Month: November 2007

Yeah, Right, No Connection to the Ron Paul Campaign

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Feds raid private mint, Norfed, for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, in addition to currency related violations.

Here is the interesting part:

Norfed officials said yesterday that the six-hour raid occurred just as its six employees were mailing out the first batch of 60,000 “Ron Paul Dollars,” copper coins sold for $1 to honor the candidate, who is a longtime advocate of abolishing the Federal Reserve. The group says it has shipped out about 10,000 silver Ron Paul Dollars that sold for $20 and about 3,500 of the copper $1 coins. But it said the agents seized more than 50,000 of the copper coins — more than two tons’ worth — plus smaller amounts of the silver coins and gold and platinum Ron Paul Dollars, which sell for $1,000 and $2,000.

….

A Paul campaign spokeswoman said yesterday that the campaign has “no affiliation” with the Ron Paul Dollars.

Just like the people using zombie networks to crank out Ron Paul spam, “no affiliation” to the Paul campaign.

It appears that someone in the campaign has ties with groups of dishonest people who cheat others for their own profit, and that they are calling in favors.

Who the hell is running this campaign, Vincent “the Chin” Gigante?

CNN Sucks Wet Farts From Dead Pigeons

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Un-dirtyword-believeable. During the audience questions at the last debate, Maria Luisa, a UNLV student asked Hillary Clinton “whether she preferred “diamonds or pearls”. Now it turns out that CNN planted the question and forced her to ask it.

Wolf Blitzer, and the CNN corresponds, are a human stain.

I want Keith Olbermann to moderate a debate. Heck, I’d settle for Homer Simpson moderating the debate.

Of course my fantasy would be for Jon Stewart to moderate, but that is too much to ask.

Krugman Nails Fuzzy and Dangerous Thinking by Obama

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Barak Obama has chosen to attack Hillary Clinton on inaction on what he calls “the social security crisis”. He does not get it.

While people have some legitimate concerns about Social Security in the (very) distant future, the problem facing the US is that health care is eating us up.

What’s more, not only do the vast majority of Americans find the Republican meme of a “Social Security Crisis” to be pathetic and stupid Republican double talk, so does an overwhelming majority of the Republicans out there.

In fact, the only people who are selling the crisis meme about social security besides corrup partisan Republican hacks like Grover Norquist and Bush and His Evil Minions™ are the Very Serious People inside the beltway, the Fred Hyatts, the Charles Krauthammers, the Bob Novaks, etc.

The very serious people in the beltway are wrong about EVERYTHING, and he seems determined to please him.

When Krugman titles today’s OP/ED, “Played for a Sucker, he is more right than you can possibly imagine.

The American people don’t care about bipartisanship. They want a government that works for them. They do not care how it is accomplished, but they want a rising standard of living, and to stop living in fear and uncertainty that the next illness can wipe them out, and Barak Obama, like the rest of the Very Serious People inside the beltway, don’t care about that.

All they care about is that they can go to each other’s cocktail parties and have a nice time. They do not care about the government working for them.

To quote the future Nobel prize winner in economics:

I don’t believe Mr. Obama is a closet privatizer. He is, however, someone who keeps insisting that he can transcend the partisanship of our times — and in this case, that turned him into a sucker.

Mr. Obama wanted a way to distinguish himself from Hillary Clinton — and for Mr. Obama, who has said that the reason “we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions” is that “politics has become so bitter and partisan,” joining in the attack on Senator Clinton’s Social Security position must have seemed like a golden opportunity to sound forceful yet bipartisan.

But Social Security isn’t a big problem that demands a solution; it’s a small problem, way down the list of major issues facing America, that has nonetheless become an obsession of Beltway insiders. And on Social Security, as on many other issues, what Washington means by bipartisanship is mainly that everyone should come together to give conservatives what they want.

This position on Social Security, much like his despicable use of dog whistle anti-gay bigotry in his South Carolina campaign, is something that the Very Serious People inside the beltway appreciate. They think that the rest of us are stupid. They think that we are bigoted rubes.

They want nothing to do with the people who live in America and make things work, and they don’t want to make things better, because they are doing fine right now, and having to work for a living is beneath them.

Yes, Saddam Was a Tyrant, But He Had Nothing on the House of Saud

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A 19 year old woman is gang raped. The court’s solution is 200 lashes and a six-month prison sentence for her.

The House of Saud has created a backward and evil society, and bribed most of the Arab and Islamic world int following their twisted view of the world and divine using found money in the form of oil revenues.

Most of the 911 hijackers were subjects of the House of Saud.

If there is a bright and shining center to the Arab or Islamic world, the House of Saud is at the place farthest from it.

Dodd Closes Nevada Campaign Office

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Put a fork in him, he is done. This is more than a retrenchment, caucuses are one place where organization can trump name recognition.

The only thing that might bring his campaign now, is if Harry Reid sides with the telcos on the FISA bill, and Dodd actually has to physically filibuster.

Needless to say, I hope that Reid does the right thing, telco immunity takes the lawlessness of Bush and His Evil Minions™, and enshrines it into statute. It creates a precedent where any corporate wrongdoer can simply buy absolution.

FISA Bill Update: House Passes, Senate Telco Immunity Up to Harry Reid

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The house passed their, not quite so nauseating version 227-189, which sounds like an almost party line vote.

As to the senate version, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted out a version without telco immunity, but did not formally strip it from the version from the Intel Committee, so Harry Reid gets to decide which one hits the floor.

Call Harry Reid’s office: (202) 224-3542.

Army Beats Air Force on Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) Program

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This was a relatively small (1/2 the size of a C-130) cargo aircraft, with the C-27J Spartan winning the competition.

The conflict was that TheHill.com – Army poised to win fight over cargo aircraft

They got it because the USAF is cutting everything in an effort to get more bling like F-22s and C-17s.

The Army and Air Force National Guard are slated to fly the C-27J, the aircraft selected for the JCA program.

Had the Army lost responsibility for the program, more Air National Guard units would have flown the C-27J in support of homeland defense missions. But Army supporters argued that the Air Force did not have the necessary staffing or processes in place to take over the program in a timely manner. Had that takeover occurred, the Army argued, it could have wound up delaying the program by at least a year.

And then there is the US Army experience with what happens when the USAF takes over small STOL cargo aircraft. They have restrictions that greatly reduce the utility of the aircraft to the ground troops.

Being Forced to Price Radioactive Toxic Waste at Market Values

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Sometimes, someone writes something that captures the totality of a situation in just a few words. In this case, it is my favorite bear, Nouriel Roubini on FASB 157, which, as I’ve mentioned before, requires more stringent evaluations of exotic financial instruments.

It really is forcing people to price assets that they thought had value, but are now viewed with the enthusiasm of a radioactive toxic waste sandwich.

Sounds like a job for Troma Films.

So Cal Home Prices Drop 20 2005 Levels

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Additionally, home sales are at a 20 year low. Of interest is the reports of some “bargain hunters” returning to the market.

When one looks at crashes, whether real-estate, or other assets, I think that this qualifies as a whistling in the dark.

We’ll have some more of that, and at least one dead cat bounce* before this is over.

*It refers to a short term spike in values during a bear market. It comes from the expression that “even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height”.

Sensitive Guantanamo Bay Day to Day Gulag Manual Leaked

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The 238+ page document, “Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures”, dated March 2003, was leaked and the whole document (pdf) is now at available at wikileaks.org.

Among the revelations:

  • Detainees prohibited access (or possibly concealed, it is unclear) to the Red Cross in violation of US treaty obligations, and the word of George W. Bush and senior members of his cabinet.
  • Control of the availability toilet paper as a disciplinary tool. (WTF????)
  • Routine use of dogs in the compound soley for the purpose of intimidation.

Nice gulag you have there, Bushie.

Giuliani Has Been Fox’s Bitch for Over a Decade

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And I’m not referring to the former President of Mexico. I am referring to Rupert Murdoch’s broadcast and cable empire.

It’s a story of payback to political friends, lawbreaking with the management of the New York cable system, and lucrative cable consulting gigs for Giuliani after he left office.

It’s why Fox is playing touch on his use of their debate footage, and that Fox has been so supportive of him, even when compared to other Republican candidates.