Month: February 2008

Assininity in the UK: Wind Farms a Threat to National Security

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Well, it’s nice to know that we in the US don’t have a monopoly on ignorant, incompetent, militaristic prats.

The MoD is claiming that wind farms are a threat to national security, because the large rotating blades of the turbines interfere with the early warning radars.

I do understand that the British military is concerned about the possibility of the USSR launching nuclear armed bombers against the British Isles, but I think that a slightly more immediate threat is sending money to supporters or right wing religious fanaticism, like…I don’t know…the House of Saud.

Congressional Democrats Have An Embarrassment of Opportunities

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The problem is that it’s a lot to manage.

Last cycle, the DCCC had 10 potential pickups, and this time around 45, between the way the tide is going and the retirements.

Of course, Rahm Emmanuel and the DCCC screwed the pooch on a lot of those 10, propping up Tammy Duckworth in the primary against Christine Cegelis, and then dropping another million dollars on her losing effort.

Hopefully Chris Vanhollen will do better this time than Rahm did.

Comcast’sAnswer to Complaints of Sabotaging Applications: A Change to Their Terms of Service

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More confirmation that the Cable companies will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.

In response to complaints to spoofing packets to break filesharing applications (and other applications too, like Lotus Notes), Comcast has rewritten its terms of service.

The short version is:

Our network sucks, and we can block your peer-to-peer connections — and everything else — for any or no reason. And since the FCC’s competition policy lets us operate with no competitors — where else are you going to go?

Additionally, Comcast’s terms of service have “conduct terms” that would make John Ashcroft proud.

Note to self: Check out Verizon Fios terms of service.

The Whitehouse is Now Claiming that Waterboarding is Legal, and Mukasey Says Whatever a Political Hack in the DoJ Declares is Legal Too

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Well, we now have the White House assurting that waterboarding is legal, simply because they say so, and you have our So-Called Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, saying that if the political hacks appointed by Bush and His Evil Minions™ in the Justice department said that it was OK, then there is no crime, so he will not investigate warrantless wiretapping or torture.

Seriously, these folks really hate most basic founding principal of the Republic, a nation of laws, and not men.

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Iran launches project to build stealth aircraft

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At least according to the Tehran Times.

In related news, I am now dating Janice Joplin.

This is obviously not true.

However, it is entirely possible that Iran might be working on some stealth projects.

The basic science for computing radar cross sections has been known for years, the math was published in a Soviet mathematics journal in the 1960s, and if a Linux cluster can do Shreck, it can certainly work on that.

To do an operationally meaningful low radar cross section manned aircraft is very expensive, and at this point, they are reverse-engineering their 1960s vintage F-5 aircraft.

However, if you wanted to create a drone, or a missile with a low RCS in the forward hemisphere, that would sound to me quite doable, with the caveat that I have never worked on issues of radar cross section.

Because Republican Senators Have Nothing Better to Do With Their time

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So the hippy-dippy city council of Berkeley California decides to waste its time declaring a Marine recruiting station “unwelcome” in the town, and in reaponse, “Six Republican senators, led by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and an Orange County representative on Wednesday introduced companion bills called the Semper Fi Act of 2008 that seek to take away $2.3 million from Berkeley earmarked in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill and give it to the Marine Corps.”

You’re wrestling with a pig, dudes. You both get dirty, and the pig loves it.

Where that money would come from:

  • $243,000 from the Chez Panisse Foundation, which provides 10,000 daily school lunches for Berkeley public schools
  • $243,000 for the Ed Roberts Campus, a project that houses offices for disability organizations
  • $750,000 for water ferry service planned from Berkeley to San Francisco
  • $94,000 for a police and fire emergency communications system
  • $975,000 from UC Berkeley’s Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, which houses the papers of the late U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui

Morons.

Posted Without Comment – Palestinian Edition

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Egyptian FM threatens to break Palestinians’ legs if they breach border again – International Herald Tribune

CAIRO, Egypt: Egypt’s foreign minister said that no further violations of its borders would be tolerated in the wake of a 12-day breach of its frontier with Gaza and said anyone daring to cross would have their legs broken, the state news agency reported.

…

“Anyone who violates Egypt’s borders will get his leg broken,” Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying. He added that Egypt only allowed the Palestinians to cross the border after Hamas blew up the wall because of fears over the humanitarian situation resulting from Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Economics Update

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The Fed Bank of Philidelphia president is making noise about how inflation is poised fore a comeback, which bummed out stock traders.

It looks like the current economic situation is leading bankers to screw their small customers. Of course, were the economic situation reversed, it would be used by bankers to screw their small customers.

At least, there is symmetry.

Foreclosures: Las Vegas is the foreclosure capital of the US. This appears not to be from the economic downturn, it’s a prosperous area, but rather from exotic mortgages.

In a blaze of recognizing the bloody obvious, the NAR is now saying that they expect home prices to decline in 2008.

If you look at regional downturns, we are looking at 5-10 years before a rebound.

The director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is warning that the GSEs are taking on too much risky debt. He is saying that, “reducing risks in the market, but concentrating mortgage risks on themselves.”

I think that he is suggesting that without tighter regulation, the suggestion of allowing Fannie and Freddie to take on larger mortgages is a very bad idea.

Overseas, the Bank of England cut its benchmark 25 basis points to 5.25%, while the European Central Bank holds kept its rate steady at 4%. The UK appears to be in a real-estate driven downturn, while most of Europe (Spain excepted) did not experience the same sort of speculative real estate bubble.

On Jobs, new applicants for unemployment fell by 22K last week, but the total number of people collecting unemployment continues to rise. (the former is a far noisier number).

In retail, January sales posted their worst performance since records were kept, with same store sales rising only 0.5%, which is a significant drop when inflation is factored in.

And finally, a cartoon for your amusement:

Sonny Perdu is an Idiot, and He Will Kill Atlanta Through Thirst

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Most of you not from the far SE US are probably unaware of the fact that Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are fighting over water rights.

Well, alabama and Florida have just won a major case, over the allocation of water from the federal Lake Lanier reservoir.

The judge ruled that, “agreement between Georgia and the Army Corps of Engineers that would have given Georgia rights to use nearly a quarter of the water …. was void because the two parties had not first obtained Congressional approval.”

As is the case with most such cases, this has been bubbling along* for the past 20 or so years, and has been compounded by the drought, and by Georgia’s unwillingness to take steps to ensure adequate water to feed its growth.

In related news, the very next day,Sonny “He’s Not a Schmuck Because a Schmuck Has a Head†” Purdue has announced will be allowing folks to fill their swimming pools and water their lawns.

This is a metaphor for what will be the next resource fight, potable water.

If conflict over the past 35 years has been largely defined by fights over oil, fights over the next few decades will be over water.

It will be far more brutal, because people don’t die without oil.

*Pun intended.
†True…Learn your Yiddish.

Romney Out

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Here and here.

And his wanktacular reason?

If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

Go Huck!!!!

When Giants Stumble

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Well, it appears that EBay may have screwed the pooch with its recent changes in fees and feedback policy, and its competitors are doing its level best to exploit the current dissatisfaction.

Competitor sites are seeing their business increase by more than 50%, though when one looks at the numbers (less than 10,000 auctions), they are at this point a drop in the bucket compared to EBay.

One wonders if this will blow over, or if EBay will modify its changes in the coming days.

Fun Economic Indicators

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The Big Picture discusses The Ticker Tape Parade Indicator:

  • The NY Giants won their first Super Bowl in 1987; the Great US Stock Market Crash appeared later.
  • The NY Giants won their second Super Bowl in 1991; the last US full-blown recession appeared; money center banks barely avoided the abyss.
  • Before yesterday, the last NYC ticker-tape parade was 2000 (Yankees); the Great US Stock Bubble burst.
  • The NY Giants won their third Super Bowl in 2008 and received a ticker-tape parade; head to the caves! Take it for what you will.

Me, I’m buying canned goods and bottled water.

Democrats Like Their Candidates

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I was directed toward this comment from CNN’s Bill Schneider

There’s no doubt Democrats are torn between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But the early exit polls show they are not bitterly divided: 72 percent of Democrats said they would be satisfied if Clinton won the party’s nomination, while 71 percent say the same about Obama.

What ever happens in the primary, it’s clear that Democrats will be voting, and pulling the D* lever, in November.

H/T to Digby for the catch.

*Yes, I know….lever voting machines are a vanishing breed.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, missed the vote.

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The Senate stimulus package failed cloture by one vote.

Despite their return from the campaign trail, Democrats fell one vote shy of the 60 votes they needed to bring forward their preferred economic stimulus bill.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, missed the vote.

This is something that both Clinton and Obama, and for that matter Harry Reid, should be harping on right now.