Year: 2008

Bush Pardons

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The New York Times buries the lede:

…..some lawyers and law professors are raising a related question: Will Mr. Bush grant pre-emptive pardons to officials involved in controversial counterterrorism programs?

Such a pardon would reduce the risk that a future administration might undertake a criminal investigation of operatives or policy makers involved in programs that administration lawyers have said were legal but that critics say violated laws regarding torture and surveillance.

Some legal analysts said Mr. Bush might be reluctant to issue such pardons because they could be construed as an implicit admission of guilt. But several members of the conservative legal community in Washington said in interviews that they hoped Mr. Bush would issue such pardons — whether or not anyone made a specific request for one. They said people who carried out the president’s orders should not be exposed even to the risk of an investigation and expensive legal bills.

“The president should pre-empt any long-term investigations,” said Victoria Toensing, who was a Justice Department counterterrorism official in the Reagan administration. “If we don’t protect these people who are proceeding in good faith, no one will ever take chances.”

Bush does not pardon out of a compassion, he does not believe in that.

He will pardon for personal and political advantage.

Thus, I expect blanket pardons of his His Evil Minions™, because otherwise, Bush would be in the dock himself.

When Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, many in Washington, particularly Republicans came to believe that immunity from lawbreaking was a birthright, and so they have been increasingly brazen in breaking laws.

These people need to spend time in prison. Real ones. Medium security at least.

The Big Picture on the “Stop Excessive Speculation Act”

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I’ve always been a doubter that speculation is responsible for much of the run up in oil prices, but I wholeheartedly the proposed “Stop Excessive Speculation Act”, which would crack down on speculators by allowing the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) to regulate futures market and, “differentiate between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” hedge trading”.

The reason that I support this is because it is a real sea change. It is a refutation of the myth that completely unsupervised markets self-regulate to the benefit of society.

It is the arbitrage and exotic financial vehicles that have been created in the past nearly three decades of free market fundamentalism, frequently lauded by Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan, which are at the core of our current credit crunch.

The markets have devolved into complex self-serving insider deals that have harmed everyone.

I think that this bill is a baby step, but it’s a step in the right direction.

African Union Pimps for Sudanese War Criminals

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They are asking for the Security Council to delay any investigation for 12 months.

The official reason is because they believe that an indictment would “harm peace efforts”, but I think that it’s because there are other regimes out there, and I’m not limiting myself to Mugabe, who would be subject to possible prosecution from the International Criminal Court.

It appears that the Darfur rebels understand this too:

Djibril Bassole, the joint U.N.-AU Darfur mediator made his first visit to Sudan on Sunday to try to revive a stalled peace process. But Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said his rebel group would no longer recognise AU efforts to mediate a peace process.

“The African Union is a biased organisation and is protecting dictators and neglecting the African people,” Ibrahim, head of JEM, the most militarily powerful rebel group, told Reuters from Darfur.

Sherif Harir, a senior member of the Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction, also told Reuters that for any AU mediation to succeed, it would have to answer why it had taken such a stance.

“The AU by so doing has indicated to the people of Darfur that they can die and it’s not as important as protecting a president who has taken power by military coup,” he said.

Of course, it’s not like the African Union had much credibility left anyway.

Economics Update

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Charles Plosser, President of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, called for rate hikes to forestall inflation. Not surprisingly, the US dollar has risen as a result.

Meanwhile, the banking meltdown continues aplace, with Wachovia losing $9.9 billion dollars and exiting the wholesale mortgage business, meaning that they will no longer offer mortgages through independent brokers, and WaMu Lost $3.3 billion too.

I would also note that federal examiners auditing the GSE’s books, though this is more a preparation for a US government bailout than it is any concern for wrongdoing.

Considering that U.S. home prices 4.8% from May 2007 to May 2008, I’d count a GSE bailout as likely.

Seeing as how tropical storm Dolly largely missed the offshore oil rigs, it’s not surprising that oil prices have fallen, and it appears that retail gasoline is doing the same.

Still, this is mostly a symptom of a slumping economy, where less oil is needed, much as UPS’s profit slump of 21% is clear evidence of a radically slowing economy.

It’s also old home week at 40 Years in the Desert, because we have some news about another monoliner insurer in trouble, this time, it’s Assured Guaranty, one of the two insurers left with AAA ratings from all three major agencies, that is taking a tumble, because Moody’s is making noises about a downgrade.

Some Torture Derived Evidence Excluded at Guantanamo Trial

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The thing that is depressing though is what looks likely to be admitted in the trial, including statements made under the influence of, “sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and sexual humiliation”, because these actions could be seen as, “rationally related to good order and discipline.”

Maybe, if the warders in the prison were members of Stalin’s NKVD. Otherwise, this has nothing to do with “good order and discipline”.

DSCC Making Large media Buys

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If you look at the list of where the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is making media buys, you learn where they think that they will be competitive, “more than $15 million in buys in North Carolina, New Mexico, Minnesota and Maine, with the buys in Maine and North Carolina exceeding $5 million each.”

They are going hard after Collins in Maine, and Dole in North Carolina, though Dole seems far more secure. Minnesota is definitely in play, and Tom Udall seems comfortably ahead in New Mexico.

“Creeping Militarization” of Foreign Policy

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SecDef Robert Gates is said that increasing militarization of foreign policy is something that he has to push back against at a speech a week ago at U.S. Global Leadership Council.

I think that this is an explicit refutation of Rumsfeld, and his attempts to make the Pentagon the decision authority on all levels, particularly in Iraq, where the State Department and other civilian agencies were explicitly cut out of any decision making, or even consultation.

I believe that Gates is right, but I do not believe that he will get much traction on this in this administration, particularly given the given the trajectory of U.S. Africa command (Africom):

Africom is slated to begin operations in September. It marks the Pentagon’s first centralized operation for Africa, like the Defense Dept. now has, for example, Eucom for Europe or Centcom for the Middle East. The Pentagon, though, has envisioned using Africom as more than a military command. It is designed to help build U.S. soft power in Africa, through what it calls “active security” missions — like building schools and digging wells.

(Matt Mahurin) To many African political leaders, this sounds a lot like an imperialist enterprise. They say Africom’s “active security” will result in the construction of military bases across the continent in order to interfere with sovereign political systems — and access the region’s oil reserves. Currently, the Pentagon has only one African base, at Dijbouti in the perpetually unstable, resource-poor Horn of Africa.

Which appears to be moving in exactly the opposite direction.

Radovan Karadzic Arrested

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Pity the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague doesn’t have the death penalty

Bosnia’s Serb wartime president, Radovan Karadzic, one of the world’s most wanted war criminals for his part in the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, has been arrested, Serbian President Boris Tadic’s office said on Monday.

Amazing how soon it happened after the EU gave the Serbs a reason to catch him. You see, the, “EU has made delivering indicted war criminals to the Hague a precondition for Serbia’s membership.”

Mike Betz, Please Pick Up the Pink Courtesy Phone

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I got a DVD boxed set of Sapphire and Steel from you, and (this is embarrassing), I’m not sure who you are.

The name sounds familiar, but in a search of my email and addy book, nothing comes up, and I’m wondering if I know him through a nym, or if he confused me with a brother.

{on edit}
He’s a DVD vendor, and my bro’ sent this to me, it’s just that there his name wasn’t ion the package….please ignore.

Administration Calls for Congress to Act on Detainees – NYTimes.com

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Michael Mukasey, George Bush’s new bottom at the department of justice is now saying that allowing Gitmo detainees to actually be physically present in court to contest their detention would constitute an “extraordinary risk”, so Congress needs to act to prevent this.

His proposal:

  • All hearings heard in a single court (no doubt one particularly friendly to Bush and His Evil Minions™).
  • Detainees would remain in Gitmo for the hearings (meaning that they intend to keep the Gulag open).
  • The courts would not be allowed to release the prisoner.
  • The courts would not be allowed to delay trials.

One hopes that the Dems have some backbone on this, but I doubt it.

Obama Needs to Call Out Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen’s Electioneering

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Because his statement condemning a withdrawal timetable is right out of the Republican spin machine, and is clearly an attempt to influence the election.

Obama needs to make a clear statement that such a role is inappropriate for an active duty officer, particularly a general.

It ain’t just the Department of Justice that will need to be de-Bushified in 2009.

Revenge of Judith Iscariot

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Sue Jones-Davies, Mayor of Aberystwyth, Wales, is campaigning to remove a ban on the Monty Python movie Life of Brian.

It turns out that the ban was instituted 30 years ago, and then promptly forgotten about.

Her Honor, Ms. Jones-Davies, also played Judith Iscariot in the movie….Yes, it was her naked in that scene.

Funny the way that things come together.

BTW, the article mentions that George Harrison, who bankrolled the film, had a cameo. I must have missed that. Could someone email me with where it is in the film, preferably with a still?