Year: 2008

Torture for Thee but Not For Me

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This is just so Orwellian. U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell is saying that if waterboarding were used against him, it would be torture, but refuses to say if this applies to other people.

The level of corruption, immorality, and cowardice of Bush and His Evil Minions™ simply buggers the mind.

“If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can’t imagine how painful!” McConnell said in the article. “Whether it’s torture by anybody else’s definition, for me it would be torture.”

But he rejected a suggestion that he personally condemned the practice.

I want my country back.

No Telco Immunity for a While

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As a result of Dodd’s activism against Telco immunity, Harry Reid has decided not to attempt to pass such a provision while Bush is still in office. Instead, he’s looking at extending the last bill for another 18 months. (Note the article linked is a WSJ editorial, and so it is in many ways factually inaccurate where there are clear facts, and wrong in its analysis, read only if you have a strong stomach or an affection for dark humor)

Still, this is not good enough. The “Protect America Act” is an assault on the constitution and its principles. It should not be extended a day, much less 18 months.

Dodd is now out of the Presidential race, but in 2000, he lost to Daschle in a race for the Senate Democratic leader, and he should challenge Reid next time.

SCOTUS to Review McCain-Feingold “Millionair’s Amendment”

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When McCain and Feingold were writing their campaign finance law, they had to deal with the problem of self financing candidates. If a multimillionaire wanted to run, and spend millions of his own money, the court decisions had explicitly made it clear that this was protected by the first amendment.

Their solution was to allow candidates facing a rich self-funding to accept larger donations, which the Supreme Court will now be reviewing the case, Davis v. FEC, which affirmed the law.

Musharraf Fingerprints Increasingly Appear on Bhutto Assassination

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First, the Musharraf govenrment is rejecting a U.N. inquiry, on the basis that “No foreign government was involved”, though they have already fingered al Queida, a group of foreign terrorists based, at least in part in Afghanistan, and definitely supported by a foreign group, the Taliban.

Bag News Notes also has an interesting analysis, where they lay the blame at the feet of Condoleeza Rice, who thought that another “election”, like those in Iraq, would show democracy on the march in Pakistan, but then she never followed up, and left Bhutto unprotected.

Cleveland Sues Banks as “Public Nuisances”

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I do not think that this lawsuit against 21 lenders will succeed, but we know what my prediction record is.

I think that the judges will throw it out of court in the early stages, but if they don’t, and it goes before a jury, I think that it will be far more likely that they will prevail.

That being said, the idea that major banks and Wall Street firms are being called public nuisances, “The Cleveland suit, filed Thursday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court under the state’s public nuisance law, asserts that the financial institutions created nuisances across broad swaths of Cleveland because their loans led to widespread abandonment of homes,” does represent an interesting change in attitude.

For the past 25 years, the rule for municipalities and states was to please Wall Street, and now these institutions are being view, accurately IMNSHO, as parasites and near-criminal enterprises.

The $736 Million 1000 Man Stove on the Euphrates

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Yes, after 736 million dollars, the State Department’s Baghdad Embassy is a fire hazard.

In addition, the power plant and electrical has not been tested at all.

No surprise. A ¾ Billion contract handed out to a, “Contractor had never built an embassy and did not realize that under State Department rules it needed approval for substituting certain materials.”

But I’m sure that they have a long history of contributing to the Republican party.

Blackwater Destroys Physical Evidencem

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Here’s a surprise, after flipping out and indiscriminately spraying civilians with bullets, the Blackwater mercenaries security contractorspatched and repainted their trucks almost immediately.

The repairs essentially destroyed evidence that Justice Department investigators hoped to examine in a criminal case that has drawn worldwide attention. The Sept. 16 shooting has strained U.S. relations with the Iraqi government, which wants Blackwater expelled from the country. It also has become a flash point in the debate over whether contractors are immune from legal consequences for their actions in a war zone.

They knew that there was going to be an investigation, and they knew that the physical evidence was important, and they still destroyed it.

This is a slam dunk for obstruction of justice.

Regardless of your position on mercenaries private security contractors, it’s clear that Blackwater conducts their business in such a way that they should be shut down.

Of course, unlike the scariest bitch you’d ever want to meet, Martha Stewart, the management of the firm is Republican, so there will probably be no legal repurcussions.

CPAP Update

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My first night at home with the CPAP went fairly well.

This is the 3rd time that I’ve tried this, the first two times were at sleep centers.

The first time was a disaster, with me feeling like I was choking as I drifted off to sleep, and the second time, I think that I had a less ham-handed tech running things, so it went fairly well.

The CPAP did wake me up a couple of times, but I think that it’s just a matter of getting used to it, though I am grateful that this model has a ramp up mode, so when trying to go to sleep, it starts slow, and builds up pressure, in my case 7cm water gauge, which helps me drift off.

My wife didn’t notice any slower, and I was not feeling significantly more refreshed when I woke up than I normally do, but I’m told that this takes time.

Wanker of the Day: Lawrence O’Donnell

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If you have a strong stomache, read his his entry in the Huffington Post.

I understand the calls of various people for Edwards to drop out so as to benefit a particular candidate. That’s politics, but the reasons he gives are stupid, and insulting to Barack Obama, John Edwards, and the whole south.

If John Edwards stays in the race, he might, in the end, become nothing other than the Southern white man who stood in the way of the black man. And for that, he would deserve a lifetime of liberal condemnation.

Jane Smiley replied on HuffPo. It’s titled, Shut Up, Larry. Word up, Jane.

Pirate Bay.org Being Hauled into Court Again

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Swedish law is fairly lax, and my guess is that they proprietors of the site will win.

They are are being charged with conspiracy to breach copyrights.

Considering the fact that , “seven parliamentarians from the ruling conservative party called in a newspaper opinion article last month for the decriminalization of file sharing.”, and the fact that the Pirate party has more members than the Greens, I’m not surprised that they are relying on public defenders.

This is being driven by the US, and everyone knows it.

Well, That Was Quick

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Just this morning, I suggested that Bank of America’s purchase of Countrywide was throwing good money after bad.

It appears that Moody’s Investors Service things the same way, they are considering downgrading B of A.

Barry Ritholtz makes the same point, using Dennis Gartman’s #1 rule of trading:

1. Never, Ever, Ever, Under Any Circumstance, Add to a Losing Position… not ever, not never! Adding to losing positions is trading’s carcinogen; it is trading’s driving while intoxicated. It will lead to ruin

After that initial disastrous buy in at $18-20, BoA is doubling up — at $6 . . .

Maybe I need to change banks.

What the Press Did in New Hampshire

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Joe Conason has a good if to my mind too gentle on what happened with the press in New Hampshire:

The angry Clinton haters in the press corps suffer from the same flat learning curve as Wile E. Coyote. They don’t understand why their Acme arsenal never quite does the job, and instead often leaves them with grimy faces and aching heads.

The problem is that these guys behave as if they are a high school clique, and the journalistic community has very little concern about accuracy.