It’s a Blackhawk with a vector ducted fan and wings.
I think that it’s promising technology, perhaps more promising than the tilt rotor tech.
Month: July 2008
The Noose Closes on Echud Olmert
They are now sending prosecutors to the USA to get more information on the money paid to Olmert.
Stick a fork in him, he is done.
Good Legislation: Ban on Child Gulags
Dogemperor at Kos notes that HR 6358 has passed the House, and so will be on its way to the Senate.
This bill would regulate the completely unregulated world of teen “residential treatment facilities”. Among its features:
- Requires ongoing monitoring of facilities
- Establishes national database of reports of abuse
- Requires regular reports to the Secretary of HHS
- Appropriates $15,000,000 for this effort
- Agrant program as a lever to get states to supervise these facilities
- Requires formal followup peer-review studies
- Background checks on people working at these facilities.
- Requiring training on child abuse, neglect, and dangerous conditions such as hypothermia and heat stroke for employees
- Keeping kids incommunicado is forbidden.
Unfortunately, offshoring facilities to avoid supervision is still allowed in this bill though.
Bush is may veto this, as he has his done his level best to make sure that faith based social services group are given a complete free ride, and the worst, and most unregulated, groups are religiously based ones like “Teen Challenge”.
Righteous Indignation
Minstrel Boy has a righteous takedown of America’s torture policy that is, like everything else on the internet, better written than my stuff, titled, They Don’t Even Plagarize From the Best.
Of interest is that he has actually been through SERE anti-torture training, and he has a low opinion of them too:
It was sadistic bullshit run by sick f@cking bullies. It was some real REMF puke sons of bitches getting their jollies off by acting like a bunch of swaggering pieces of shit. It accomplished jack fucking sh@t. It didn’t train anybody in any kind of knowledge except that there were a lot of pissant low rent bastards who wore the same uniforms as us. F@ck SERE.
Highly recommended read.
Ghost Town in Inland Empire
First, I just think that is a nice hed, mostly because of the “Inland Empire” name, but of course, the real meat of the matter is that there are thousands of houses built, and more under construction in Inland empire, and Sandler O’Neill & Partners analyst Aaron Deer is warning of “ghost towns”.
I’m wondering when they will start seeing squatters on a massive scale.
Federal Judiciary Ramps Up to Review Guantanamo Habeas
U.S. District Judge James Robertson is looking at the case of Salim Hamdan, bin Laden’s driver, and senior Judge Thomas Hogan is managing the proceedings.
I would note that while he was extensively debriefed, Hitler’s driver was never charged with anything, because driving a war criminal is not considered being a war criminal in any fair system of justice.
McCain Money Man Funded Terrorists
Not surprisingly, it was an executive at Chiquita, formerly United Fruit, which did so much to destabilize and de-democratize Latin America, who is involved, Carl H. Lindner Jr., whose firm admitted to knowingly supporting a terrorist organization:
Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”
Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.
According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”
Lindner has hosted a number of fund raisers for McCain, and is on his “Ohio Victory Team”.
Chiquita also did gun running to the AUC, which I suppose is one way to keep the banana plantation workers from organizing.
And, of course, Mr. Straight Talker also did favors for the guy regarding a land deal in Arizona in the 1990s.
Oh, and I almost forgot, his chief political advisor, Charlie Black, lobbied for both Chiquita and Columbia.
What a bloody witches brew we have here….but the press won’t cover it, because McCain is a straight talker and honest.
FDIC Warns Banks on Equity Lines of Credit and REOs
It appears that the FDIC is taking exception some bank policies that are becoming more frequent, blanket suspension of home equity lines of credit (HELOC), and management of real estate owned (REO) properties.
In the first, the FDIC is saying that, “under Regulation Z [of the truth in lending laws], lenders can reduce an applicable credit limit only in the event of “significant decline” to the value of an individual property (a “material change” in the borrower’s financial condition — such as the loss of a job — qualifies as well),” so it must be handled on a case by case basis
In the second, the FDIC has issued instructions on proper management of REO properties, because, “some banks are choosing not to pay taxes on certain low-value REO properties in hard-hit neighborhoods, in the hopes that local municipalities will take the property to a tax sale rather than force the lender to carry the property on its books.”
Neither of these notes suggest that housing is heading for a recovery.
I Think that Teddy Kennedy is Dying Quickly
Teddy Kennedy is working very hard to try and get his ducks in a row on universal healthcare legislation , i.e. before Bush leaves office.
I understand the power of the first 100 days, but I find it highly unlikely that you could get this through that quickly, so I’m thinking that he knows that he doesn’t have much time left, and he is throwing a hail Mary pass.
Damn.
Prediction of Dollar “Explosive Breakout” (Downward)
Given the poor fundamentals for the US dollar, trade and budget deficits, and the near certainty that the European Central Bank will bump rates to fight inflation, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is predicting s major and abrupt fall for the dollar.
The trading pattern, including a so-called double-bottom that tested lows, resembles the one before Feb. 26 that preceded the surge to $1.6019 per euro, analysts Tom Fitpatrick in New York and Shyam Devani in London wrote in the note today.
They are right, the pattern looks similar.
In fact, you see it over longer periods:
It should be noted that the Canadian dollar is at a 2 month high too, so I expect things to be down tomorrow, and I agree with their prediction of $1.69:€1.00 by September.
Hmmmmm….An Interesting Factoid about the Iran – US Conflict
According to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius :
He said the Iranians had recently captured several dissident Iranian operatives who had been recruited by U.S. military officers inside Iraq and then sent into Iran. The Iranians, whose intelligence network inside Iraq is pervasive, surveilled the meeting, then followed the agents across the border and seized them.
So, the Iranians know that we are attempting to insert spies, saboteurs, and garden variety terrorists from Iraq, but they have the Iraqis so penetrated that they when we plan something before we do it.
Sounds an awful lot like Vietnam, where about 35% of the intelligence officers there were working for the North.
At some point, they will catch an American, and put him on TV.
Dump Lieberman Pressure Grows
Personally, I just want him to be caught with a prostitute, so we can be finished with him.
It’s Official, We are in a Bear Market
We are now 20% below the October, 2007 high.
For reasons unclear to me, a20% drop is the line for a bear market.
Cristopher Hitchens Gets Waterboarded
At his own request, and concludes that it is indeed torture.
No doubt, he followed this by a scotch or 3.
Obama Voters Protest On Telco Immunity Now Getting Ink
We’re seeing coverage in both the New York Times and the New York Post.
There is actually a group set up on his own site to lobby him to oppose the bill, and I believe that it is the largest group there with more than 12k members.
One wonders if this will effect his vote.
Israel and Iran and an Air Strike
Not gonna happen, because, as Tony Karon says, if they were seriously considering a strike at this time, they would not be telegraphing preparations.
Of course, he gets to quote an interview he did with Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls/the Notorious B.I.G, “On the streets, when someone is telling anyone who’ll listen that they’re going to kill you, you don’t have to lose any sleep over it. You’re not going to hear about beforehand when the real killer comes.”
I’m jealous.
Economics Update
It’s a pretty slow day news wise, because everyone is waiting on the ECB’s decision on interest rates, and the latest unemployment numbers.
That being said, both Oil and gasoline hit new records, and the dollar is mixed.
Of more interest is, and some alarm, is that the the National Employment Report from Automatic Data Processing shows that 79,000 private sector jobs were lost in June, worse than the expected 40K jobs, and the worst number since 2002.
We also have factory orders rising, which sounds like good news, until you look closer and realize it’s all energy costs.
My First Reaction Was to Say, “Barack Obama Can Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass”
Because when he talks about expanding Bush’s faith based initiative, it seems to me that he is giving the imprimatur of bipartisanship to what has been a disgraceful, and anti-constitutional, spoils system for Republican supporting churches.
It’s a little better when one looks into it though.
The organizations will not be allowed to discriminate, as they can under the Bush program, at least for federally funded work:
“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion,” Mr. Obama said. “Federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”
Needless to say, the Talibapitsts are freaking about this, because they think that the right to discriminate is what makes them “distinctive”.
I would note that Obama’s statement seems to allow discrimination, just not with public funds. I disagree with this.
Religious groups should held to the same standard as the secular organizations if they take public money.
Iranians Sick of Ahmadinejad Too
While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most prominent Iranian leader, it’s also true that he actually has very little role in foreign policy.
It now appears that officials who are involved in Iranian foreign policy are telling him to STFU, with Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that, “Iranian officials must avoid making ‘provocative’ statements”, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying that the EU proposals on Uranium enrichment were “constructive”.
There are more adults in the various executive branches of Iran than there are in the US White House.
No VC Backed IPOs This Quarter
For the first time in 30 years, there were no initial public offerings for firms backed venture capital.
The market is froze up.