Here we have a “Real Cost of Living Index” of 9.5% in the UK.
Year: 2008
Senate Polling
- SurveyUSA: Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 50%; Bruce Lunsford (D-MN) 46%: I’m surprised that it’s this close now. McConnell is still at the magic 50% number, but he’s the minority leader of the Senate.
- Rasmussen Reports™: Ted Stephens (R-AK) 46%; Mark Begich (D-AK) 44%: Stevens is in real trouble. One of the truisms of politics are that undecideds break against the incumbent by at least 2:1.
- SurveyUSA: Norm Coleman (R-MN) 52%; Al Franken (D-MN), if Jesse Ventura enters the race as an independent, it becomes (R)41%-(D)31%-(I)23%: This as me bumming. I hate that smarmy bastard Coleman. One hopes that the race will become more about Norm Coleman, and less about Al Franken.
- Rasmussen Reports™: Mark Warner (D-VA) 60%; Jim Gilmore (R-VA) 33%: Virginia will have two Democratic Senators.
- Rasmussen Reports™: Pat Roberts (R-KS) 48%; Jim Slattery (D-KS) 39%: The fact that the incumbent Republican in Kansas is below 50% is simply stunning. I think that this is unlikely Dem pickup, but the idea that a Democrat has a non-insane shot at this, Roberts is below 50%, is stunning.
Can We Impeach Him Now?
Well, we now have the definitive word on when Bush knew that there was no Iraq-al Queida link, and that he continued to claim such a link
In October 2002, a few weeks before Congress voted to authorize the Iraq invasion, Bush told a crowd in Cincinnati: “We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gasses.”
Problem is, it wasn’t true. More importantly, a lot of people at the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency knew it probably wasn’t true. That’s one of the interesting revelations inside the Senate’s recent 171-page Phase II report on whether White House statements were backed up by prewar intelligence.
He knew. He knew since February 2002.
It turns out that their source was one guy, who had most of the information tortured out of him, and none of whose claims ever panned out.
Impeach Dick Cheney today. Impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.
Surprise, Torture and Abuse Readicalizes Non-Terrorists
We discover, to our surprise, that people with no connection with al Queida, following imprisonment and abuse by the United States, they become they tend to find common cause with terrorists.
It’s not just our torture that does it, it’s also that the innocent people in these prisons mix with real terrorists, and they learn from their inmates.
Once again, I am compelled to make the repeat the wisest thing that I’ve read this century:
But it does inspire in me the desire for a competition; can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:
- It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
- It was significant enough in scale that I’d have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
- It wasn’t in some important way completely f#$@ed up during the execution.
Seriously, these people couldn’t screw up anything any more if they were an actual al Queida sleeper cell.
Economics Update
We now have the Fed’s report on national industrial activity, and the may disappoints, with activity falling 0.2% when an 0.1% increase had been predicted by economists.
I’m not sure if it factors in inflation, but if it does not, then those numbers are absolutely horrific, as the producer price index rose 1.4% in May, which is grim….Over the last year, the PPI has gone up 7.2%.
Note that this is going on while housing starts fell 3.3%, which is the lowest rate since March of 1991, 17 years.
No wonder that the builders’ confidence survey just hit a record low, matching the record established in December of last year.
Of course, that doesn’t take into account that the National Association of Realtors isn’t getting the numbers that they report right. They claimed that NJ home sales were up 4% in the Q1 when they were down 30%….that’s a hell of a “mistake”.
It’s no wonder that Goldman Sachs is suggesting that banks may need to raise another $65 billion to cover mortgage losses.
It’s even less of a wonder that investors are waiting for more dividend cuts from banks. No profit should mean no dividends.
Of course, the Fed is continuing to let banks get free money for sh%$ pile assets, this time to the tune of $75 billion.
There is good news in energy though, with both oil and retail gasoline coming down a bit today.
The standard wisdom would suggest that this was because of a strengthening dollar, but the greenback fell today.
Torture Pushed Despite Legal Opinions
The Senate Armed Services Committee has reviewed documents surrounding the treatment of prisoners, and it now appears that the orders for torture came from the top down, not from the bottom up, as Rumsfeld and the rest of his merry band of sadists had insisted.
They were aggressively soliciting tortures from the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) community, which was created to help US soldiers resist torture, so it’s clear that they knew.
What’s more, the sort of torture that SERE was created to combat was torture that had our servicemen lying, not revealing secrets.
They did not care that torture creates lies. They were not interested in accurate information. They just wanted to torture, because it made them feel strong.
This even shocked the sensabilities of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), though I have little doubt that when push comes to shove, he’ll cover for Bush and His Evil Minions™:
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the legal analysis from administration lawyers in 2002 will “go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation’s military and intelligence communities.”
….
In separate memos, the lawyers told the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the techniques warranted further study and could be illegal.
Seriously, these people need to go to jail for the rest of their lives.
AP Goes RIAA Route
Well, it looks like the Associated press has decided to try and go the route of the RIAA and MPAA, and create a new “property” right on their material which completely eschews the idea of fair use.
Specifically, they have gone after the Drudge Retort, asking them to take down 7 links, “ranging from 39 to 79 words”.
This places me in the unpleasant position of agreeing with Jeff Jarvis, Liebercrat extrordinaire, that they are stupid, or insane, or both.
According to Whiskey Fire, the AP now has a schedule of licensing fees which start at $12.50 for 5 words…I’m not joking here….Also, it appears to apply to blog comments too.
Interestingly enough, the terms of service are even more restrictive than that. According to Patrick Nielsen Hayden, they also want to prohibit you from criticizing the Associated Press, which means that all those folks following the hacktacular exploits of Nedra Pickler are simply out of luck, I guess.
As a result, TechCrunch, and some other bloggers, including me, will boycott AP stories for the foreseeable future.
Boycott link here.
Patti Solis Doyle Hired by Barack Obama
She was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager until she was let go after February. In hindsight, Mark Penn should have been fired well before her.
In any case, she has now been hired by Barack Obama as the chief of staff for whoever his VP choice will be.
According to the cognoscenti in Washington, or at least one Hillary supporter, this is the, “biggest ‘f$#@ you’ I have ever seen in politics,” because she was rather unceremoniously dropped by Clinton, and they allegedly have not talked since then.
I really don’t know what is going on, though the Clinton Campaign has said the right thing:
Patti will be an asset and good addition to the Obama campaign. After nearly two decades in political life, she brings with her the ability to tap an extensive network that will be a huge asset to Senator Obama. As Senator Clinton has said, we’re all going to do our part to help elect Senator Obama as the next President of the United States.
I’m not sure what is going on, but I don’t see this as being a f$#@ you, it simply makes no sense to do so for that reason, particularly after Hillary’s speech endorsing Obama.
I don’t know what is going on, but either the hiring, or the reaction to the hiring, or (more likely) the press reaction to the hiring appears to be something out of high school.
Halliburton/KBR Stories
It now appears that the contract manager for a multi billion KBR contract was forced out after insisting for documentation for the invoices that they were sending in.
Delightful….Dick Cheney’s company, under a policy created by SecDef Dick Cheney, was allowed to submit smudged receipts on cocktail napkins.
Bug Juice
More accurately, it’s something very similar to diesel fuel produced by genetically altered microbes.
AQ Khan Network May Have Sold Miniaturized Warhead Designs
These appear to be the crown jewels of Pakistani nukes, with warheads small enough to fit on missiles.
Profoundly disturbing, and according to the story above, it’s freaking out the Pakistanis too.
Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Managers Face Imminent Arrest
I am so totally not surprised by this development. This sort of lying and deception is endemic in Wall Street.
No FOIA on White House Email Coverup
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ruled that the White House email system is not subject to the Freedom Of Information Act, and so ruled against CREW.
There is still another suit alleging that the WH is not taking reasonable steps to preserve electronic records.
Iraqis Choosing Go Slow on Status of Forces Agreement
Yet another sign that everyone is treating Bush as a lame duck.
Truth be told, it’s also because Bush and His Evil Minions™ want an agreement that can only be described as a colonial relationship, where Iraq has little or none of the authority that would ordinarily be ascribed to a nation state.
11 Going on 16
My daughter just turned 11 today….Not dating yet….thank God.
Her birth was fairly easy….for me….For Sharon*, it was 14 hours of back labor followed by forceps delivery…
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
Gore Formally Endorses Obama
Not a surprise, but I’m betting against his being the VP choice.
He’s done that, and he’s got a bloody Nobel prize now.
Loser of the Day: Gheorghe Dobrescu
He lost the election for mayor of a small village in Romania, to Neculai Ivascu, who just died, so he lost to a dead man.
Of course, Neculai Ivascu, being dead, couldn’t really be called a winner either.
Nunn of the Above
Open left has the following VP short list of Obama, and I thought that I would put my 2 cents in:
- Evan Bayh (Sen-IN)
- DLC Squish.
- Joe Biden (Sen-DE)
- Only if McCain chooses Joe Biden.
- Wes Clark (Gen-AR)
- Hillary Clinton (Sen-NY)
- Tom Daschle (Sen-SD)
- Sorry, but he screams out milquetoast.
- Chris Dodd (Sen-CT)
- Recent revalations about his house loans rule him out.
- James Jones (Gen-MO)
- Tim Kaine (Gov-VA)
- John Kerry (Sen-MA)
- No. He’s already lost once.
- Patty Murray (Sen-WA)
- Bill Nelson (Sen-FL)
- Sam Nunn (Sen-GA)
- If he gets the nod, we will all know that a bunch of progressives in the party got completely taken in by him. In addition to being homophobic, he’s sat on so many corporate boards lately that he looks like a McCain lobbyist.
- Jack Reed (Sen-RI)
- Kathleen Sebelius (Gov-KS)
- Mark Warner (Gov-VA)
- Jim Webb (Sen-VA)
We’ll see, but if it’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” Nunn, it’s not a good move.
6 Years Late: Bush Goes After Osama bin Forgotten
Gee, Bush said that bin Laden was irrelevant years ago.
So now he pulls out all the stops….go figure.
Shoot Me, I Agree With Canuck Flying Monkey Right Winger David Frum
David Frum, writing in The New Republic, in yet another example of how that magazine has fallen, actually writes something that I wholeheartedly support, though for very different reasons:
I have my own personal nomination for vice president for McCain. It’s Rudy Giuliani, precisely because he shares the vision of a practical, reforming, war-winning Republican Party that inspires John McCain, plus the stronger-than-usual grounds for hoping that he might be the rare candidate who can make a difference in an essential state–in this case, New Jersey.
Simply put, it’s been way too long since I’ve had the opportunity to use the phrase, “Clown Show”, but making a your vice-presidential running mate the man who:
- Chose a police commissioner who was mobbed up.
- Who recommended said mobbed up police commissioner to be head of homeland security.
- Who broke up with his wife at a press conference on mothers day
- Whose first wife was his cousin
- Bailed on the Iraq study group so he could get fat speaker fees.
- Lobbyied for unsavory clients, including Saudi Arabia, Tobacco, and Coal.
Would give me plenty of opportunity.
Of course, I can’t hope to own him the way that Joe Biden did when he said that when Rudy talks, “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”
That one is one of the classics of the ages, up there with George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill.