Airbus is increasing maximum take-off weight on all models of the A350 XWB by three tons as a result.
More weight=more fuel burn, so this is not good news for Airbus.
Year: 2008
Sign of the Apocalypse: Cheney Admits Error
His office though, not him.
They issued a press release saying that Cheney was wrong about Chinese oil drilling north of Cuba.
OMFG!!! This is So Lame!!!
Scott Bloch, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, who had a computer consultant wipe his hard drive, and whose office was raided by the FBI with accusations of abuse of authority, retaliation, political bias, and obstruction of justice, now has a new title Sock Puppet* by Proxy. It appears that he ordered subordinates to post stuff supporting him on blogs when they posted bad news about him.
This is so incredibly pathetic.
*Full disclosure, I’ve sock puppeted. I acknowledge that this means that I have no personal credibility. Confirm what I write by going to the links I cite, and reviewing my arguments. Seriously. FWIW, I’ll try not to sock puppet in my own comments section. I haven’t yet.
Seriously, if I say the sky is blue, go check the Weather Channel to confirm this.
HOPE NOW Mortgage Relief Numbers Are Bogus
A report from the Office of the Controller of the Currency shows that the facts are overstated by about 10 times. The report are also showed that foreclosures are happening at a higher rate than reported.
An idea from Bush and His Evil Minions™, and it’s under performing and dishonest…who could have known?
UK: Financial Services Authority Requires Disclosure of Short Sales
It appears that traders are using short sales to try to profit from screwing up banks attempts to raise additional capital, and the regulator finds this “market abuse”.
Now, if only we would see this implemented in US markets.
Inflation Hits Home
Not so much for me, I’m a butterscotch type, but definitely for Sharon*, because Cocoa futures just hit 28-year high.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
Muqtada al-Sadr Rolling Out New Force Devoted to Expelling US from Iraq
This is a very canny move for him.
The overwhelming majority of Iraqis want the US out, and with US demands for the status of forces agreement, they know that the US does not intend to leave.
Google Developing Network Neutrality Sniffing Tools
Well, this is one way to ensure that it’s difficult for the ISPs to claim that they are not messing with your traffic, as Comcast clearly is.
Updates on Various Races
Rasmussen Reports™: has Norm Coleman at 48% and Al Franken 45%, and it is not good for an incumbent to be below 50%. This will be winnable, even with the phony scandals drummed up by Coleman’s bully boys.
The race for Fossella’s seat in Staten Island is a tossup, though it has historically been a fairly solid Republican district.
Rasmussen Reports™ has Liddy Dole with a 14-Point Lead Over Kay Hagan, 53%-39%. The last poll had Hagan up by 1 point, immediately after she won the primary, but Dole has been running ads, and Hagan has not.
Dodd Is So Off Obama’s VP List
He’s alleged to have gotten some sweetheart loans from Countrywide Financial too, though he is denying this.
Iraq PM Says Status of Forces at Impasse
Considering the US Demands, double the number of bases, control of airspace, the right to detain Iraqi citizens, and the right to declare war on behalf of Iraq, I’m not surprised that even that most obsequious of puppets, Nouri al-Maliki, simply cannot stomach this.
Press Buying Into Republican Meme Again
The Republicans are saying that Barack Obama risks his squeaky clean image if he opts out of public financing, and the press is eating it up.
I call bull$#. John McCain is currently in felony violation of the law that he wrote, and so it’s clear that he cannot be trusted, and this is what the Obama campaign should be saying, albeit as background, to reporters.
Cuban Oil May Put Kibosh on Embargo
It looks like Cuban may be pumping over half a million barrels a day in the next few years, and this may change minds about the embargo.
There are a number of reasons, the first being that US oil companies will want to be in the game, the second is that will mean that there will be oil rigs in spill distance of the Florida coast, and the tourist industry there may not be so sanguine about, for example, a Brazilian firm drilling.
Ireland Rejects EU Treaty
They voted it down in a referendum.
There have been a couple of problems with the EU efforts to streamline how they operate:
- There appears to be an organizational insulate many senior career bureaucrats from “political interference”, which means insulating their decisions from democracy, which was seen as a negative by the Irish voters because it is a negative.
- The voters are looking at a 250+ page document, and they have no confidence that anyone can understand what it means.
If the EU comes back with a document where decision making rests in the hands of elected representatives, and one that is short enough to understand, they will likely get approval.
The US constitution is under 10 pages. There is no reason for a governing document to be that long.
Economics Update
Well, we now know that in May, foreclosure was up 48% over a year ago, which is why we are seeing stories about places where foreclosures are a majority of sales, and banks are becoming more flexible on prices on the property that they have assumed.
Increasingly, it looks like the bump in house sales was just a bump in sales of lender own properties.
If interest rates go up, this will get worse, and May data points to increased inflation. It exceeded expectations again.
That’s why Fed Governor Plosser is calling for a quick rate hike. He is worried about the dreaded stagflation.
Zimbabwe is Getting Worse
We have food aid intended for children seized and handed out at a Mugabe rally, which would be bad parody if it weren’t true.
We’ve also had MDC’s number two man, Secretary General Tendai Biti, arrested and charged with treason, which carries a death penalty, for writing a document describing a transition to MDC rule.
It appears that the judiciary is functioning on some level though, as a judge has directed the police to bring him to court tomorrow.
Mugabe is merrily escalating the violance, deploying more ‘war vetrans’ to the campaign, and telling them that they should be Mugabe says war vets ready for battle.
The UN secretary general is sending Haile Menkerios as a high ranking envoy to Zimbabwe in an attempt to resolve this issue, but I do not think that it will do any good.
Damn! Looks Like Hoyer May Have Found a Way to Sell Out on Telco Immunity
According to this report, Steny Hoyer, Jay Rockefeller, Christopher “Kit” Bond, and Roy Blunt have hammered something out.
Seriously. This is like social security. No compromise, no proposals.
This is not just a core Democratic value, it’s a core American value.
The telcos knew the law, and they broke it, and Bush and His Evil Minions&trade have a hard on about shielding them because they know that it can get them sent to jail.
Russert Dead of Heart Attack
Condolences to his family.
I have nothing appropriate to add at this time.
Who is Eligible for the Presidency, For the Morons Out There
By which I mean the denizens of Larry Johnson’s No Quarter (no link, just like Malkin).
The Constitution does not require that a President be born in the US. It requires that a President be a natural born citizen.
Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution contains the clause:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
If you look at the case law, a child born to an American parent where the paternity is established before the age of majority is a natural born citizen.
All the stupidity over the borders of an image of a Hawaiian birth certificate will not change that.
Here’s hoping that Johnson gets a clue over the next few months.
Moody’s to Rate Muni Bonds Fairly
The original business for monoliner insurers was to insure government bonds, which were rarely rated at AAA by the agencies, even though they were at least as safe as AAA corporate bonds, so they would buy insurance, because the interest rate savings would more than pay for the insurance.
I’ve always seen this as self dealing by Wall Street. The ratings agencies set about screwing the taxpayers for the benefit of other folks, whether they be the monoliners or the investors who would get more interest.
Because of the increases scrutiny of ratings agency, there has been pressure to change this, and now Moody’s has announced that it will adopt the same ratings for Munis as it uses for corporate bonds.
About bloody time.