Virginia’s 11th Congressional district, where 7 term Republican Tom Davis is retiring.
Year: 2008
MBIA Execs Looting Company
Or at least that’s what appears to be going on.
MBIA has raised a lot of capital lately, and it’s considering not putting the capital it just raised into its monoline insurance division, but it raised the capital for its insurance division.
As Yves Smith puts it:
So why is MBIA hoarding cash at the parent level? Well, executives (along with other corporate charges) are paid out of the parent company’s books. The subsidiaries can dividend cash up only if the are profitable OR get permission from their regulator.
Earth to SEC, we have a problem.
Obama Moving DNC Operations to Chicago
Ben Smith finds this unusual, but it’s not. The nominee always coordinates the DNC in this way, it’s just that Obama’s HQ is not in the DC area, which is good.
The culture of DC is toxic to good governance and Democrats.
Added Electoral Vote Predictor
If you scroll down, on the left side, you will see an Icon that predicts on current data the Presidential electoral vote count, Senate balance, and House Seats. It’s from electoral-vote.com, and looks like this:
It gives a nice picture of the state of the race.
I’m Voting Republican
This is very amusing.
U.S. Pot Getting More Potent
I dinna smoke it no more, too many pee tests, but it’s laughable when the Office of National Drug Control Policy claims that this means that the increase in potency makes it more dangerous. Of course, people who actually study THC say that there is no additional danger involved, and that the most dangerous thing about pot is the smoking, which like all smoking is bad for you.
It’s up from last year’s 8.75% THC to 9.6%.
Also (H/T Talkleft) we have studies indicating that THC may have anticancer properties and may repair damaged brain cells and help with anxiety and depression.
More potency is good news, except for the whole “binging on ice cream sammiches” thing.
Deck Chairs, Titanic
Lehman just sacked its CFO & COO.
I’m not going to go out on a limb, but they are starting to look a bit like what used to be Bear Stearns.
Dean Baker Asks
Do the people who write about the need to cut ‘entitlements’ really not know that the problem is the unique inefficiency of the U.S. health care system (per capita health care costs in other wealthy countries average half as much) or are they lying?
They are lying.
This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.
Arbitration as a Racket
Businessweek has as damning article on the arbitration industry:
But internal NAF documents and interviews with people familiar with the firm reveal a different reality. Behind closed doors, NAF sells itself to lenders as an effective tool for collecting debts. The point of these pitches is to persuade the companies to use the firm to resolve clashes over delinquent accounts. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) are among the large institutions that do so. A September, 2007, NAF PowerPoint presentation aimed at creditors and labeled “confidential” promises “marked increase in recovery rates over existing collection methods.” At times, NAF does this kind of marketing with the aid of law firms representing the very creditors it’s trying to sign up as clients.
The laws that allow for this need to be changed.
The arbitration system is corrupt to the core.
House Passes Unemployment Extension
They didn’t get two thirds to suspend the rules, but they did get exactly two thirds this time around, 274 to 137.
They peeled off 49 ‘Phant legislators. Good.
It Appears that B-2 Crash Info is Worse than Previously Anticipated
It appears that there is a memo going around suggesting that the problems are more involved than just water in the air data sensors.
Specifically, there is a wheel speed sensor, and you should get a warning at about 60 kts if the wheel and air speed data does not match. Additionally, it appears that you can’t turn on the pitot heat too early to dry out the water, because it would warp the skin in that area, which would compromise the plane’s stealth characteristics.
Economics Update
Well, retail sales increased by 1% last month, about twice as much as expected. When gas if figured out, it drops to 0.8%, and then there is the question of how much food contributed.
Additionally, we have businesses expanding their inventories, though one has to wonder if this because they are hedging against inflation, or if they are expecting an uptick in business?
I tend to go with a bearish, and it appears that the outgoing head of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) thinks so too.
He sees the economy slipping into recession, and possibly stagflation.
Certainly, inflation concerns are rising world wide, with the South African central bank raising rates, ½% to 12%. (Ouch)
Employment is not looking good either, with initial jobless claims rising to 384,000 last week, though one always the caveat that week to week changes can just be noise, as opposed to signal.
Then again, with mortgage rates rising, they are now at an 8 month high, I don’t see construction leading any recovery.
In energy, we had oil down as the dollar strengthened, though retail gasoline hit a new high…again.
Cheney Lies Through His Teeth Again
And once again, it’s the folks at McClatchy who call him on it, and no one else seems to notice.
This time, he’s claiming that the Chinese are drilling off the Cuban coast, and using that as a justification for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Well, not true, and not just the Chinese:
Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba’s shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is “akin to urban legend,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.
“China is not drilling in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, period,” said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon’s research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.
It’s not just Cheney. It’s also John Boehner, and George Radanovich.
If a Republican says that the sky is blue, bring a damn unbrella.
House Amtrak Appropriation With Veto-Proof Majority
I guess that people figured that with gas past $4/bbl, this would not be a good thing to vote against.
Supreme Court Upholds Rule of Law on Close 5-4 Vote.
The Supreme Court, with a 5-4 vote, along the anticipated lines, ruled that Guantanamo detainees have a right to contest their detention in court.
I don’t know whether to be elated at the decision, or scared that it was so close.
Iranian Strike on Table Again
It looks to me like the increased chatter about a possible strike is being driven by three things, Bush’s petulant arrogance, the idea that the Republican party might gain political advantage from this, and the idea that Ehud Olmert might gain political advantage from this.
Update on Republithug Corruption
Busy day.
We have former Congressman Curt Weldon tied into a Russian influence buying scheme, all laundered through a shady non-profit.
Curt Weldon was, of course one of those guys who saw agents of hostile governments everywhere…who knew he was one?
The fine folks at TPM note that former Rep. Sweeney’s (now ex-) wife, the one that he beat when he wasn’t driving drunk, was being paid for work she never did at a “fundraising firm” that she ran.
In the small fry category, we have Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) neglection to mention $286,278 in expenditures and $102,044 in contributions in her 2002 campaign. It could just be a clerical error, but seeing as how they neglected to mention a donation from “Friends of Duke Cunningham”, and over a hundred grand spent on her Daughter and Son-in-law’s “political consulting firm”, I’m thinking that we have some self dealing going on.
Low, Even for Fox
See?
…
I guess I need to clarify. I am not talking abuout putting Michelle Makin on TB. Look at the scroll.
“Obama’s Baby Mama”?
Stop Loss to Continue
So, the back door draft continues.
We are breaking our military.
Is the Proposed Iraq-US Military Agreement a Back Door to An Iran Strike?
Faiz at Think Progress notes the following troubling detail in the proposed agreement, which a Dawa MP has objected to:
The Americans insist so far that is they who define what is an aggression on Iraq and what is democracy inside Iraq…if we come under aggression we should define it and ask for help.
This means that the US could use the status of forces agreement to justify an attack on Iran.
As Faiz puts it, “Since the administration is unlikely to get an Iran war authorized through Congress, it’s instead trying to sneak it through the Iraqi parliament.”