Year: 2007

Obama Opposes Voter Suppression Guru

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My worry about Barack Obama is that sometimes I get the sense that he, “Likes to please people too much,” something that Ernest Gruening said of Hubert Humphrey, but his stand against Hans von Spakovsky, who has been extensively involved in what are likely illegal voter suppression activities, and their coverup within the DoJ, as a member of the Federal Election Commission, is a good sign.

Letting “Clever” Hans von Spakovsky on the FEC would be like allowing Colonel Sanders to be on the board of the Chickens as Pets society.

Missile Defense: Cut Twice, Measure Never???

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This is an interesting take on US Missile defense development. Basically, it appears that in order to show capability, even on tightly scripted tests, they rely on the capabilities of each subsystem as determined analytically, as opposed to testing, or just analyzing, the full up system.

This is faith-based missile defense:

To justify the deployment of untested technologies, officials at the Missile Defense Agency changed the fundamental epistemology of weapons procurement. In bureaucratic-speak, they ceased following a “knowledge-based” system and relied instead upon what they called a “capability-based” standard. In simple terms, it’s the difference between knowing that something works because you’ve tested it, and believing that something works because all the parts, when put together, should be capable of working. It’s the difference between test-driving a car before mass-producing it, and building one from a schematic but deciding not to turn the key for the first time until there’s an emergency. It’s the difference between the old carpenter’s advice of “measure twice, cut once,” and the new, Rumsfeldian directive: “Cut already.”

In the old knowledge-based days, procurement was based more or less on common sense: Contractors developed a weapons system that showed promise, gradually trying it out in more and more realistic situations. Once progress warranted it, the Pentagon took over and performed “realistic operational testing” under conditions that simulated battle — rain, heat, sandstorms. But now, under Rumsfeld’s “capability-based” standard, entire weapons systems can be built without bothering to see if they will work in the real world.

The depressing thing is that I favor some sort of ABM system for defense of the US, albeit my favored scheme is rather Strangelovian, or Telleresque.

I favor a system modeled on the SAFEGUARD system, which was operational for a few months in the 1970s. It uses nuclear tipped interceptors, which ameliorates most of the targeting and decoy issues.

Use of a Megaton range warhead in an exoatmospheric increases the miss distance, and it handles most of the problems with decoys, because everything is in the effect range. For terminal defense, you use something in the kiloton range with a neutron kill.

Obviously, this can’t work with tactical systems, since the authorization for use of nuclear weapons would have to come from the President, but for strategic defense of te country, it’s a better system that could be online sooner.

An Interesting, If Flawed Analysis of the Israeli Airstrike

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His analysis is that the Israelis used an electronic warfare system equivalent to BAE Systems SUTER to invade the Syrian air defense network, and misdirect it.

Honestly, I think that it was something more basic. They determined where the air defense sites were, when shifts changed, and things like that, and then they launched the attack to take advantage of this.

The high tech solution is sexier, but you have to remember that basic mission planning is more than 90% of the game. That F-117 was shot down in Yugoslavia because it ran the same route, at the same time, for 3 days straight.

Rudy, True to Form, Won’t Talk to Opponents

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Members of the religious right are threatening a 3rd party bid if Rudy wins, and Rudy’s response is not to talk to them.

Let’s be clear, this is not a tactical decision, some sort of attempt to present himself as tough. This is who Rudy is.

Veteran Rudy insiders have been predicting this for some time, because there’s a backstory here that longtime Rudy watchers know about. Back in 2000, when Rudy was running for Senate, he was being attacked by the leader of New York’s Conservative Party for his pro-choice views. This was a big deal because Republicans in New York need the Conservative Party to overcome the state’s Dem tilt and win statewide office. But Rudy steadily ignored the Conservative chief for weeks and weeks, and at one point started lambasting him in the press. He even said what he’s saying now: That conservatives would gravitate towards him despite what their leader said.

This is part of who Guiliani is. He has consistently refused to deal with people who were not in complete lockstep with him.

Any future foreign policy under a Guiliani administration would make Bush/Cheney look like Mahatma Ghandi.

Scary thought.

The Meme that the Government Understates Inflation is Hitting the Mainstream

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Here it is, San Diego Union-Tribune, of all places.

Basically the bad numbers come from a number of factors:

  • Bogus adjustments to inflation (I’ll post on “Hedonics” later).
  • Calling increases in prices asset appreciation (housing bubble).
  • Ignoring the effects of increases in College tuition. They also ignore the fact that people have few working years as a result of inflating degree requirements for positions.
  • Medical cost increases are understated in the cost of living.
  • Over-weighting consumer electronics in the CPI.

Understated CPI numbers mask dropping living standards, and reduce increases in entitlements, and as such, they benefit governments, regardless of party.

Schadenfreude: Echos of Duke Cunningham

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Brent Wilkes’ lawyer Mark Geragos had previously thrown around bogus subpoenas at about a dozen members of congress, who promptly had the house lawyer to pound sand, but it looks like this time Wilkes’ lawyer is actually targeting representatives who have ties to him. They are all Republicans.

His defense is going to be, “I didn’t bribe anyone, I was shaken down.”

Wilkes to Target Five Pols for Testimony
Even though Geragos dropped the initial subpoenas, he told reporters later that he planned to file new ones against former House Speaker U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and California Republican Reps. John Doolittle, Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Jerry Lewis.

The substance of Wilkes’ defense is that he was not bribing people, but he was being shaken down by members of Congress, and these 5 guys flew on Wilkes’ plane, and ate at his dinner, so their testimony is relevant.

Pass the popcorn.

Media Whores at the WaPo

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In this case Howie Kurtz, the Washington Post’s walking conflict of interest media critic who says that the media is going all out on Hillary’s laugh because it was fun to do.

Jon Stewart, setting the pace for political journalism, kicked things off last week by assembling a grab bag of giggling and guffawing when the senator appeared on all five Sunday talk shows, from a barn outside her Chappaqua, N.Y., home. As Clinton was seen bursting into belly laughs– sometimes oddly and abruptly — at queries by the likes of Bob Schieffer and Chris Wallace, the “Daily Show” host likened her to a robot switching into chuckle mode when aggressive interrogators needed to be neutralized.

It’s nice that reporters like Jon Stewart, but to quote Mr. Stewart (with bleating from Carlson and Bergalia)

STEWART: Will jump on it. In many ways, it’s funny. And I made a special effort to come on the show today, because I have privately, amongst my friends and also in occasional newspapers and television shows, mentioned this show as being bad.

BEGALA: We have noticed.

STEWART: And I wanted to — I felt that that wasn’t fair and I should come here and tell you that I don’t — it’s not so much that it’s bad, as it’s hurting America. But I wanted to come here today and say…

STEWART: Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.

….

STEWART: See, the thing is, we need your help. Right now, you’re helping the politicians and the corporations. And we’re left out there to mow our lawns.

BEGALA: By beating up on them? You just said we’re too rough on them when they make mistakes.

STEWART: No, no, no, you’re not too rough on them. You’re part of their strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks.

….

STEWART: … is that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: So what I would suggest is, when you talk about you’re holding politicians’ feet to fire, I think that’s disingenuous. I think you’re…

CARLSON: “How are you holding up?” I mean, come on.

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: No, no, no. But my role isn’t, I don’t think…

CARLSON: But you can ask him a real question, don’t you think, instead of saying…

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: I don’t think I have to. By the way, I also asked him, “Were you in Cambodia?” But I didn’t really care.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: Because I don’t care, because I think it’s stupid.

CARLSON: I can tell.

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: But my point is this. If your idea of confronting me is that I don’t ask hard-hitting enough news questions, we’re in bad shape, fellows. (LAUGHTER)

CARLSON: We’re here to love you, not confront you.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: We’re here to be nice.

STEWART: No, no, no, but what I’m saying is this. I’m not. I’m here to confront you, because we need help
from the media and they’re hurting us. And it’s — the idea is…

…

STEWART: It’s not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you’re accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You’ve got to be kidding me. He comes on and you…

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You’re on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: What is wrong with you?

….

Emphasis mine.

George Takei is a Heavenly Body

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Though personally, my taste runs to asteroid 68410 (Nichols)

Asteroid renamed for ‘Star Trek’ actor
NEW YORK (AP) — A piece of outer space named for George Takei is in kind of a rough neighborhood for somebody who steers a starship: an asteroid belt.

An asteroid between Mars and Jupiter has been renamed 7307 Takei in honor of the actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original “Star Trek” series and movies.

“I am now a heavenly body,” Takei, 70, said Tuesday, laughing. “I found out about it yesterday. … I was blown away. It came out of the clear, blue sky — just like an asteroid.”

…

Whiskey Foxtrot Tango: She Breast Fed Her Baby While Snorting Cocaine off His Stomach????

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Ummmm…OMFG!!!!

Kids in car during sex, drug bust
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Tuesday, October 2, 2007

SCHENECTADY — In what one officer called one of the most despicable acts he can recall, a Saratoga County woman is accused of prostituting herself and then snorting cocaine from the stomach of her newborn son while breast-feeding him.

Police said Wendy Cook of Saratoga Springs was on a drug-fueled spree Monday when she was arrested during a crackdown on prostitution in the Hamilton Hill, Central State Street and Vale Cemetery areas.

…

I hope that this woman gets her life together, but I doubt that she will.

But snorting coke off her baby’s stomach????

Business Decides that Batsh%$ Insane Leaders are Bad for Business

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This is the jist of this article, from the Wall Street Journal, of all places.

“More striking,” Pew concluded, was the change in party identification since 2002. Five years ago, the population was evenly divided — 43% for each party. This year, Democrats had a 50% to 35% advantage.

What you have left in the Republican party are dead enders, bigots, and Religious nuts waiting for the apocalypse.

These folks are not good markets to sell to.

Is Edwards Going With Public Financing a Ploy to Attack Hillary

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It appears so from a conference call.

Campaign manager Jonathan Prince that said that Edwards “made a decision that he did not want to advocate for ending the problem of the corruption in our political financing” without taking meaningful action himself — that is, opting into the public system in order to prove his dedication to public financing.

When the subject of campaign finance and lobbiests came up int he debates, Hillary was an enthusiastic defender of the status quo, and this is a laying the groundwork to do this.

Let me be clear: I believe that this strategy is stupid, it appears to have sprung from the mind of Joe Trippi, but it is not insanely stupid.

What Jesse Wendel Said.

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Jesse Wendle of The Group News blog has this post on the Amry’s new “Pain Ray”. I read about it a while back, and filed it under, “Mildly interesting”, wait for a slow news day.

Boy, was I wrong. Jesse makes it clear what this is all about, and I, in my tech geekiness, missed the big picture:

This will be used to torture.

It isn’t up for debate. It isn’t open for question. No matter how many safeguards we put on their sale.

This will be used to torture. As the article goes on to say, quoting a goddamn Ph.D. biologist who specializes in how the brain perceives pain, “They are so obviously useful as torture instruments.“

….

There are worse things than dying. Being burned alive is one of them. Being burned alive over and over again and never being able to escape… Don’t talk to me about humane weapons which burn people without burning them till you’ve gone on a run with me and seen what teenager sisters look, feel, sound and smell like who’ve been burned to death but are still talking to each other because they just don’t fucking know they’re already dead.

This box is a torture device. It’s morally wrong and an abomination upon the face of the earth.

All emphasis is mine.

Green Party Takes Blackwater Corporate Money

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Eric Prince, owner of the mercenary organization Blackwater Security, donated $10,000 in 2006 to corporate stooge, and erstwhile Green Party candidate for Pennsylvania US Senate seat Carl Romanelli.

Mr. Romanelli was thankfully unsuccessful, because the petitions collected by a for profit service funded by Republicans and corporations to get his name on the ballot were largely fraudulent.

I was thinking about this today, when I heard a statement on the radio by a Green Party representative saying that they were not “beholden to corporate money”.

Looking at the list of donors to the Romanelli campaign, I would argue that they are tied more tightly to corporate money that the Republican party.

Other donations:

  • $1,000 from Bill Wichterman, a senior lobbyist at Washington, for such corporate behemoths as Halliburton, Chevron and Unisys, and a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).
  • $1000 each from Steven Taylor and his wife. Taylor is a major in the E. Coli outbreak bagged salad industry. Two of his children also donated $4000 to the Green party, while giving around $180,000. to right wing causes in the past few years.
  • $5000 from Mark Pasquerilla, self-described “big Republican”, and heir to a department store fortune.
  • $1000 from Gary Andres, a high powered Washington lobbiest, who works for PhRMA, the drug industry PAC, and frequently writes for the reactionary Washington Times and National Review.
  • $5000 from James Holman, who also contributed over $1 million to California’s anti-abortion proposition 73.
  • $5000 from William Grube, a war profiteer in the night vision goggle business.

It appears to me that the Green party is very much the military industrial complex’s bitch.

FWIW, there was one campaign donation not connected to military-industrial complex interests, $30.00 from Carl Romanelli, the candidate.

Well, Mr. welcome to America Mr. Romanelli*, where any man can tart themselves up for dirty corporate money.

Friends don’t let friends support the Green Party.

News stories collected from TPMmuckraker and Attytood.

*He’s a native born American…It’s an ironic metaphor.†
†I know that most of you get this, but the humorless corporate whores that are the Green Party probably won’t, hence the footnote.

Apple iPhone: Sue Different

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It’s about Apple “bricking” iPhones that have been modified.

There are some problems for Apple:

  • This is clearly deliberately malicious code.
  • They have bricked some unmodified iPhones as a result.
  • They have worked as a corporation to do this, which means that they are likely covered by the RICO statutes.

That being said, I don’t want an iPhone. I want a phone that works first as a phone, these hard to talk on square bricks as PDAs don’t cut it for me.

If I want a PDA phone (maybe when it gets cheap enough on EBay), I’ll get something like the Samsung SPH-I500.

It’s marginally larger than any clamshell phone, and it has a Graffiti™ pad right above the real phone buttons.

It’s not in production any more.