Unfortunately, it’s the Osmonds, who have just endoraed Mitt Romney.
Gah!!!! I’ve now got an Osmond’s song going through my head!!!
Month: November 2007
Perjury
Howard “Cookie” Krongard is the inspector general for the State Department. This guy is a political hack, with a record of stonwalling DoJ investigations and threatening whistleblowers.
Needless to say, since Democrats are running things, it has meant a trip before the House Oversight Committee. It did not go well, as “Cookie” had to recuse himself from investigations of Blackwater because his brother, A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard,* is on one of its advisory panels at an annual pay of $10-15K. He said that he had only become aware of it that day.
The problem is that his Brother just gave an interview where he says that he told his brother in October that he was joining the board.
Oops. It appears that handcuffs may be the Republican fashion statement in 2009.
*Yeah, it’s the stupid nickname crime family. You have Cookie, Buzzy, Turdblossom, Shrub, and the Human Stain (Cheney).
Fannie Mae Changing Accounting Practices to Conceal Losses
Fannie Mae has changed the way it computes credit loss ratio, a measure of the quality of its loans.
Bigger numbers are bad, and under the new scheme, the number is 4 basis points, but under the old scheme, it would have been 7½ basis points.
I believe that Fannie is the 2nd biggest issuer of debt in the world, and the fact that the quality of their loan portfolio is almost twice as bad as their numbers suggest is scary.
Georgians Want the Name of Nutjob Cynthia McKinney off of Road
As a result of an earmark some years back, a portion of Memorial Drive was named after her. Now that she’s lost the election, moved to California, and is looking at running for president as a Green, they want her name off.
She’s always been a nutjob who got where she was because of her family name…a lot like George W. Good riddance.
Driving While Lap Dancing
Well, it looks like everyone’s favorite drunken wife beating former congressman John Sweeney is at it again. After being defeated by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, in large part due to allegations of drunkenness and spousal abuse, is at it again.
Well, after weaving, he was pulled over by the cops, and the “one-time STOP-DWI coordinator for Rensselaer County” blew a 0.18 percent, more than twice the limit.
The kicker, he had a 23 year old woman on his lap when he was pulled over.
Gotta love them Republithug values.
Musharraf Opponent Facing Terror Charges
Imran Khan heads a small party, and charging him is just loony. Musharraf is going down, and the question is whether he leaves Pakistan, or is buried there.
Senate Democrats Plan Real Filibuster
You know, the whole Mr. Smith Goes to Washington thing, where people will actually have to hold the floor and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, AND TALK.
It would be on the Iraq withdrawal bill.
Some background: for about the past 30 years, when someone has declared the intent to filibuster, they take a cloture vote, and if it fails, the measure is pulled from the floor. No one is actually forced to do the Jimmy Stewart thing.
It was thought that this was a more efficient use of the Senate’s time, since while a filibuster is going on, nothing else can pass the floor.
The side effect of the change allowing filibusters without talking is that they have become far easier, and they are done on the small business too. Here is an illustrative graphic showing the trend:
Note that while I applaud the strategy, I feel that it does not go far enough.
The “non-filibuster filibuster” is a matter of courtesy, and it clear that part of the deal is that it not be abused. The courtesy should be completely eliminated. Require speeches for all filibusters.
Ag Department Approves Treatment to Make Meat Look Good Long After it is Rotten
The meat packers got permission to use Carbon Monoxide to keep meat looking fresh (it makes hemoglobin very red). It should be noted that they approved it as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, which meant that there was no public review.
FWIW, this technology is banned by banned by the European Union, Japan and Canada.
Here are some pictures:
God bless the George W. Bush Agricultural department.
FBI Investigation Says Most of Blackwater Killings Unjustifies
14 of the 17 deaths are deemed completely unjustified.
No big surprise there. But it appears that they will walk:
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.
Impeach Dick Cheney today, impeach George W. Bush tomorrow,
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???
Some knuckle dragging Neanderthal prosecutor inColumbia County, Wisconson has seen fit to have a Woman prosecuted for talking about sex with her children in a frank and open manner.
Un-dirtyword-believable. It appears that the mother described her own sexual history, which might make the kids uncomfortable, but is well within the bounds of parental prerogative.
Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp Executives Directed Judith Regan To Lie in a Federal Investigation
I have this theory about the nature of things. Specifically, there is always a sort of a tipping pointy, and after that, nothing goes right.
I think that we may be seeing that the right wing has truly jumped the shark, who in this case is Judith Regan, who I have been told has very sharp teeth.
Ex-Publisher’s Suit Plays a Giuliani-Kerik Angle
By RUSS BUETTNERJudith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed yesterday protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004.
The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.
Ms. Regan makes the charge at the start of a 70-page filing that seeks $100 million in damages for what she says was a campaign to smear and discredit her by her bosses at HarperCollins and its parent company, News Corporation, after her project to publish a book with O. J. Simpson was abandoned amid a storm of protest.
…
One of Ms. Regan’s lawyers, Brian C. Kerr of the firm of Dreier L.L.P., said she had evidence to support her claim that she had been advised to lie to federal investigators who were vetting Mr. Kerik and who might have sought to question her about their romantic involvement. But Mr. Kerr declined to discuss the nature of the evidence.
…
(emphasis mine)
Word on Olbermann is that there are tapes…..With Republicans, there are always tapes.
Mukasey Restarts Warrantless Wiretap Inquiry at DoJ
I’m pleasantly surprised. Bush is screwed. He wanted this guy, he threw a tantrum over it, and now he has him, and it appears that he will actually do his job with this.
Hopefully he fries the lizards, including the pukes at AT&T, who did this, but I’m fearing that this is just an attempt to forestall a congressional investigation by creating an ongoing DoJ one.
Here is hoping that the pleasant surprise continues.
State Department Blinks
Well, the State department deadline for volunteers to go to Iraq has been extended.
My guess is that they discovered how many folks would just quit if they were forced to go there.
USAF is Attempting to Create a Crisis and Cannibalize Itself to Get More F-22s
There recently has been an F-15 crash following what appears to be a structural failure in an F-15. The USAF has responded with a service wide, and extensively publicised grounding of the aircraft across all deployments, including Afghanistan and Iraq.
While a grounding following this sort of crash is not uncommon, the breadth, and deliberate and massive press offensive associated with it is clearly part of the service’s strategy to get the F-22 production line extended.
When juxtaposed with the Air Force’s decision to cut 40,000 personnel, over 10% of active duty personnel, to free up money for continued F-22 production, it’s clear that the the priorities of of an independent air force as a service are likely to run counter to the defense needs of the nation.
The USAF is creating artificial crises and sacrificing its human capital for some not particularly useful bling in the form of the Raptor. It does not benefit the national defense, the country, or, in the long run, the United States Air Force.
The Raison d’etre of the independent USAF was strategic bombing with nuclear weapons, which has been obsolete since the late 1960s, and folding the service back into the US army would be of benefit to everyone, particularly the taxpayer, which does not need another 20 F-22s at $220 million each, literally worth its (empty) weight in gold.
New York Times Says Mukasey Must Dump Paulose
I’ve related some, and only some of the misdeeds of Rachael Paulose, a completely unqualified political hack appointed as US Attorney in Minnesota.
It appears that her litany of self-aggrandizement, racial epithets, mishandling of classified documents, and retaliation has come to the attention of the New York Times.
You can read the editorial, but basically, it can be reduced to three word advice to Attorney General Mukasey, “Ditch the Bitch”.
Steve Gilliard Would Have Been 43 Today
He was about 2-½ years younger than me.
I’ve “known” him, in a completely non meatspace way, since Netslaves in the late 1990s, and I miss him.
Hat tip to the Group News Blog for notifying us of this.
Bush Vetos Eeducation, Health and Labor Budget
This is about his ego. He is claiming that it is $10 billion more than he wants to see, but he is requesting $196 billion for his pet wars.
The bills did have bipartisan support, but not enough to override a veto, though that may change.
Turkey Escalating in Kurdish Regions of Iraq
They are now dispatching helicopter strikes inside Iraq.
Honestly, I think that it will be gradual, but I see a Turkish invasion of Kurdistan in the next 6-12 months, through a process of gradual escalation.
UK Investigation of BAE-Saudi Bribes Back On
About a year ago, Tony Blair canceled a serious fraud investigation of a very large arms deal between BAE Systems* and the House of Saud under threat of cancellation of the order, and now two NGOs have been given permission to investigate an investigation of this decision under the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention.
It’s pretty clear that bribery was involved, I believe that Prince Bandar got over a billion dollars in “consulting fees”, for example, and the House of Saud was quite clear that any investigation of kickbacks would result in the cancellation of the contract for multi-billion dollar purchase of Eurofighter Typhoons.
*Full disclosure, I worked at a BAE Systems facility as a contractor from June 2005 (about, depends on when the sale went through) through Decmeber 2006 as a contractor. I had no involvement with this deal however.
Bhutto calls for Musharraf Resignation
As I’ve said before, Musharraf is not a reliable partner on terrorism, choosing instead to spend US aid on Military Bling, and now Benazir Bhutto is calling on him to resign.
I see real echoes of the fall of the Shah of Iran, only this time, there is a nuclear arsenal involved.
Heckuva job Bushie.