The PM’s office is claiming that his non attendance is not a boycott, but that there was “He had never planned to attend,” and that, “There is absolutely no change in our position.”
Yeah, right.
Month: April 2008
Stock
Well, this Friday, we finally had accumulated enough veal bones to make some stock.
I just got it done and into the freezer yesterday.
Took the bones, along with some onions and celery, and got it to a low simmer and kept it there for about 3 days.
Some notes on stock:
- It’s easy to make, just low heat.
- Do not add spices. Stock is a flavoring agent of its own, not a food. Stock with spices is “soup”.
- You can add some onions and celery, and we do. The leafy bits of the celery, which one does not normally eat, is good for this.
- Add the gristle. It has some flavor and the collagin adds a nice mouth feel and some flavor.
- There is a trick to seeing if you have gotten all the “goodness” out of everything. Stock does not have much flavor at all unless you add salt, so take a spoonful, add a shake of salt to some stock in the spoon, and taste.
- Finally, and most importantly, if you are freezing it, do it in small containers. Last time I did this, I had to use a hammer and screw driver to use some.
What you get will give you wonderful flavor and mouth feel for a sauce.
Good Post on Comcast Torrent Blocking
FWIW, it’s clear that they are lying through their asses to the FCC, in that it’s clear that they are blocking torrents continuously, and not just during high bandwidth times, as they have claimed.
Harold Feld’s Tales of the Sausage Factory. Go read it.
The Bobblespeak Translations
OMFG!!!! This is funny.
It’s a translation of the polite circuitous language of political discourse into more plebeian language.
60 Minutes with Doug Feith – April 6, 2008
60 Minutes
April 6, 2008
Guest: Doug Feith
*******************************************
Kroft: why did we invade iraq?Feith: Saddam had a very scary mustache
Kroft: but he wasn’t involved in 9/11
Feith: but he could have been
Kroft: but he wasn’t
Feith: but he could have
Kroft: but he wasn’t
Feith: we had to attack someone
Kroft: so why Saddam?
Feith: he once attacked Iran
Kroft: you’re f$#@ing kidding right
….
The translation of Krugman may cause physical injury from excessive laughter. (link)
My Son is Very Jewish
So my son, Charlie, age 8, and I are watching Keith Olbermann, and we get to his favorite bit, Worst Persons in the World, and this time, it’s Joe Lieberman who wins the gold, for accusing the Ned Lamont campaign of hacking their website in 2006, when it was discovered well before election day that the problem was a poorly configured and overloaded web server, so it was Lieberman who hacked Lieberman’s web site.
My son knows that Lieberman is someone I detest, but there are a lot of those, so he asks, “Is he the one who hates blacks Jews and women?
Realizing just who he was thinking of I reply, no, the one who hates blacks, Jews, and women is Pat Buchanan.
He nods sagely, and says, “OK.”
And then I say, “Joe Lieberman is Jewish”.
And he smacks himself on his head, and says, “That is so embarrassing”.
I’m not sure that Non-Jews get the cultural overtone, but this is a perfectly Jewish moment.
An Update on the Citi Debt Sale
In my economics update, I mentioned that Citi was selling about $12 billion in loans to private equity firms at a loss.
Well, I did nor realize the potential significance, but on the way to pick up a Mama Leah’s pizza* (deep dish), I heard heard listening to the radio, and they were giving high 5s about it on Marketplace.
They think that it might presage an unfreezing of the credit markets, because the banks have finally been able to sell some of that illiquid paper, though in this case it looks like Citi will be getting somewhat less than 90¢ on the dollar.
While Citi took the proverbial haircut on this, that is still better than what it was previously listed at on their balance sheet.
Only on Wall Street is a loss of somewhere in the neighborhood of $1½ billion considered good news.
Personally, I think that mortgage backed paper is still too uncertain, and there are so many balls in the air as a function of the extraordinary levels of leverage that it does not mean much.
But I’m a bear by inclination, and my record on predictions sucks like a thousand Hoovers all going at once.
*Best Kosher ‘Za in Ballmur.
Economics Update
Well, Citi looks headed for a wild ride, with predictions of $17 billion in write-downs for 1Q 2008, and rumors that it is in talks to sell $12 billion of dubious loans at a significant discount.
They were paper sold as part of LBO activity which they could not resell.
Insurers are sure to take a beating on S&P downgrading 4 of them, MGIC Investment Corp., Old Republic International Corp., PMI Group Inc., and Radian Group Inc.
In energy, oil is trading near an all time high on weak inventories, and in currency, the dollar is down, because the market expects further rate cuts.
Signs of the Apocalypse: Military Budgets Edition
The Pentagon’s Selected Acquisition Report (SARs) actually showed some cost drops this year, and the increases appear to be primarily from buying more stuff than previously anticipated, so the unit prices are not going through the roof.
I’m a cynic. I don’t believe it will last, and I would want to see the raw numbers.
An Additional 6 Month Delay on 787
This is now well into A380 territory.
I think that this is more of a failure of management than engineering. While the extensive use of composites is new for a civil aircraft, as is the “all electric” nature of the accessories, the degree to which Boeing has outsourced basic engineering and designs to so-called “partners” seems to be a much bigger part of the delay.
First flight is not in Q4 of this year, and if it’s before December 15, I will be very surprised.
Why We Need Real Financial Regulation
Because people like this wreck national economies for sport.
The Financial Times reports on how a booze soaked get together of international hedge fund managers was organized by Bear Stearns laid the groundwork for a conspiracy to destroy the Icelandic currency and economy.
Of interest is that Iceland made itself vulnerable to this as a part of its aggressive transition from a resource extraction (fishing, once more than 1/6 of the economy) to a banking economy, and right now they have 8.7% inflation, and the central bank has set rates at 15%, so fishing may stage a comeback.
It should be noted that Iceland is actually in a pretty good position. It’s banks are well capitalized, and it has been running budget surpluses for some time, though its current account deficit is large.
One wonders if JP Morgan might be left holding the bag on this.
New Jersey Dem Establishment Struggles To Squash Upstart Challenge To Lautenberg
It appears that the Republicans will not be running a serious candidate for New Jersey senate, so the real action will be in the Democratic primary, which will pits Frank Lautenberg against Rob Andrews.
It’s going to be interesting, we are already having members of the NJ delegation condemning Andrews for running against Lautenberg, and Andrews wants to have seven debates.
And then there is the fact that Lautenberg is something like 132 years old (OK, actually 84), which would suggest that his finishing his term is somewhat problematic.
Conversely, the sense I get is that Andrews is part of the South Jersey machine, and he voted for the authorization of forces bill, but I’m in way over my head teasing this one out.
Today in Iraq
It now appears that, as expected religious leaders in Iraq have told Sadr that he does not have to disband the Mahdi militia.
This is not a surprising outcome. Any “disbanding” would only eliminate the already tenuous chain of command, and you would end up with dozens of smaller groups.
Meanwhile, the The Grauniad* appears to have gotten its hands on the status of forces agreement between Bush and Iraq.
It’s technically “temporary”, though it has no expiration date (kind of like the Billion Year Sea Org contracts), and it, “contains no limits on numbers of US forces, the weapons they are able to deploy, their legal status or powers over Iraqi citizens, going far beyond long-term US security agreements with other countries.”
*According to the Wiki, The Guardian, formerly the Manchester Guardian in the UK. It’s nicknamed the Grauniad because of its penchant for typographical errors, “The nickname The Grauniad for the paper originated with the satirical magazine Private Eye. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as The Gaurdian, though many recall the more inventive The Grauniad.”
Obama Preparing to Opt Out of Public Financing
Barack Obama is looking at opting out of the public financing system for the general election, as he already has in the primaries.
I think that this is a good idea. He’s out raising John McCain to a degree that boggles the mind, but his argument, that because he is raising so much in small dollar donations, he is basically sticking to the spirit of the law, is asinine.
There are a number of reasons that this is stupid. The first is that it’s hair splitting that will have people bringing up his “pledge” on public financing, and the second is that he is missing a line of attack that is useful.
His pledge was not to go onto public financing, it was to enter into negotiations with the Republican nominee on a “fund raising truce”.
What he should have said was, “I would like to negotiate with John McCain about a fund raising truce in good faith, but I find no good faith on his side. John McCain illegally withdrew from the public financing system that he sponsored, and has been committing an ongoing felony since then, using the inability of the FEC to make quorum as a dishonorable cover for his law breaking.”
John McCain and his campaign staff are knowingly committing a felony right now. That’s a fact, and they know it, because John McCain was the guy who wrote the law.
Delong is Wrong and Krugman is Right
Brad Delong belives that a significant part of the housing bubble appreciation was due to a real lack of space, and thus he guesses that only about ½ of the appreciation will be lost, thinking that some of the appreciation is being driven by the , “location, location, location” factor.
Paul Krugman looks at the trajectories of rental and buying, and sees appreciating in housing but basically none in rentals, which would not be the case if there were actually a shortage of land in desirable locations.
Krugman is clearly right.
The History of Beijing’s 2008 Olympics Logo
Heh.
Bush Appointee FDIC Chairwoman Calls for Government Activism
So, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair calling for an “activist” government response to the mortgage meltdown. Let’s make this clear, Ms. Bair is a Bush appointee, and when a Bush appointee is asking for government activism, we can be sure that we are well past being up to our hips in alligators.
We’re at least nipple deep in alligators.
Mistrial in Wecht Political Kangaroo Court
The Jurors could not agree on a verdict.
Given the nature of the case, my guess is that it was 11-1 or 10-2 for acquittal, but we’ll find out.
As I’ve said before, this was literally a federal case over someone using their secretary and the office fax machine.
But he’s a prominent Democrat, so the the Bush DoJ went after him.
This is UnAmerican and Repulsive Behavior
Democratic Illinois State Representative Monique Davis is cancer on the body politic, and next primary season, she needs to be excised:
Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy — it’s tragic — when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.
I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?
I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous–
Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?
Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!
Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—
Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.
While context is frequently important, in this case it’s minor. There was some sort of political payoff to a Baptist Church going through the legislature, and Mr. Sherman, and atheist activist, was opposed.
But in this case, the the context does not matter. This person should be be permanently removed from the public sphere, whether that be through the primary process, or by convincing Mayor Daley (the younger) to pull his support.
I have not heard this vile outburst of bigotry since I was an adult.
The Illinois primary is over, but there is 2010.
RGE – The US Recession: V or U or W or L-Shaped?
Nouriel Roubini is asking what will be the shape of the US Recession:
- V, recession followed by recovery.
- U recession with a dwell at the bottom.
- W double dip.
- L-Shaped, it just drops and stays there for a very long time, like Japan.
I find this irrelevant. What matters is that everything is going pear shaped right now.
Someone Is Being Owned, Just Not Sure If It’s Olbermann or Buchanan
Or maybe it’s all of us.
Click image for more.