Year: 2008

The Battle is Joined on the Tanker

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It appears that Seattle-area politicians are flipping out over the USAF tanker decision. No big surprise there.

Then again, this was the result to be expected if decided on the merits. The A-330 is larger, longer ranged, more modern, and not much more cost than the 767, which has never had the advances in manufacturing that were developed for the 777 and 787 incorporated back into its line.

That won’t prevent a knock down drag out fight, and it pretty much ensures that McCain loses Washington State, as he was the one who called out the USAF on the first tanker deal, correctly to my mind, on being a sweetheart deal for Boeing.

Memo Shows That Goolsbee Did Talk Down Opposition to NAFTA to Canadian Ambassador

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Austan Goolsbee needs to be released from the Obama campaign. The Republicans, and the McCain loving press, will “Gore” Obama over this if he doesn’t.

We now have documentation. The memo says of Goolsbee that, “He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

It should be stated that Goolsbee disputes this characterization, though, it would appear, not the meeting.

He may have done nothing wrong. It doesn’t matter. Goolsbee needs to be let go. He is now a liability for the campaign, though it would seem not as big a liability as Penn is for Hillary.

BTW, the original hed for the article wass, “Obama Adviser Denies Trade Remarks“, it’s now, “Canadian Memo Recounts Meeting”.

I’m sorry but the first headline was just plain deceptive. Not a fault of the reporters, who do not do the heds.

Wack Job Religious Fundamentalist Nutjobs Should Not Be Given Secular Power Over People: Israel Edition

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The story is in the New York Times.

Basically, a Jew, from a long line of Jews, wanted to get married, and the Rabbinic courts there made her jump through a series of hoops to prove she was Jewish.

I’d say that the officials on the Chief Rabbinate’s office can to go to hell, but that would be superfluous. They are already well on their way toward Gehenna.

Does McCain Know Anything About Anything????

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Yep, now we have McCain saying that Thimerisol causes autism.

It’s not true. It’s never been true, and there is no evidence of this.

Any evidence presented to indicate this has proven to be false, and there has been no change in the trajectory in conditions on the Autism spectrum since Thimerisol was phased out in the 1990s.

My wife recognized that my son might be on the spectrum at birth, though it was clearer at 3-4 weeks, well before any inoculations.

Pensions Ditching Treasuries, Setting Themselves Up For Fall

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Well, we are now seeing the beginning of the collapse of pensions around the nation, it’s just not visible yet.

The pensions are dumping Treasuries in favor of equities, and probably other more volatile investments, in order to get better rates of return, because interest rates are so low.

The reason that this is happening is because they are underfunded, and so need to chase higher rates of return:

Philadelphia’s $4 billion pension deficit is causing the city’s retirement-fund manager to shun Treasuries at a time when the Bush administration needs him most.

Yields on 30-year U.S. bonds that fell to a record low of 4.10 percent this year are forcing pension funds to favor equities, corporate debt and commodities in an attempt to cover unfunded liabilities and meet return objectives of about 8 percent. Even the federal government’s own Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said on Feb. 19 that it plans to shift $15 billion to stocks from debt.

“The reality is there’s not a lot we can do”, other than buy high-risk securities to close a pension shortfall in a short period, said Chris McDonough, chief investment officer of the Philadelphia Pensions Department. The sixth-largest U.S. city will probably also issue debt, he said.

Fixed-income holdings at 1,100 funds fell to 23 percent in 2006 from 27 percent in 2003, said Dev Clifford, a consultant at financial market research firm Greenwich Associates in Greenwich, Connecticut. Results of a survey covering 2007 will be released this month and likely show that funds own an even smaller percentage of bonds, he said.

…

This is how a lot of pensions went pop as a result of the dotbomb bust.

On My Google Ads

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I just glanced at my ads on the left hand column of my blog, and I noticed a little text ad from Humanevents.com talking about “Barack Obama Exposed”.

Let me reiterate: I do not vet my ads. Their appearance on my blog does not indicate any sort of endorsement by me.

The folks at Human Events are seriously delusional right wingers and their publication is six pounds of fertilizer in a five pound bag.

While I am not Obama’s greatest fan, I do not subscribe to the insane right wing smears from folks like this.

So, you can ignore the ad, or you could click on it, which would generate around a nickel of revenue for me and cost them some money, or you could leave and never come back.

I think that the first option is probably the most mature.

As to where the proceeds go, and at the rate I’m going I’ll get my first check around 2011, they will go to things like beer (or Slivovitz) for me, or taking my wife out to dinner.