In yesterday’s debate, he had the money quote, “Rudy Giuliani doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. He’s the most uninformed person in American foreign policy that’s now running for president.“
Month: September 2007
The Senate’s Sense About Iran
It got approved with 76-22-2, with John McCain and (once again) Barack Obama not voting, but it was modified significantly.
Original Language:
“It is the sense of the Senate . . . (3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies; [and] (4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies” (my emphases).
According to Andrew Kent (linked above), this was dropped, though I am not clear if the bolded sections, which are in the original, or the whole paragraphs were dropped.
As it stands, it calls the Iranians bad people, though it does call the Republican Guard a terrorist organization.
Senator Ben Nelson (DINO-NE) Can Go Cheney Himself
Ben Nelson told the committee chair that he would vote to approve Hans von Spakovsky for the Federal Elections Commission, so he was passed to the senate for a full vote.
“Clever Hans” is the Bush Administration’s minority voter suppression guru. Specifically:
- attempted to intimidate Justice Department employees
- stifle their appeals
- single-handedly disenfranchise thousands of Arizonans
- Overrode his staff to approve the Tom Delay redistricting.
- Overrode his staff to approve the Georgia
Poll Taxvoter ID plan - Gave false testimony (later modified in written answers) to the committee about it
White House Releases English as a Second Language Guides
Funny.
Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Oops — White House Releases Bush’s Pronunciation Guides: “A guide was given not only for an admittedly tough one like Kyrgyzstan (‘KEYR-geez-stan’), but also for Nicolas Sarkozy (‘sar-KO-zee’), which seems pretty simple to pronounce as it is.”
Nominee for US Attorney General Represented Iranian Front Group
Absolutely bloody amazing. This is not the gang that can’t shoot strait, it’s the gang that does not know how to pull a trigger.
Iraq Government Finally Gets to Work on Something Useful
They are drafting a law regulating mercenaries military contractors.
It’s a problem, it is viewed as a problem by all ethnic groups, it appears to be moving toward a resolution, and it’s not a sell out to US oil companies.
The Press in Canuckistan Gets It
It’s a clickable image, and the article is a good read.
U.S. Sues Illinois to Let Employers Use Immigrant Databases
The state of Illinois has passed a law forbids employers from enrolling in the federal worker verification database program, and the feds have filed suit against this.
This is one case where Michael Chertoff is right. (I can’t believe that I said that)
The law pre-empts a federal one, which is unconstitutional, and prohibiting employers from making an honest attempt to verify that their employers are, in fact, legal is simply crazy.
I tend to be a bit of a hard liner on immigration*, but I think that an objective of making it easier for employers to verify that job applicants are not breaking the law is a basic goal of any society. Illegal aliens do not have an inherent right to work in the US.
That being said, the database is buggy and slow, and needs to be fix.
*I favor going after employers who negligently employ illegals hard (think forfeiture), and offering bounties by way of green cards for illegals who rat these employers out.
Rating Agencies and Appraisors and Free Market Failure
It appears that Congress is getting ready to bash the rating agencies. We’ve seen similar things with real estate appraisers, though more at the local level.
What we are seeing here is a basic failure of a largely unregulated part of the market. Moody’s, S&P, and your local appraiser are all in a similar situation. If they look too closely, their customer will go to another appraiser or rating agency, hence you have unrealistic ratings on securities and unrealistic appraisals on houses.
The financial markets cannot police themselves.
GE Transportation Systems is Testing Ground for Executives
It appears that GE wants to give their executives a bit of hands on experience with manufacturing, so they send them to GE Transportation Systems in Erie, Pa.
I find it interesting because I worked there for two years. It was interesting work, I got paid to watch them smack two locomotives together at about 3 mph (Uncle Fester, eat your heart out), but Erie sucks wet farts from dead pigeons.
When I was there, Jack Welch was doing his level best to kill the place, because he personally hated the local head of the union, Jimmy Nelson, and now it’s the hot place for corporate climbers.
Then again, Bob Nardelli, of Home Depot infamy was head of GETS for a while.
I was lead engineer on the blower cab for the AC6000, among other things.
Real Estate Continues to Crater
We now havelowest sales level in 5 years, and the steepest price drop in 16 years, a 4.3% drop from July, and the Case-Shiller index showing a 4.5% price drop. Foreclosures have more than doubled, and we have a 10+ month inventory.
Blue Cross Calls a Miscarriage an “Elective Abortion” and Denies Claim
We need socialized medicine now, but first, lets kill all insurance executives.
Here are the last few paras of the story from the Consumerist:
On, Sep, 21 2007 I received a statement for BCBS that they were denying all of the claim. I called them and asked why they were denying the entire claim, and was told by Jane, “We do not cover ELECTIVE abortions. If you chose to terminate your pregnancy for non-health threatening reasons, BCBS will not cover it.” WTF!!!??? I asked her, “Are you saying that my records state that I had an ELECTIVE abortion, in an ER at 12 o’clock in the morning?” It was then, I think it clicked in Jane’s mind what she was dealing with and told me how sorry she was. I lost my cool and even started crying. I had a miscarriage not an abortion, and being treated in such a condescending way by BCBS really ticked me off. Thinking what an incredibly huge screw up, BCBS will be right on it trying to fix this, well you would be wrong. I was told to call the hospital and have them fax over my records stating I didn’t have an elective abortion. Who the heck can get an elective abortion in a busy ER at 12am, anyway?
Mind you we have had Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City for less than three months, they have denied every claim we have submitted to them. EVERYONE! Even though all claims are clearly covered under our policy, is this the going to be the norm dealing with BCBS? Any help would be very much appreciated!
-Tonya Gullino
Will No One Rid Me of These Troublesome Ninjas?
Women dressed as Ninjas rob a gas station with swords. I smell movie. Either some sort of Thelma and Louise thing, or pr0n.
UAW Strike is Over
Obviously the agreement needs to be approved by the membership, but this is likely.
Maryland Politics: Slots
Ever since before Paris Glendenning left office, Maryland has been in a situation where the state has a structural deficit. Basically, Glendenning beat Ellen Saurbreey in a VERY close race in 1994, and proceeded to implement her cockamamie tax proposals at the height of the dotcom boom in order to score political points, and in so doing left the state with a structural deficit.
The governor following Glendening, Bob “Bad Hair” Ehrlich (R-Cluelessville) who had defeated Glendenning’s Lt. Governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (Possibly the worst candidate in the history of…well…history, and definitely in the history of the Kennedys).
He was a big fan of slots, and it was the central plank of his campaign, as a way to close the deficit, which ignores the mathematical reality of the situation. He also was completely clueless, not having even the remotest plan about how to implement slots, so his first proposal when he was governor was so bad that the racetracks (horse, not NASCAR) who were the primary beneficiaries of his plan were aghast.
So, it went back and forth, between the House Speaker Mike Busch generally being opposed to slots, and Senate Leader Mike Miller generally supporting them.
Both houses passed slots bills in 2005, but they were very different. The Senate provided for gambling at the racetracks, and the house bill had (largely) state owned machines at state owned sites along I-95 towards Delaware (where there are slots) and in Western Maryland towards West Virginia (where there are also slots), the theory being to catch Maryland residents before they spend that money out of state.
Disclosure: I am opposed to slots, not because I oppose gambling, but because I think that an over reliance on “sin” revenue casts taxes as something for bad people to pay, as opposed to dues that everyone pays to be a member of society.
Well, now that Martin O’Malley is governor, both the legislature and the executive are willing to face reality, and as such there are going to be some revenue increases, both taxes and slots.
Truth be told, slots are going to be a pretty small part of the picture revenue wise, but Mike Miller is retiring, and feels the need to get slots implemented as part of his “legacy”.
O’Malley has been in negotiation with the legislature, and his plan includes income tax increases at the higher brackets, increases in the sales taxes, and an increase in the gas tax to take into account Ehrlich’s raiding of the transportation budget.
The funny thing is that his slots plan is largely identical to the house plan of 2005.
Logistically, it makes sense, put the slots on the way to where people are going, and let the state own them so as to get the most revenue (though there is about $100 million to subsidize horse racing annually* and $6 million a year would go to help problem gamblers).
It also ends up placing the slots in largely rural and largely Republican areas. (heh)
The question now is whether O’Malley will submit this on its own, which would get a lot of Republican votes, or as part of a whole revenue package, which forces the Republicans to choose between slots (which they like, since people are already doing it out of state anyway) and the tax increases (which is all they have left to campaign on).
My money is on it coming out together, to shiv the ‘Phants†, though the charitable explanation is that it will be harder to get this through the house, so you go with something that they have already passed.
Amazingly enough there are not yet any allegations of graft, which in Maryland is no small thing.
*I know, kind of silly to prop up a dying business, but horse racing in Maryland has a bizarre attachment to some folks, as leg two of the Triple Crown is at Pimlico, and all.
†Short for Elephants…Republicans that is.
Republican Whines About Moveon Ad, But Can’t Name Last Soldier to Die in Her District
His name was Private Jeremy S. Bohannon. Hat tip to Oliver Willis on the Catch.
Truth be told, I did not know his name either, but I’m not being sanctimonious about screeching about Moveon.org. Let’s get the troops home.
Finally, an Endorsement From Me
Mark Pera for Congress (Il-03).
The Illinois 3rd district is very solidly Democratic (+10% dem), and the incumbent, Dan Lipinski is one of the worst Bush Dogs out there. He’s pro war, favors criminalizing abortion, and supported federal intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo.
As an aside, this is a “safe” endorsement for me, because even if my jinx* holds true, it’s still a vote for Speaker Pelosi.
Besides, Lipinski is a Democrat that we can simply do without.
*Yes, I know that superstitions are silly, and I frequently belittle people for them, but this, and the Hope Diamond† are where my rationality deserts me.
‡I wouldn’t take that cursed diamond if you paid me.
Bob Herbert Gets is: Republicans are Racist Scum
Read his article, The Ugly Side of the G.O.P. – New York Times.
Here is an excerpt:
…
Dr. Carolyn Goodman, a woman I was privileged to call a friend, died last month at the age of 91. She was the mother of Andrew Goodman, one of the three young civil rights activists shot to death by rabid racists near Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964.
Dr. Goodman, one of the most decent people I have ever known, carried the ache of that loss with her every day of her life.
In one of the vilest moves in modern presidential politics, Ronald Reagan, the ultimate hero of this latter-day Republican Party, went out of his way to kick off his general election campaign in 1980 in that very same Philadelphia, Miss. He was not there to send the message that he stood solidly for the values of Andrew Goodman. He was there to assure the bigots that he was with them.
“I believe in states’ rights,” said Mr. Reagan. The crowd roared.
In 1981, during the first year of Mr. Reagan’s presidency, the late Lee Atwater gave an interview to a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University, explaining the evolution of the Southern strategy:
“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”
…
Patrick Leahy Cuts Admiral Mike McConnell a New One
The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee lit into the Director of National Intelligence before his opening statement.
And well he should, McConnell is suggesting that oversight is aiding terrorists.
...Leahy pointed to a line in McConnell’s prepared statement suggesting that “some” do not appreciate the threat posed by al-Qaeda, and, visibly angry, warned him against accusing “any Senator on this panel” of playing fast and loose with national security.
And he called on McConnell to end his “irresponsible” repeated comments that debating changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will mean that “some Americans are going to die.”
Oregon Deems Family’s Last Name Offensive
The Udink’s license plates have been confiscated by the Oregon DMV, they were Udink1, Udink2, and Udink2.
While I understand how this could be construed as not nice, but it’s not like the family was named “phuque”. Udink is a relatively common Dutch name.