Nope, nothing to see here, move along.
The readings from ice cores in Antartica show CO2 levels rising twice as fast as ever observed, and another article in the same issue of the journal Science ocean levels at a 100 million year high.
Month: May 2008
Bush and His Evil Minions™ Argue that Court Action on Subpoenas is Unecessary
They are arguing that court action has never been necessary before.
Then again, when Congress has passed contempt citations before, the Department of Justice has not refused to enforce them.
SD April Foreclosure Data
San Diego, one of the areas hit hardest and earliest, but it is a snapshot of the future.
Rich Toscano has some fascinating graphs:
The past 3 years
The past 18 Years
Note that the earlier peak in the bottom graph is the height of the last housing bust in California, that was unbelievably brutal, and it’s been left in the dust.
Vaccine Junk Science: the NY Times Almost Gets It Right
When they have the following paragraph in a story on an Autism-Thimerosal law suit:
Every major study and scientific organization to examine the issue has found no link between vaccination and autism, but the parents and their advocates have persisted.
The get close to being right…Except that it’s paragraph 3, and it should be in paragraph 1.
A core fact on the vaccine stupidity is that there is no correlation between vaccines or Thimerosal and conditions on the Autism spectrum. Period, full stop, check my earlier posts.
It is a fraud put forward by an unethical doctor.
Today’s Elections
Hillary stomped Barack in West Virginia….No Surprise there.
However, there are some other elections of interest, in Mississippi, you have Democrat Travis Childers running against Greg Davis in a district that went 62%-37% for Bush in 2004.
Childers won the first round, but was just short of an absolute majority, and as of about 10pm EST, courtesy of the Cotton Mouth Blog:
CHILDERS (D) 42,029 – 51%
DAVIS (R) 40,275 – 49%
(366 of 462 precints reporting)
Update: AP Calls it for Childers, and there was much rejoicing.
We also have a primary contest in Nebraska between Scott Kleeb and Tony Raimondo for US Senate. Kleeb has gotten a fair amount of netroots support, and Raimondo was a Republican until he decided he wanted to run for senate, so I’m pulling for the guy with the 5 letter name.
At this moment, the NE Secretary of State is showing Kleeb with a 68%-26% lead over Raimondo with 24% reporting.
They Are Spying on US, but They Aren’t Prosecuting Terrorists
The LA Times is reporting that despite an enormous expansion in surveillance of Americans, there has been no increase in terror prosecutions.
Kevin Drum has a useful pictorial perspective:
He also has a perspective that is even more alarming:
If anything, the real situation is almost certainly even worse than this: ‘Warrants’ understates the vast increase in surveillance, which also includes things like national security letters and the warrantless programs run by the NSA, while ‘prosecutions’ overstates the number of genuine terrorists who have been taken to court. It would be nice if Congress actually took a serious look at this.
Needless to say, I’m not sanguine about the likelihood of a Congressional investigation, but I do have a theory as to why you would have an explosion in surveillance without any increase in anti-terror actions: surveillance of political enemies.
By expanding surveillance to unprecedented levels, it allows a few dozens of actions to be taken against political opponents. For people who are actually conducting the surveillance, typically non-poltical civil service appointees, it would be easy to miss the political surveillance among the hundreds discreet actions, but someone *cough* Karl Rove *cough* would have the clearance to get the data that they wanted.
5 Gitmo detainees to face 9/11 capital case – 05/12/2008 – MiamiHerald.com
In what is rather politically convenient timing, the Guantanamo kangaroo court has formally decided to charge Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ammar al Baluchi; Ramzi bin al Shibh, a Yemeni who allegedly organized the Sept. 11 suicide squads; and alleged co-conspirators Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi with capital offenses relating to the 911 attacks.
If the Bush administration gets its way, they’ll try to have the trial in process in September and October, though I think that the defense might throw a monkey wrench into the works.
The potential 6th defendant, Mohammad al-Qahtani, had all charges dropped, probably because all of the evidence against him was as a result of torture, though Paul Keil of TPM has an alternate hypothesis:
The Convening Authority Susan Crawford had planned to include charges against Mohammed al Qahtani, the supposed 20th hijacker, along with the other five, but Qahtani has been struck from the charging sheet. Now, Qahtani’s lawyer has immediately jumped to the conclusion that Crawford’s decision to dismiss the charges affirms “that everything he said at Guantánamo was extracted through torture — or the threat of torture,” and that his treatment was “so well documented and unconscionable that he is unprosecutable.” But I gotta figure that this crew is sharper than that. Crawford can bring those chargers against Qahtani at any time. The 20th hijacker deserves his own unique launch, to be sure. Maybe in October?
Me, I’m a cynic, so I’m inclined to go with Mr. Keil.
Chutszpah
Karl Rove, in response to Congressional questions regarding the Siegelman political prosecution, has refused to testify, but now is magnanimously agreed to submit answers in writing without any swearing in.
Seriously, if Karl Rove is not under indictment by January 1 2010, I’m calling the next president of the United States a secret Bush Toadie.
Ehud Olmert is Going to Jail
Police investigating corruption haveseized more of his papers.
As Mayor of Jerusalem, and later as Minister of Industry and Trade, he took suitcases of cash from Morris Talansky. He took bribes.
Economics Update
Well, the financial news is reporting that consumer spending are up, but as Barry Ritholtz notes, “Retail Sales were rather unimpressive: Gasoline, Groceries, Food & Beverage were up, while pretty much everything else was flat to down. (see picture)
Also note that the real numbers are actually a reduction when adjusted for inflation.
In the “same as it ever was” department, we have crude oil and gasoline hitting a new record again, $126.98/bbl.
In real estate, The median single-family home price dropped 7.7% Q1, annualized, that is around a 30% drop, but you will see articles calling a bottom soon.
In banking, we have Bank of America saying that credit costs are up.
Translated from bank-speak, it means that they are having more late payments, defaults, and foreclosures.
On the good news side, Ben Bernanke is promising more free money through the Federal Reserve’s “sh%$pile for dollars” auctions.
Roubini Likes the Mortgage Proposal
If you’ve been following my posts on the various bits of legislation to help homeowners, you know that I’m in general agreement with Dean Baker, an economist I highly respect*, that most of the proposals are more about bailing out banks than homeowners, and that attempts to prop up home prices do little more than make housing less affordable.
However, I also highly respect Nouriel Roubini†, and he likes the Frank-Dodd Proposal mortgage relief.
Seeing as how I’m not an economist, banker, or realtor, I thought that my readers (both of them) should see his take.
First, he admits that this would be nationalization of bad mortgages to a large degree, but he sees the lenders benefiting, after a 15+% haircut, because they get a guarantee, homeowners get to stay in their house, their neighbors don’t deal with the effects of vacant lender owned housing, and it is far less expensive to the taxpayer than a full bailout.
I still think that real estate needs bankruptcy reform, and allowing mortgages on a primary residence to be adjusted by bankruptcy judges would be the best reform both in the long and the short term.
*Not only did he call the housing bubble, he actually sold his home on that expectation in 2004, and he’s now renting.
†Perhaps the strident of the bear economists. The frightening thing is that to the degree he has erred, it has been because he has been too optimistic.
Te Funny, Side Effects May Include Edition
The Republicans have a new slogan that they are selling, “The Change You Deserve“.
The first problem with this is that it sounds punitive, like something a dominatrix would say to a bad, bad boy.
More problematic is that the slogan is already being use, by the anti-depressant Effexor.
**snort**
Texas Senate: Cornyn 47% Noriega 43%
Note that any time an incumbent is below 50% it means trouble, and John “Box Turtle” Cornyn is below 50%…in Texas, according to Rasmussen Reports™.
Rick Noriega has been added to my Act Blue page. Cornyn is a bad bad man.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ Next Plan for Politicizing Terror Trials?
One of the things that is going on right now is that the Bush administration, recognizing that they will be leaving power shortly, are trying to protect themselves from future prosecution and litigation. Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker* notes that the Bush administration is desperately trying to make their system of kangaroo courts and torture appear legal, or, failing that, at least make it appear routine:
In any case, according to lawyers inside and outside government, the Bush Administration may launch a proposal for a national-security court this summer or fall, after what they presume will be its next loss in the Supreme Court. “It looks like when Boumediene comes down the Court may say to the President and Congress that they need more procedures for the detainees,” Goldsmith said. “So, to correct the problem, the President might consider sending something up to Congress this summer or fall. It would help the Republicans in the fall election.” The measure would force congressional Democrats to take a stand on the issue in the middle of the campaign—just as Bush did successfully with the Military Commissions Act after the Hamdan defeat. “It worked very well in 2006,” Goldsmith said. “The only way the Democrats have to not make it an election issue is to give the President the powers he seeks.”
Seeing as how the only driving ideology of the Bush administration has been the abuse of government power for political advantage, this surprises me not one whit.
H/t Mithras
*So there are other reasons to read them besides just the cartoons…though their cartoons are da bomb.
American housing | Map of misery | Economist.com
The Economist is suggesting that, “America may well be only halfway through the house-price bust“.
They lead off with the scary picture:
Though I would note that this is now almost 6 month old data, so there would be a lot more red now.
They make the obvious point, that the delta in house prices is still not clear, with a number of different ways of measuring, with OFHEO covering sales financed by the GSEs, and the two different Schiller numbers.
Note that the gray area is projected, and I think that they ignore the possibility of overshoot in the buy/rent ratio.
They note the fact that banks are still tightening standards at an unprecedented rate, which will push house prices down, but they neglect to mention that the 5-6% fixed rate mortgage is historically low, and that if there is a return to the 9% rate, we would see even further downward pressure.
Wanker of the Day: Ted Kulongoski
The Democratic governor of Oregon, who chose to appear at a McCain campaign event, because the sick old man threw out a couple of words on dealing with global warming.
Turkey.
Bob Barr to Run for President
He will run on the Libertarian ticket, at least he will if he wins the nominating convention.
I got nothing here, except for a bit of amusement that one of the main actors in the attempted coup impeachment is now running on a 3rd party ticket.
Keeping N***ers from Voting
The bigots in this country moved from Democratic to Republican over the past 50 years, and now Republicans in Missouri are doing their level best to reinstate the poll test.
They are going one step beyond the photo ID requirement in Indiana, Missouri is now attempting to require voters to provide proof of citizenship, either a birth certificate or a passport.
Lillie Lewis, a voter who lives in St. Louis and spoke at a news conference last week organized to oppose the amendment, said she already had a difficult time trying to get a photo ID from the state, which asked her for a birth certificate. Ms. Lewis, who was born in Mississippi and said she was 78 years old, said officials of that state sent her a letter stating that they had no record of her birth.
“That’s downright wrong,” Ms. Lewis said. “I have voted in almost all of the presidential races going back I can’t remember how long, but if they tell me I need a passport or birth certificate that’ll be the end of that.”
Look at this woman, and know that the sponsor of this amendment to the state constitutional, State Representative Stanley Cox, thinks that this is just fine, because he does not want N***ers to vote.
Halliburton-KBR Gang Rape Victim Gets Day in Court
While this will undoubtedly be an appeal, Jamie Leigh Jones has won a round in federal court when US District Judge Keith Ellison ruled that rape is not work related, and so not covered by the arbitration agreement.
One hopes that the Congress will start looking at the laws that it passed to allow this sort of atrocity.
Government Crisis Over Pakistani Judges Continues
It appears that Nawaz Sharif’s party has quit the Pakistani government ruling coalition over the issue of reinstating judges.
It appears that at the center of this disupte is deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who has committed the sin of being a judge:
He held the ruling elite to account. He rattled the security establishment by pursuing the case of the “missing” – alleged terror suspects abducted and held incommunicado by Pakistan’s intelligence services.
And he took up legal challenges to President Musharraf’s re-election.
Additionally, there are indications that the Pakistani high court would likely rule that the state of emergency, and possibly Musharraf’s grant of amnesty to PPP head Asif Zardari who would otherwise be charged with corruption.