It’s almost certain to get the votes to go on the ballot now.
Personally, I’m voting against it. I don’t approve of “Sin” taxes. It creates the meme that only bad people pay taxes. Everyone should pay taxes.
Month: November 2007
Who Lent Harry Reid Some Balls?
It looks like Harry Reid will keep the Senate in session over the weekend to force a vote on the Iraq withdrawal plan.
Good for him. To paraphrase Rob Reiner’s mom, “I’ll have what he’s having.”
State Dept Backs Backtracks on Forced Assignments
They are now claiming that they have found enough volunteers.
Yeah, right.
[img]http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3149/604nilees6.jpg[/img]
Barry Bonds Indicted
My comment on this entire affair is the following:
Whether one wants to consider his home run record real or not is up to them, but with, or without steroids, Bonds deserves to be in the hall of fame.
I have no clue as to whether race plays into this, but the fact that he never kissed sports writer butt appears to have made the coverage far more hostile than, for example the big wet kiss that the press continues to give Mark McGuire, and no one ever talked about an asterisk with him.
Report: FISA Bill Does Not Contain Telco Immunity
This is very good news, if true. Here is the report:
Here’s a bit more detail on what happened on the Judiciary Committee today. Sources say Senator Russ Feingold offered an amendment that would have stripped telecom immunity from the bill, but it was defeated. Then Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking GOPer on the committee, offered a “compromise” amendment saying that in these lawsuits the Federal government, and not the telecoms, would be the defendants.
But because of a procedural difficulty Specter’s amendment wasn’t voted on — and Senator Patrick Leahy, the chair of the committee, essentially went around Specter’s amendment and moved to have a vote to report the bill out of committee without any telecom immunity in it. That passed along strictly party lines. And that’s where we are.
The interesting thing is that this is a fight that Bush can’t win, if the Dems show some backbone.
If nothing passes, we are back to the old FISA bill. If he vetos over this, he has to explain why.
Housing Contageon Infects Commercial Real Estate
The decrease in commercial/multifamily lending activity during the third quarter was driven by decreases in originations for most property types. When compared to the third quarter of 2006, the overall decrease included a 31 percent decrease in loans for office properties, a 20 percent decrease in loans for retail properties, an 18 percent decrease in loans for hotel properties, an 8 percent decrease in loans for industrial properties, as well as a 149 percent increase in loans for health care properties and a 14 percent increase in loans for multifamily properties.
So the things that increased were our tremendously inefficient health care system, and apartments for people who are no longer buying homes.
Brkk: Dems Work to Foil White House Recess Ploys, Again
Remember when I wrote that Harry Reid had decided to keep the senate in pro forma session to prevent recess appointments?
He backed off after cutting a deal with Bush, but it now appears to be breaking down, so it looks like the Senate will stay in pro forma session over the Thanksgiving recess.
Considering where Mukulski, Cardin and Webb live, and that you only need one of them to hold a pro forma session, why deal with the Avignon president at all?
Jobless Claims Jump
Jobless claims hits 339,000, they were expecting about 10,000 less.
Schadenfreude, It’s All David Vitter, All the Time
The rumors were something involving him in diapers.
Vote Democratic….Our perverts are far less disturbing.
House Looks to Pass Only Mildly Nauseating Wiretap Bill
It extends wiretapping further than I would like, but it requires at least some court review, and has no Telco immunity.
It looks like it will pass, the rule for the bill just passed, largely on party lines 224-192.
Attorney General Calls for Veto if no Telco Immunity
Pat Leahy has an ammendment stripping out the telco immunity from the FISA update. Michael Mukasey and DNI Michael McConnell, who believes that any discussion of intelligence will kill us all, have authored a letter to the Juciciary committee opposing the change:
“We strongly oppose the proposed substitute amendment. If the substitute is part of a bill that is presented to the president, we and the president’s other senior advisers will recommend that he veto the bill.
Who the hell cares if Bush vetos this bill?
If nothing gets passed, we go back to the old law, and the old restrictions, in a few months.
The Myth of Home Ownership and Plunging African American Home Ownership Rates
In 1994, Black home ownership was at 42.3%. In 2004, it was 49.7%. It has now dropped to 46.7%.
The rise in home ownership rates was really pretty meteoric, and the drop is even steeper.
Dean Baker makes the point, which I agree with, that the idea that increased home ownership is a good in and of itself is a bad policy with significant negative consequences, or as he so eloquently puts it, “In other words, the big push to increase African American homeownership rates was in reality a big push to increase foreclosure rates among African American households, but the ideologues of homeownership were too blind to notice the impact of their policies.”
Home ownership provides benefits, like the creation of equity, but it also adds significant risks to the equation. When something major breaks, roof, hvac, plumbing, the home owner can face SIGNIFICANT unanticipated expenses, and the downsides of foreclosure are worse than those of eviction.
This policy was a centerpiece of the conservative “Ownership Society”, and it is having disastrous consequences, and it appears that these consequences will become more dire for the foreseeable future.
Dennis Hastert to AnnounceToday
Abu Gonzalez Has Set Up a Legal Defense Fund
I sense the Ghost of John Mitchell.
My heart bleeds at the thoughtthat Gonzales is facing serious legal costs in response to a DoJ investigation of potential perjury and witness tampering.
You know, telling the truth and being honorable might be cheaper in the long run.
Sapient Pearwood
Some Russians have developed a motorized, gyro-stabilized suitcase that follows you around.
Shades of Terry Pratchett.
Spanish cartoonists fined for royal sex mag cover
As I noted 4 months ago, a Spanish satire mag El Jueves got into legal trouble for publishing a cartoon showing the Spanish Crown Prince and his wife en flagrante delecto, the caption, “Do you realise that if you get pregnant . . . It will be the closest thing to work I’ve done in my life?” on the cover.
The two cartoonists have now been fined €3000 each. If I were them, I’d appeal to the European court of human rights.
Making fun of the royals should be a basic human right.
GE Fund Breaks the Buck
The GEAM Trust Enhanced Cash Trust, is shutting down, and investors are getting $0.96/share. While this is a money fund, and not a money market fund, it is generally viewed as only a marginally higher risk, and losing money is nearly unheard of. Typically, it is a guaranteed $1 in, and $1 out, with the risk being that returns would be poor.
There is a possibility that this might happen with Money Market funds too, though it is less likely, as they are more tightly regulated, and they make safer investments, because their investment strategy is not as aggressive.
Don Young (R-AK) Wiretapped in Corruption Probe
The FBI taped calls between him and Don Smith, President of Veco, which apparently bribed half of the Republicans in the state.
Of note, Young participated in informal “Golf tournaments” with political supporters, with 10-15 people playing, and the winner keeping the $100 contributed by everyone, and his record would make Tiger Woods envious.
House Passes Iraq Pullout Funding Bill
Hopefully, this will pass the senate too. It funds to the tune of $50 billion, and requires that troops start being withdrawn within 30 days with a complete withdrawal by Dec. 15, 2008.
As I’ve mentioned earlier Reid is promising a real filibuster, where the ‘Phants will have to talk, on this, so it should get interesting.
The voting is interesting, Republicans Phil English (PA), Walter Jones (NC), Christopher Shays (CT) and James Walsh (NY) supported the bill. This was the first time that either English (who once bumped me off a plane flight, not because he was a congressman, but because of the luck of the draw), and Walsh voted for such a bill, so we do have some evidence of a gradual peeling off of Republican support.
On the Democratic side, we had the following Bush Dogs: John Tanner (TN), Brian Baird (WA), Dan Boren (OK), Jim Cooper (TN), Gene Taylor (MS), John Barrow (GA), Jim Marshall (GA), Jim Matheson (UT), Nick Lampson (TX) and Vic Snyder (AR).
Will no one rid me of these turbulent Bush Dogs?
House Dems Wimp Out, Delay Contempt Vote
Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers have refused a subpoena to testify before congress about the US Attorney scandal, and John Conyers has been asking for the House of Representatives to pass a contempt citation.
Well, it now appears, that they are again delaying the vote, this time to December:
Other top Democrats, including Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), have argued that the House should put off that fight while debates over Iraq funding and electronic eavesdropping dominate the floor. The contempt vote had been tentatively scheduled for Friday before Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) informed his colleagues that it was being delayed.
We really need some serious primary challenges for the wimp caucus, both Hoyer and Emanuel.