The consultancy firm Johnson & Assoc. is predicting that bonuses on Wall Street will be lower this year because the firms have lost so much money.
Given the history of American business, and Wall Street in particular, in the past few decades, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Only the little people pay for senior executive’s mistakes.
It appears that McCain’s press availabilities are becoming severely limited.
Truth be told, part of this may be the Rove protégés, who like to be tough to the point of vindictiveness to the press, but I’ve seen seeming awfully confused lately, and I’m beginning to wonder if he’s not on the far slope of some sort of dementia.
He’s not even doing regular press conferences now.
In either case, the press has had its feelings hurt.
I would note that the DoJ having to subpoena former DoJ lawers, even political appointees, is almost unheard of, but it’s pretty clear that former Civil Rights Division* head Bradley Schlozman, and Hans “der Novotenfuhrer” von Spakovsky, former counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights are under some serious legal jeopardy, with credible allegations of perjury before Congress, and also appeared to be hip deep in the hiring scandal.
Dudes, bring your toothbrushes.
*Who says that irony is dead?
Truth be told, I think that they, along with most of the world, are hoping that really looking to move it to the next administration, which they hope will be less crazy.
If it’s Obama, they are probably right, but if it’s John Sidney McCain III, the sick old man has more of a hair trigger on the military option than Bush and His Evil Minions™ ever did.
Well, the jobless numbers came out, and they suck. The weekly numbers rose by 7,000 to 455,000, a 6 year high, when predictions were for a drop to 433K, and the 4 week moving average, which is less noisy, rose to 419,500, a 5 year high.
At least our misery has company, with the ECB holding rates steady, saying that “risks to economic growth were starting to materialize”, which is a signal that Euro zone rates will remain steady.
Of course, our relentlessly optimistic financial press has to try to make s%$# into Shinola in housing, where they are touting a 5.3% month to month gain, which as Barry Ritholtz so eloquently notes, this is unmitigated crap, and driven by seasonal differences more than anything else, and the numbers are down year over year.
Additionally, we do not know how many of these are short sales in lieu of foreclosure.
We also have retail experiencing major suckitude now that the rebate checks have run out. To the degree that people are spending any more, it’s on necessities, and they are running up their credit cards to do this, because the banks are cutting back on HELOCs.
Meanwhile, oil rose on supply concerns after Kurdish rebels blew up a Turkish pipeline, though gasoline is down for the 21st straight day.
In the world of insurance, the largest US insurer, American International Group wrote down more than $11 billion in holdings, and is making noises about selling more shares to raise capital.
It looks like this was pushed by the fact that impeachment has increasingly seemed the only way that the ruling coalition would stay together, but I see it as a good thing, as Musharraf has been bad for Pakistan, bad for the US, and ineffective against terrorism in the reason.
Of the two political leaders, Asif Ali Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif, it has been Zardari who has been least eager to move in this direction, probably because if Musharraf is impeached, then his pardon of Zardari regarding his corruption might be called into questions.
It will be a close thing thouhg, as a 2/3 vote is required.
Musharraf is taking it seriously. He has canceled his trip to the Beijing games in order to marshal political support, which probably means getting support from the Pakistani military, though with the head of the military, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, repeatedly stating that he wanted the military to stay out of politics, I’m not sure how much support is there.
There are objections to holding it at the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt, which is owned by Douglas Manchester, who has donated 125 grand to California’s anti-gay marriage initiative.
Surprise. Outside of your cloistered world, Mr. Manchester, some gays have positions of authority and influence, and they don’t like lining the pockets of bigots.
I guess that the first thing to say is that when EMILY’s List endorsed Tinker, it was already very clear that Nikki Tinker was aggressively using anti-semitism, racism, and homophobia as her core campaign talking points. Look at the dates on the two links.
Now that her repulsive strategy has been revealed for all to see, and made embarrassingly public by KO’s “Worst Person” comment, EMILY’s List has condemned the ad, but has not, at least not yet, withdrawn the endorsement.
I understand the dynamic, EMILY’s list, they are frequently accused of ignoring the minority community and that their supported candidates are too white, but this endorsment, when the bigotry was on full display for months is stupid.
Barack Obama’s campaign has condemned the ads too but in kind of mealy mouthed way. They mention no names.
Finally, the Skeptical Brotha has a rundown on what Nikki Tinker does when she is not running for office: She is Vice President for Labor Relations and General Counsel for Pinnacle Airlines, which means that, “She specializes in destroying employee rights to collectively bargain and be free from workplace racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.“
I would also note that she is one of Harold Ford’s protégés, who is now the chair of the DLC, and has yet to find a Republican talking point that he does not like, she was his campaign managers in one of his largely uncontested campaigns.
Hopefully, she loses big, and hopefully, EMILY’s list catches enough flak to improve their vetting process.
It appears that DOJ investigators are now investigating to see if senior White House officials were involved in the false and misleading information provided to Congress.
So, anyone want to take up a pool as to how many Bushies will be pardoned between election day and Jan 20?
I’ll put down an saw buck on, “All of them.”
By most definitions, this is insolvent.
If this is indeed the case, the federal government should take it over, and kick management and share holders to the curb.
They are looking at basing missiles and bombers in Belarus the anti-missile installation in Poland.
It’s not surprising. As I’ve said before, the location is better at shooting down Russian missiles, than it is for shooting down Iranian missiles, which is the stated purpose.
It appears to me that there is a policy by Bush and His Evil Minions™ to antagonize Russia in the hopes of recreating a cold war, which might favor Republicans electorally.
Well, looking this description of the document dump made by the FBI, the most important question has not been answered: how did he weaponize the spores.
Drying the spores with the lyophilizer is certainly possible, but this stuff was weaponized in a sophisticated way. It was reduced to tiny particles with a coating to prevent them from clumping, and it also gave them a static charge to help create an aerosol.
This is a non trivial operation, and the equipment, and expertise, was simply not available at Fort Detrick.
If he was acting alone, then we do not have the means made public yet.
I’m about 51% on this guy being the mailer, but more information needs to be released.
According to this translation of an article in Al Sabaah, the US military would lose its unilateral arrest powers, and there would be a withdrawl in the 2010-11 time frame, which sounds a lot like Barack Obama’s game plan.
It seems to be tied into provincial elections somehow, see Fail below, so I’m not sure where everything is right now.
H/T Juan Cole
Mish relates the tale of a condo complex that cannot maintain its common spaces, because it is 1/3 empty, and as a result, it was nearly condemned.
It is in, no surprise, in Dade county, and the quote from City of Miami Commissioner Angel Gonzalez is the scary part, “This is going to be happening all over Dade County pretty soon, with the foreclosures and people not being able to pay for their mortgages.”
Actually, that’s not the scariest quote. Mich also quotes Dave, who asks:
I wonder how many of these people will be forced to walk away from their mortgage even though they can afford to pay, but can’t make up for all the other condo owners not paying monthly dues because of foreclosure. I wonder if anyone has calculated this out in their models?
I have a friend at another condo whose monthly association fee just went up 35% due to non payers and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
This phenomenon is becoming increasingly common.
Verified Identity Pass, Inc., which operates the “Clear” program lost 33,000 customers’ records when an unencrypted laptop was stolen.
While it was recovered a week later, what happened to the data is unclear.
Among the data was:
Which one could describe as an “identity theft kit” for 33,000 people, and since the program also collects the following:
It could have been much worse.
Security expert Bruce Schneier analyzes this sort of “trusted traveler” program, and finds it wanting from a security standpoint:
I think of Clear as a $100 service that tells terrorists if the F.B.I. is on to them or not. Why in the world would we provide terrorists with this ability?
To be honest, the only reason that I’m covering this is that in the 1970s, I went to Grenada with my family a number of times.
I don’t recall ever being in St. George’s medical school, though I believe I drove by it once.
These folks were the med students that Reagan used as an excuse to invade.
In any case, that’s why I read the article about the exclusive contract between the school and the New York City Health and Hospital Corp. to provide clerkships to medical students.
The deal may not be dishonest, but it certainly has a funny smell.
Well, the Air Force has released a new RFP, and already a Congressman from Boeing is whining, “Not Fair.”
You can look at the proposals (warning big PDFs) here and here
The good folks at Flight International have read it, and they note 3 major changes:
The first should favor Airbus, the second should too, because it pretty much locks out the Boeing 777, because it would require yet more development and have a higher acquisition cost.
The third might favor Boeing, because being a smaller plane, the 767 consumes less fuel, though it would likely be a wash on a per pound of fuel offloaded basis.
I still think that the Airbus offering brings a lot more to the table, but I thought that before the first award, and did not expect them to get it, because of Boeing’s political pull.
Break out the popcorn.
He was convicted of “offering material support” by being a driver.
The Judge seems to be remarkably fair, which surprises me:
As the subsequent sentencing hearing began, the judge called Hamdan “a small player” and refused to let the government call an FBI agent to testify about retrieving bodies from the World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks.
The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said the testimony was irrelevant since Hamdan had been cleared of conspiring with al Qaeda to carry out any attacks.
While Hamdan was convicted on five counts of providing material support for terrorism, the judge said the charges duplicated each other and ordered that he be sentenced only for one count, which he summarized as “driving Mr. bin Laden around Afghanistan.”
Matt Bors put it best.
Link to cartoonist.
Michael Hirsh notes that this verdict is a loss for Bush. Among other things, it’s likely to be overturned on appeal, because the tribunals were only given authority to prosecute war crimes, and “material support” is not a war crime.
What’s more, the Judge pretty much said with his instructions, and his sentencing actions, that the Bush administration’s definition of terrorist is a 6 pounds of manure in a 5 pound bag.
Endorsing wind sounds nice, but why is he saying, “use wind for electricity, and use natural gas for cars”?
It’s pretty simple. Mr. “I funded the swift boaters in 2004” has extensive holding in natural gas, including, “Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a natural gas fueling station company”.
Additionally, if he gets to put up his wind farm, he will undoubtedly get lent to send the power to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and he can also run a water pipeline, using the water rights that he purchased.
Getting eminent domain for water is tough. Getting for clean, safe, renewable wind power? Not so hard.
To paraphrase Abe Vigoda, “It was just business.”