Month: May 2008

Zimbabwe: Opposition May Participate in Runoff

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At least they have not ruled it out, though they are calling for a foreign verification of the vote first.

Additionally, MDC is suggesting that some sort of power sharing may be possible witn ZANU-PF, but not with Robert Mugabe.

This is a sensible position. Mugabe appears to be viewed as a lame duck by even his allies, and this might be a way to ease him out.

The core of the matter is that considering the dire straights the country is in, whoever is president will have very limited options in policy, and the same applies to whoever leads the parliament, so “anyone but Mugabe” is not an unreasonable position.

Looks Like Large Home Builders Won’t Get Their Way

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In the home mortgage packages, one of the things that the lareg home builders have been lobbying for is a tax change to allow them to carry operating losses forward to profitable years, but it increasingly looks like this will not be a part of any mortgage bill.

There are a number of reasons, the first of which was that the Senate version of the bill has been lambasted by everyone as a bailout for builders and mortgage lenders, and the second is that the threat by homebuilders to cut off political donations overplayed their hand.

Basically, because of the level of pay for play in this action, it made standing up to the homebuilders a political win, because it shows “character”.

Senate Bill Drops C-17s, Funds F-22s (Sort Of)

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The Senate Armed Services Committee has passed a Defense Authorization bill which funds 20 additional F-22s, but does not fund additional C-17s. (more details at link)

Half way there. We don’t need either, though the F-22 funding also includes $497M for shutting down the F-22 line too.

The idea is to leave both options open to the next president.

Hopefully, the next president will have the guts to kill the white elephant that is the F-22.

Yes, There Are Similarities. Corruption is as Corruption Does

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Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) is noting that the firing of Mary Gade as regional administrator of region 5 for her attempts to keep dioxin out of the environment resembles the US attorney scandal.

Of course. When one believes that government is an unmitigated evil, as movement conservatives do, the only role for government agencies is to do favors for friends and allies.

Dow is a friend, poor children who you put at risk for cancer are not.

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

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Very good, but it’s about an hour long, so have the time to be really depressed.

In listening to the changes, I can only conclude that this is a direct result of avarice, stupidity, and malice by the leaders in the US in the political and business spheres.

The unspoken meme of the Reagan revolution was that if you were not rich, it was because you are evil, and thus the not rich must be punished.
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Iraq as Evidence of Basic Doctrinal Failings of the US Military

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So, we had an incident in the past couple of days in Sadr City, according to the western press, at least the New York Times, we had:

The ugly daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and a number of its ambulances, and near a group of children who were wounded as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.

So, according to US military reports, dutifully reported by the Times, we have bombed a Mosque and damaged a hospital in the process, and that’s the best spin that they can put on this.

Compare this to the foreign coverage, though:

Twenty patients and workers in al-Sadr Hospital were wounded and 49 civilian and ambulance vehicles were damaged when U.S. warplanes opened fire at the hospital on Saturday, a health official said.

Even with the best possible spin, we have an atrocity (whether it’s a violation of the law of war is another matter). We bombed a mosque, a house of worship, and we did so with so many, or such large, munitions that we damaged the hospital next door, and somehow this will lead us to win this war?

Since WWII, the US military has had a fetish about applying air power to win wars.

  • The attempts by strategic bombing to destroy the German and Japanese war industries failed.
  • Air power in Viet Nam did not achieve its goals, and in fact aided recruiting among the DC and squelched dissent against the North Vietnamese government.
  • In desert storm, we discovered that numbers of tanks destroyed through air power were overstated.
  • Air power was unsuccessful in eliminating Serbian armor in the Kosovo campaign.

And now, in the campaign in Iraq, we are again relying on air power in ways that will, in the long run, cost more American lives, by moving the populace to supporting our opponents.

Well, Now I Know Why My Family is Insane…

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Because I’m completely nuts, that’s why.

It appears that my kids were overly rambunctious, and they decided that they must be some sort of evil robots, and started talking like the Daleks of Dr. Who fame.

I was downstairs for this bit, but when I came upstairs, and my wife was speaking to the kids like a Dalek, saying, “Destroy, destroy, destroy!!!”

I told her that it was completely wrong, that they didn’t say “Destroy”, they say “Exterminate,” and then I put my arm in front of my face to resemble the Dalek protrusion, and said:

Exterminate!!
Exterminate!!
Exterminate!!
….
Oh damn!!!! Stairs….Must exterminate architectural barriers.
Contact Congress!!
Legislate!!
Legislate!!
Legislate!!

I guess you had to be there.

George F. Will Is an Idiot

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Will, writing on Obama’s proposal to lift the earnings cap on wages, talks about the middle class folk who will be hurt, and gives the following example:

You favor eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax, which now covers only the first $102,000. A Chicago police officer married to a Chicago public-school teacher, each with 20 years on the job, have a household income of $147,501, so you would take another $5,642 from them. Are they undertaxed? Are they rich?

Dude, the $102K limit is per individual. Their tax load does not change, they are both taxed on their total earnings.

Truth be told, I don’t think that there is a problem with Social Security, but there is one with Medicare, so here is my suggestion about how to fix that:

  • End the cap on employers’ part of the Social Security tax, and devote the additional revenue to Medicare and Medicaid.
  • Broaden the definition of earnings to include things like the sweetheart deals that senior executives get.
  • Tax the employee’s part of income at levels above $1 million.
    • This would mean that there is a “notch” between $102K and $1M. You can call it the Paris Hilton tax.

It would go a long way toward fixing the problem, and it is a much easier political sell.

Newest Grant Theft Auto Slams Right Wing

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Well, now we know why younger Americans are trending against the Republicans.

Cases in point in GTA IV:

  • A hack news organization, Weasel News…Perhaps representing some other mammal named “fair and balanced” news channel?
  • Bridges closed to the city center (Manhattan) for “unspecified” security threats.
  • A Limbaugh clone who is poorly depicted, “You listeners make the show. All I do is make the money and spend it on face fulls of pharmaceuticals that make me go deaf.”

The vast left wing conspiracy seems to be doing its job.

For Europe’s Middle-Class, Stagnant Wages Stunt Lifestyle – New York Times

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The New York times has an article about how the European middle class is seeing its wages stagnate and the standard of living plateau or decrease.

They don’t bother to give a reason, but strongly imply that it’s Europe’s stultified economy, as opposed to those dynamic Anglo-Saxon ones, even though one of the examples given is in the UK.

That’s the standard line, too much regulation causes wages to stagnate.

But if one looks at Europe, and the US, median wages have stagnated because of deregulation.

Simply put, when an executive gets over a billion dollars in remuneration, this is money that does not go toward other people’s wages and benefits, and deregulation and reductions in marginal tax rates increase wage disparities.

This is not happening because Reaganomimics has not been adopted at some level, this is happening it has been adopted at some level.

Bank of America May not Honor Country Debt Upon Purchase

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BoA has announced in a regulatory filing with the SEC that, “hasn’t decided whether to guarantee Countrywide debt after BofA’s $4 billion takeover of Countrywide, which is supposed to be completed in the 2nd half of the year.

Basically, once it’s bought, if the corporate structure is right, Countrywide could declare bankruptcy and leave the bond holders with nothing, which would mean that it would not BoA’s problem.

Alternatively, BoA could be attempting to spook the bond holders so that they sell to BoA at a discount.

This system of corporations and shell companies is completely out of control.

I’m just saying.

The Curious Case of the Corrupted Campaign Clip

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Well, it now appears that the clip showing Mickey Kantor using the term “White N***er” is a fabrication.

It appears that Youtube clip was fabricated using footage from the 1993 documentary The War Room, or so the sources around the net say.

The editor of the clip claims that did not alter, but he did “enhance” the sound.

The interesting thing is not that someone, either as a deliberate deception or because they wanted to hear that, made a bogus clip. What is of concern is that it became the screaming point of the blogosphere.

Please, chill out.