At least 17 are refusing to make their licenses comply with the REAL ID act.
It’s not surprising. Given the recent data breaches, the requirements for REAL ID are an invitation to identity theft.
The requirements actually make the people less secure in their identity, not more so.
When McCain and Feingold were writing their campaign finance law, they had to deal with the problem of self financing candidates. If a multimillionaire wanted to run, and spend millions of his own money, the court decisions had explicitly made it clear that this was protected by the first amendment.
Their solution was to allow candidates facing a rich self-funding to accept larger donations, which the Supreme Court will now be reviewing the case, Davis v. FEC, which affirmed the law.
First, the Musharraf govenrment is rejecting a U.N. inquiry, on the basis that “No foreign government was involved”, though they have already fingered al Queida, a group of foreign terrorists based, at least in part in Afghanistan, and definitely supported by a foreign group, the Taliban.
Bag News Notes also has an interesting analysis, where they lay the blame at the feet of Condoleeza Rice, who thought that another “election”, like those in Iraq, would show democracy on the march in Pakistan, but then she never followed up, and left Bhutto unprotected.
I do not think that this lawsuit against 21 lenders will succeed, but we know what my prediction record is.
I think that the judges will throw it out of court in the early stages, but if they don’t, and it goes before a jury, I think that it will be far more likely that they will prevail.
That being said, the idea that major banks and Wall Street firms are being called public nuisances, “The Cleveland suit, filed Thursday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court under the state’s public nuisance law, asserts that the financial institutions created nuisances across broad swaths of Cleveland because their loans led to widespread abandonment of homes,” does represent an interesting change in attitude.
For the past 25 years, the rule for municipalities and states was to please Wall Street, and now these institutions are being view, accurately IMNSHO, as parasites and near-criminal enterprises.
The Iraqi Parliament has finally passed a law allowing for low level Baath party members to return to government jobs.
In a one party state, the bureaucrats will be members of that party, and banning them all from public service was just one of L. Paul Bremer’s many mistakes.
Of course, this should have passed in 2 weeks, but it took about a year and a half.
Said “monekey” is a prankster who routinely broadcasts stuff like the “Iranian threats” in that region of the world.
The US Navy, and the Bush administration, got Punk’d.
Then again, they are desperate to find a reason to go to war with Iran.
Yes, after 736 million dollars, the State Department’s Baghdad Embassy is a fire hazard.
In addition, the power plant and electrical has not been tested at all.
No surprise. A ¾ Billion contract handed out to a, “Contractor had never built an embassy and did not realize that under State Department rules it needed approval for substituting certain materials.”
But I’m sure that they have a long history of contributing to the Republican party.
Here’s a surprise, after flipping out and indiscriminately spraying civilians with bullets, the Blackwater mercenaries security contractorspatched and repainted their trucks almost immediately.
The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention. The Sept. 16 shooting has strained U.S. relations with the Iraqi government, which wants Blackwater expelled from the country. It also has become a flash point in the debate over whether contractors are immune from legal consequences for their actions in a war zone.
They knew that there was going to be an investigation, and they knew that the physical evidence was important, and they still destroyed it.
This is a slam dunk for obstruction of justice.
Regardless of your position on mercenaries private security contractors, it’s clear that Blackwater conducts their business in such a way that they should be shut down.
Of course, unlike the scariest bitch you’d ever want to meet, Martha Stewart, the management of the firm is Republican, so there will probably be no legal repurcussions.
My first night at home with the CPAP went fairly well.
This is the 3rd time that I’ve tried this, the first two times were at sleep centers.
The first time was a disaster, with me feeling like I was choking as I drifted off to sleep, and the second time, I think that I had a less ham-handed tech running things, so it went fairly well.
The CPAP did wake me up a couple of times, but I think that it’s just a matter of getting used to it, though I am grateful that this model has a ramp up mode, so when trying to go to sleep, it starts slow, and builds up pressure, in my case 7cm water gauge, which helps me drift off.
My wife didn’t notice any slower, and I was not feeling significantly more refreshed when I woke up than I normally do, but I’m told that this takes time.
Ok, I’m not Hannibal Lechter, though, I just have a snoring and apnea problem, so I’ve got myself a CPAP kit, with mask.
No global warming, my ass.
If you have a strong stomache, read his his entry in the Huffington Post.
I understand the calls of various people for Edwards to drop out so as to benefit a particular candidate. That’s politics, but the reasons he gives are stupid, and insulting to Barack Obama, John Edwards, and the whole south.
If John Edwards stays in the race, he might, in the end, become nothing other than the Southern white man who stood in the way of the black man. And for that, he would deserve a lifetime of liberal condemnation.
Jane Smiley replied on HuffPo. It’s titled, Shut Up, Larry. Word up, Jane.
Swedish law is fairly lax, and my guess is that they proprietors of the site will win.
They are are being charged with conspiracy to breach copyrights.
Considering the fact that , “seven parliamentarians from the ruling conservative party called in a newspaper opinion article last month for the decriminalization of file sharing.”, and the fact that the Pirate party has more members than the Greens, I’m not surprised that they are relying on public defenders.
This is being driven by the US, and everyone knows it.
Just this morning, I suggested that Bank of America’s purchase of Countrywide was throwing good money after bad.
It appears that Moody’s Investors Service things the same way, they are considering downgrading B of A.
Barry Ritholtz makes the same point, using Dennis Gartman’s #1 rule of trading:
1. Never, Ever, Ever, Under Any Circumstance, Add to a Losing Position… not ever, not never! Adding to losing positions is trading’s carcinogen; it is trading’s driving while intoxicated. It will lead to ruin
After that initial disastrous buy in at $18-20, BoA is doubling up — at $6 . . .
Maybe I need to change banks.
MBIA, one of the largest bond insurers in the nation, is floating a debt sale. The problem is that no one is buying, so it looks like they will have to pay 14% on the money that they borrow.
This is an AAA rated company, and they need 14%. That’s (low) credit card rates.
Any claims as to the end of the credit crunch are premature.
Put a fork in him. He is done.
Joe Conason has a good if to my mind too gentle on what happened with the press in New Hampshire:
The angry Clinton haters in the press corps suffer from the same flat learning curve as Wile E. Coyote. They don’t understand why their Acme arsenal never quite does the job, and instead often leaves them with grimy faces and aching heads.
The problem is that these guys behave as if they are a high school clique, and the journalistic community has very little concern about accuracy.
I found this little tidbit in a story about cutbacks and layoffs in the newspaper industry:
A few years ago, he said, some drivers talked about organizing, but the idea went nowhere. The problem, he went on, is that on the north side, 80 to 90 percent of the drivers are in the United States illegally. I have no idea if that number’s accurate, but I believed him when he said he’s one of them. “When you are illegal in this country you have to be patient,” the English-speaking driver explained. “So I think that is one of the reasons—they need the money, they have no papers to work, that’s why they keep quiet. They know if they complain they will get fired. We think the main Tribune, they don’t know nothing about this.”
Apparently they don’t. Tribune spokesman Michael Dizon e-mailed me that “it is against Chicago Tribune policy to publicly discuss how fees for delivery services are negotiated.” But he added, “Our company does not hire undocumented workers to deliver our newspapers. Tribune Company contracts with independent businesses to deliver products. In turn each independent contractor enters into his or her own contracts with sub-contractors to perform delivery results.”
This is why the US is so schizophrenic on illegal aliens. The powers that be use them to drive down wages and prevent union activities, which they like (and any guest worker program has the same effect), but the average American understands that it’s against the law.
That’s why, when I made some proposals about deterring illegal immigration, they focused on the demand from employers.
Good for them. How do you know that this kid wasn’t a a Jihadist with a glandular condition?
Seriously though, this does no one any good:
When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dillinger hadn’t passed anything dangerous weapons or materials to his mother when she hugged him.