Year: 2008

You Don’t Destroy the Army You Want, You Destroy the Army You Have

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The US Army has missed its recruiting benchmarks by an alarming margin:

  • For the third consecutive year, the Army missed DoD benchmarks set for educational attainment and scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test. (Important, because non HS grads drop out of service in their first term at a much higher rate)
  • Scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) continue to fall. 60.8% of the recuits scored average or higher, well below the Army’s now abandoned goal of 67%.
  • Overall recruit quality, a figure derived largely from the above two factors, has fallen, with high quality recruits plummeting to 44.6%, down from 56.2% in 2007.
  • Bonuses for reenlistments have skyrocketed in amount, and scope.

Heck of a job there, Rummie.

Maybe Now Mukasye Can Say if Waterboarding is Torture

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During his confirmation hearings, Mukasey said that he would not be able to make a determination as to whether waterboarding was torture until after he consulted with the DoJ and intelligence officials about what was going on, and what legal justifications were used.

Well, Mukasey is appearing before the Senate next week, and Senators have figured that he has had plenty of time to get their answer:

January 23, 2008
The Honorable Michael Mukasey
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

On October 23, 2007, we wrote to you to ask you whether the abusive interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal.

On October 30, you responded that waterboarding and other abusive techniques “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me.” You said that you could not offer an opinion on the legality of waterboarding based on “hypothetical facts and circumstances” because you had not been briefed on the government’s interrogation techniques: “Legal opinions should treat real issues. I have not been briefed on techniques used in any classified interrogation program conducted by any government agency.” However, you committed that, “if confirmed I will review any coercive interrogation techniques currently used by the United States Government and the legal analysis authorizing their use to assess whether such techniques comply with the law.”

You were confirmed as Attorney General on November 8, 2007. On November 9, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham sent you a letter stating, “The scenarios you previously described as hypothetical are no longer so, and you now have the benefit of full access to classified programs and memoranda. We urge you to acquaint yourself immediately with these matters and take the opportunity to make clear that waterboarding is illegal and can never be employed.”

It has been over two months since then, ample time for you to study this issue and reach a conclusion. On November 27, State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger said you were giving “high priority” to reviewing interrogation techniques, claiming, “I think there is a growing recognition … about the need for greater clarity about what is permitted and what is prohibited.”

Your failure to say whether waterboarding is legal has placed Judge Mark Filip, the nominee for Deputy Attorney General, in a difficult position. When Judge Filip was asked at his confirmation hearing whether waterboarding was unlawful, he was unwilling to answer because you were studying the issue: “[T]he Attorney General of the United States is presently reviewing that legal question. … I don’t think I can, or anyone who could potentially [be] considered for his deputy, could get out in front of him on that question while it’s under review.”

We are concerned that your silence poses a more serious threat to American servicemembers. As we noted in our October 23rd letter:

Your unwillingness to state that waterboarding is illegal may place Americans at risk of being subjected to this abusive technique. If the United States does not explicitly and publicly condemn waterboarding, it will be more difficult to argue that enemy forces cannot waterboard American prisoners.

This concern was highlighted recently during “The Legal Rights of Guantanamo Detainees: What Are They, Should They Be Changed, and Is an End in Sight?” a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security on December 11. Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, Legal Advisor to the Convening Authority for the Office of Military Commissions, refused to say whether it would be legal for the Iranian government to subject an American citizen to waterboarding. He also testified that it is possible that information obtained through waterboarding could be introduced as evidence in a military commission.

In stark contrast to Brigadier General Hartmann’s refusal to say whether it would be illegal to waterboard an American, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell recently opined that waterboarding would be torture if used against him. According to The New Yorker, DNI McConnell said, “If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can’t imagine how painful! Whether it’s torture by anybody else’s definition, for me it would be torture.”

Please respond to the following questions:
1. Is the use of waterboading as an interrogation technique illegal under U.S. law, including treaty obligations?

2. Based on your review of other coercive interrogation techniques and the legal analysis authorizing their use, what is your assessment of whether such techniques comply with the law?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Durbin
Patrick J. Leahy
Edward M. Kennedy
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Herb Kohl
Dianne Feinstein
Russell D. Feingold
Charles E. Schumer
Benjamin L. Cardin
Sheldon Whitehouse

Pelosi Caves to Republicans….AGAIN

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Yes, Nancy Pelosi, in discussions with Republicansgave up more in food food stamps and an extension to unemployment benefits to get tax rebates for the working poor.

She also gave in on tax breaks for business.

I heard on the radio that 1$ in unemployment benefits generates about $1.60 in economic activity, and $1.70 for the food stamps, while the business tax cuts generate about 25¢ for every dollar.

The unemployment and food stamps also hit the economy in weeks, as opposed to about 6 months for business tax breaks.

Thank you for knuckling under and screwing the economy to give tax breaks to Bush’s buddies.

Yes, Nancy Pelosi, good old Ms.
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!

How many New York Times reporters it takes to cover the death of an actor with just a few movies to his credit:?

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15


Heath Ledger, Actor, Is Found Dead at 28
By JAMES BARRON1

…

Reporting was contributed by Al Baker2, Anne Barnard3, Brooks Barnes4, David Carr5, Sewell Chan6, John Eligon7, David S. Hirschman8, Thomas J. Lueck9, Angela Macropoulos10, Jennifer Mascia11, Colin Moynihan12, Campbell Robertson13, Melena Ryzik14 and Paula Schwartz15.

H/T Altercation.

In Other Unsurprising News, the MPAA is a Bunch of Lying Jackals*

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Well, Harold Feld ads some fact checking to MPAA claims that, “40% of industry loses from internet piracy could be traced to file sharing at universities.”

LEK Consulting Services, which did the research for the MPAA, has now released its methodology, and based on their own numbers, the file sharing through university computing services is about 3%.

They used this study to justify attempts to use legislation to coerce universities to lock down their networks in very expensive ways, and to make the penalties for such activities worse than murder.

*No offense intended to Jackals.

Reports of Iranian Political Pressure DelayingIsraeli Satellite Launch

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The Jerusalem Post is reportingIranian “sabotage” delayed the launch of the TecSar Satellite.

Sabotage is the JPost’s term, not mine.

It appears that Iran was using its contacts with India’s Marxist and Muslim parties to apply pressure against the government launching Israel’s satellite.

Israel has its own organic launch capabilities, but they have to do a retrograde launch over the Med to avoid Diplomatic issues.

Economics Update

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According to “reliable sources”, Ben Bernanke thinks that the downturn will be very severe, and that’s why there was the very large, unscheduled rate cuts.

Additionally, as reported by Calculated risk the market is expecting another 50 basis point rate cut at the regular meeting next week.

This would leave the Fed at a 3% discount rate, and I think that beyond that point, they are pushing on a string. Monetary controls of the economy are pretty much at their limits now.

In the real estate world, Merrill Lynch is saying that nationwide U.S. home prices could decline 25% to 30% over the next three years.

I think that they are optimistic.

Then we have student loan giant Sallie Mae reporting a $1.6 billion quarterly loss, which raises the obvious question, “How the hell do you lose money on GSLs?” These are government guaranteed loans, and the fact that borrowing costs have shot up so much that they cannot profit on them is …ominous.

There are indications that Bank of America’s deal to buy Countrywide may be getting into trouble. At least that what the market is saying, literally. BoA is offering the equivalent of $7.1058, but Countrywide is trading at $5.54.

This spread is a measure of the market’s opinion that the deal won’t actually be consummated, this spread implies that “there is roughly a 77.9 percent consensus among Wall Street’s risk arb desks and their hedge fund brethren that the deal goes through at the agreed upon terms. That also means that more than 22 percent of risk arbitrageurs don’t think the deal will go through”.

You also have Capital One taking a major earnings hit, both from the closing of its GreenPoint Mortgage arm, and from higher credit card losses.

Finally, you have talks between New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo and major US banks about a bailout of bond insurers. There is an implication that there will be some sort of government involvement, if not outright government sponsorship of such a bailout.

A Friend of Mine Died Today

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Her name was Lynn Hunter, but I knew her though our mutual activities in the SCA as, “Baroness Roana di Laci”, but usually, she was just Ro, as she she did not put on airs.

She had cancer, and she was about 3 months younger than me.

She is one of the few friends of mine with whom I never talked politics.

When I first met her, the subject of her employment came up, and it turned out that she had been fired by her previous employer, the Heritage Foundation, for having cancer.

I blurted out that I could probably find a lawyer willing to represent her pro bono, but she demurred.

I may be clueless, but even I figured out that we had differing views.

She was fun, and accessible, and welcomed my wife and I when we came to the area, and I’ll miss her.

Good journey, Ro.

And From the Fascist Wing of the Catholic Church

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St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke calling for Rick Majerus, the St. Louis University basketball coach, to be disciplined for making a campaign appearance for Hillary Clinton and expressing support for Roe v. Wade.

This is not a priest, this is not a professor in the divinity department, this is a freaking BASKETBALL COACH.

I understand that St. Louis University is a Catholic school, but demanding that employees who have absolutely nothing to do with the religious mission of the school have to toe their political is outrageous, particularly given this:

Last year, St. Louis U. celebrated a legal victory that affirmed it is not controlled by the Catholic church or by its Catholic beliefs.

The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the school in handing down a decision that the city of St. Louis did not violate state and federal constitutions by granting the university $8 million in tax increment financing for its new arena.

Opponents of the $80 million arena sued the school in 2004, halting construction.

The Missouri Constitution prohibits public funding to support any “… college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever.”

The debate came down to two words: “control” and “creed.” Does the guiding mission of a Catholic university align with the specific system of religious faith espoused by the Catholic church? And if so, does that system of faith control the actions of the university?

In a 6-1 decision, the court said SLU “is not controlled by a religious creed.”

As I recall*, Rush Limbaugh’s cousin, Stephn N. Limbaugh, Jr. serves on this court, and had been nominated by Bush to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Hmmm….I guess that Rush is the smart one of his family…Scary thought.

*And by, “As I recall”, I mean checking the Wiki.

Iraq’s de-Baathification, Heck of a Job, Bushie

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Yes, it appears that the new de-Baathification law that the Iraqi parliament passed, the one that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have been crowing about, isn’t a de-Baathification law, it’s actually an even more aggressive purge of Baath party members, and Sunnis, than the previous law.

And it gets even better, because everyone’s favorite double crossing thief, Achmed Chalabi, is heading the de-Baathification commission.

AT&T: The Borg is Back.

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AT&T sells you bandwidth, and now they want to charge the people from whom you download a second time for the privilidge of using the wires that you have already paid for.

They are claiming that they want to help crack down on copyright infringement, but let’s be clear, this is a lie.

They want the RIAA and MPAA to support their efforts, so that later, they can charge the RIAA’s and MPAA’s clients for selling AT&T customers online music and movies.


We don’t care. We don’t have to. (snort) We’re the Phone Company!”

And in the Department of the Amazingly Obvious,

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Bush and His Evil Minions™ are lying sacks of sh$@!

Lying about the Iraq, here, and here.

NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE LIES

Bush comes in number two on the lie parade, but number two is a bit of a surprise:

The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein’s possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda.

…

The study, released Tuesday, says Powell had the second-highest number of false statements, with 244 about weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.

Yep, the most overrated man in America lied to us more than anyone except for Bush himself.

Can we please stop calling “respected”.

Telethon For Democrats Without Balls, FISA Edition

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Really. I’m serious.

Here is Harry Reid, getting ready to completely capitulate on civil rights protection and telco immunity in the FISA update.

I should note that once again, Chris Dodd is excluded from my approbiation, as he is still threatening a filibuster on telco immunity.

Glenn Greenwald nails it:

Here we have a perfect expression of the most self-destructive Democratic disease which they seem unable to cure. More than anything, they fear looking ‘weak.’ To avoid this, they ‘cave’ and surrender and capitulate and stand for nothing. As a result, they are, as here, endlessly described in the media as ‘caving’ and surrendering. As a result, they look (and are) weak. It’s a self-destructive cycle that has no end.

I want my party back.

How about we try voodoo to raise Harry S Truman and Lyndon Baines Johnson from the grave, and send them to Congress to bitch slap Reid and Pelosi.

It’s like throwing away an impeachment investigation, even as just a technique to extract documents, because it trumps executive privilege.

NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!

Missouri: Matt Blunt Not Seeking Reelection

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The decision by right wing Missouri Matt Blunt, son of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt not to run for another term has come as a surprise, as he had already raised millions of dollars for his campaign.

The Fired Up! Missouri blog suggests a scandal and lists about a dozen potential ones, and mentions that he spent $100k in legal fees.

If baby Blunt is in legal trouble, his dad is too, as Blunt won’t take a crap without his dad’s permission.