
Carmona: “I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?'” (Let’s be charitable and assume that by “those people,” the official meant the family and not the disabled children.) When asked after the hearing whether that “prominent family” was the Kennedys, Carmona replied, “You said it. I didn’t.”
Take a breath and contemplate this. The nation’s top health officer wanted to go to a completely non-political event and pin a few medals on the proud chests of disabled kids. And he was barred from doing so because showing up would have constituted lending aid and comfort to the Kennedys.
Bush and his evil minions™ politicized the bloody Special Olympics.
How small, how petty, and how evil do you have to be to do this.
An American Airlines employee, boarding an American Airlines flight from an American Airlines bus caused a flight cancellation because he appeared to be of “middle eastern origin”.
And we also have case of flying while a Cancer survivor, in which a woman was made to remove her prosthetic breast and check it through luggage.
It’s not just that this stuff is stupid. This stuff is counterproductive. DHS has, for reasonso of political expedience and incompetence, created an atmosphere where panic reigns, and this makes it easier, not harder for someone wishing to do bad things to succeed.
You end up with primate brain (terrorist) against lizard brain (panic).
I know, mixed metaphor, but this is important. Contact your congresscritter about this.
Court denies stay of Internet radio execution
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Thursday 12th July 2007 18:50 GMTThe Internet radio death watch continues. Late yesterday, a federal appeals court denied an emergency stay petition from webcasters, refusing to delay the arrival of massive royalty hikes that threaten to bring down online radio as we know it. The new royalty rates – which could mean a 300 per cent payment increase for large stations, 1200 per cent for smaller broadcasters – are due to kick in this Sunday.
The stay was rejected with a single sentence from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent standards required for a stay pending court review,” the order read.
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In March, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board set down new royalty rates that would require webcasters to pay 8 hundredths of a cent each time they broadcast a song to an individual listener. That’s $0.0008 per song per listener – and it’s retroactive to the beginning of 2006. According to Ward, this amounts to a 300 per cent rake hike for the even the largest Internet radio stations, 1,200 per cent for the smallest webcasters. Most, he says, could not afford to stay in business. By 2010, rates are scheduled to hit $0.0019 per song per listener.
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And then there is the whole issue of retroactivity? By making it retroactive, will any new works be created?
No, they will not.
We have copyright to “encourage the useful arts and sciences”, to quote the constitution.
IP law is public interest law in the US. That’s how the constitution defines it, and why it allows it.
Under the current IP regime, Moby Dick would never have been reprinted after its initial publication, and there would be no Shakespeare at all. Both were rediscovered after the author’s deaths.
According to Raw Story, Hustler magazine is involved in more than 20 sex scandal investigations.
Flynt is saying that about the hypocrisy, not the sex….Whatever.
Referring to his past court battles over indecency charges, the hardcore magazine publisher said the government “did everything it could for 15 years” to put him behind bars.
“This is payback time,” he said. “And payback’s a bitch.”
British troops are being blamed for a plague of “honey badgers” melivora capensis in Basra.
“They are native to the region but rare in Iraq. They’re nocturnal carnivores with a fearsome reputation, but they don’t stalk humans and carry them back to their lair.”
The occupation of Iraq has just entered the twilight zone.