Brilliant!
It’s nice to see a woman to use a sports metaphor, and it’s better than most sports metaphors.
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Month: August 2009
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi Returns to Libya
But was he guilty in the first place?
Normally, I’d put this sort of question firmly into the tinfoil hat category, but a number of people believe Libya was not the perpetrator of the bombing, with Iran and the PFLP-GC being the most frequently cited alternative, and it appears this release was a quid pro quo for his dropping his appeal of his conviction. (See also here)
My guess is that the reality is somewhere in between, that al-Megrahi is the one who done it, but that the prosecution was handled by a bunch of PR glory boys, who screwed up various parts of the trial, and there was a very real worry that he would embarrass the British courts on appeal, so they cut a deal.
That’s my guess anyway.
Good Idea
Michelle Bachmann is Pro Abortion Rights?????
She was on Hannity’s show, and she was talking about Obama’s healthcare reform plan, and she said the following at about 5:35 in her interview:
“That’s why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress,” said Bachmann, “and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions.”
You go girl!
Meanwhile, Back in Bizarro world
Guess who is going to hold a fundraiser for the first Virginia Congressman who takes the pledge not to vote for a health plan without a public option?
Terry McAuliffe….Yes, that Terry McAuliffe, a man who has been repeatedly excoriated by lefty bloggers like me as a corporate stooge, and little more than bagman for political contributions from wealthy people and special interests.
In fact, I did a happy dance when he lost the primary race for VA governor for this reason.
But he is sponsoring this initiative:
Terry McAuliffe thinks it is time to “insist” on the public option. We couldn’t agree more. Terry’s agreed to host a fundraiser with Virginia and national bloggers who are insisting on a public option for the first Virginia Congressman who will take our pledge! This will be an awesome event to highlight and honor any Virginia Congressman who shows leadership on this issue. If you would like to be a part of the host committee for this event, shoot me an email at notlarrysabato@hotmail.com. Lowell and I are already on board, and I’m sure there will be many others!
Good for Terry McAuliffe….I cannot believe that I just said that.
I would also be remiss in mentioning that Act Blue has a page to donate to Congressmen who take the pledge not to support any bill that lacks a real public option, and it’s already raised nearly $300K.
I’ve added the link to my Act Blue page too.
I’m Shocked, Shocked To Find That Gambling Is Going On In Here!
(Cue Captain Renault)
So, Tom Ridge tells us now that Bush and His Evil Minions™ manipulated terror alerts for political gain.
But he vehemently denied any such effort while he was in office, and delayed his resignation as head of DHS until after the election.
He knew that it was wrong, but he kept his mouth shut, and now he writes a book, and it’s supposed to make everything hunky dory….It does not.
Mr. Ridge, as I stated only yesterday, I do not take the term “treason” lightly, but it appears to me that your complicity in this affair, when you knew that it was happening, and you know that it was wrong, and you knew that it was damaging to the country, comes awfully close to that term.
Another Milestone In the Annals of Stupid and Corrupt
Just when I think that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have left me so jaded that they can no longer shock me with their corruption and incompetence, I discover that not only did the CIA have assassination teams, but they outsourced these teams to Blackwater, USA (now Xe):
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
This is not surprising. Blackwater’s mercenary division, Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC), was founded in 2002 with the obvious goal of cashing in on the paranoia bonanza post 911, and used that, along with the reputation earned by Eric Prince’s father as a reliable supporter of extreme right wing causes, to generate revenues.
Notwithstanding the caveat in the article:
It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.
I think that it’s more likely than not that there was a real intent by the CIA to hire outside contractors as hit-men.
If CIA paramilitary forces needed training, they could get that from any number of military organizations.
After all, as has been discovered in Iraq, Mercenaries are:
- Not subject to US law.
- Indemnified from the local law.
- Not required to use the same reporting standards as government agents on either finance or notification.
So, the most incompetent and brutal of the mercenaries were chosen, probably on the basis of political payback for contributions and a shared Christo-Fascist world view, and the intent was to just turn them loose to kill people without the slightest indication of meaningful supervision.
Great googly moogly.
We need a special prosecutor now.
Economics Update
Historical unemployment, courtesy Calculated RiskToday is Jobless Thursday, and initial jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 15,000 to 576,000, (click pic for full size image) with the 4 week moving average, and the continuing claims were up marginally, to 6.241 million from 6.239 million, but it should be noted that as people move to extended benefits, or lose benefits completely, they are dropped from that number.
Closely related to this is the fact that mortgage delinquencies are rising, to 9.24% of all outstanding loans on 1-4 unit residences in the 2nd quarter, up .12% from the 1st quarter, and up 2.83% from last year, and loans overdue by more than 90 days, which is when foreclosure begins, are at an all time high of 7.97%.
Not surprisingly, “Helicopter” Ben Bernanke is on another buying binge, with Federal reserve assets up by 2.3% this week, buying treasuries, which is an how the Fed pumps up the stock market, and mortgage backed securities, which is how they are trying to cover up the increasing collapse in mortgages.
Still, there is good news, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index giving an unexpectedly strong showing of +4.2, well above the predicted -2.0, and this is a real indicator of growth, not just a decline in the rate of decline, and the cost of insuring corporate bonds fell, on the expectation of better growth.
Oil and energy looked at the different numbers, with the dollar falling on the Philadelphia Fed data, which has people feeling less need for a safe haven, and oil falling on the new jobless numbers, which indicates that demand will still remain low for a while.
In the Interest of Fairness
Here is a French Provincial dining room table’s response to Barney Frank.
Stephen Colbert is a f$#@ing genius.
GM Sells Saab to Koenigsegg
So it looks like the quirky cars are going to be around for a while (see here and here).
There is still the matter of financing, but this is pretty close to a done deal.
Koenigsegg is a serious (the body is completely carbon fiber, it weighs less than 1300 kg, and it does 0 to 100 km/h in under 3 seconds) supercar manufacturer (see pic), which implies that they will be doing more than just milking the brand name, and will actually look to keeping the Saab product line fairly cutting edge, perhaps migrating some of their existing tech down to Saab, which is good news.
In other Swedish car news, it looks like Ford is making some progress in selling Volvo automobile, with reports that a consortium named Konsortium Jakob AB, Volvo Trucks, and the Chinese auto companies Geely, Dongfeng, Beijing Auto, and Chongqing Changan, are all rumored to be bidding on the deal.
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) Is Not Long for This World
He knows that he is dying, and it sounds like he does not expect to make it toa vote on healthcare reform:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in a poignant acknowledgment of his mortality at a critical time in the national health care debate, has privately asked the governor and legislative leaders to change the succession law to guarantee that Massachusetts will not lack a Senate vote when his seat becomes vacant.
In a personal, sometimes wistful letter sent Tuesday to Governor Deval L. Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Kennedy asks that Patrick be given authority to appoint someone to the seat temporarily before voters choose a new senator in a special election.
……
As an FYI, he was not well enough to make it to his sister’s funeral last week.
Mixed Emotions Here
Representative Eric Massa (D-NY) described Senator Charles Grassley’s “Pull the plug on Grandma” talking point as “Treason” (0:41 on the video).
It’s refreshing to see someone pushing back on Republican rhetoric, but there is a reason that treason is the only offense specifically outlined in the Constitution: it’s there because the Kings of England repeatedly misused the charge to go after politically inconvenient people.
So it’s nice to see pushback, but I am far more comfortable with how Barney Frank handles it.
Of course, Massa is a Democrat, which means that he will likely apologize in the next few days.
Economics Update
Well, mortgage applications rose this week as rates fell 23 basis points (0.23%), not too surprising.
The Architecture Billings Index, one of the leading indicators of future construction activity, rose in July, (click pic for full size) but remained below 50, indicating continued contraction roughly 12 months out.
Meanwhile, we are seeing near record drops in producer prices in Germany, adding more weight to the idea that the current concern should be deflation, not inflation.
Energy is kind of confusing, with prices falling below $69/bbl today, largely on a 5% drop in prices in Chinese stocks, but prices rise to nearly $72/bbl tomorrow on reports of shrinking inventories.
It’s an international dateline thing. The drop was at market close in New York, and the increase was from places where it is tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the dollar is down on optimism about the world economy.
Looks Like We May Have a Thursday “Bank Failure Friday”
Texas based Guaranty Bank, which apparently got itself tangled up in California real estate.
Here is what Google News pulls up.
Have I Mentioned that I Love Barney Frank*
Here he is taking on some teabaggers, though I would suggest that people who think that Act Pink does any good listen to his comments toward the end, when he says that, “Disruption never helps your cause. It makes you look like you are afraid to have rational discussions. You just drive people away.”
*In a 110% purely heterosexual kind of way, of course, as the General would say.
Giving Blowjobs to Corpses for Cheeseburgers Since 2005*
Time Magazine notes that Tom Daschle, failed nominee for head of HHS, and regular talking head on the Sunday shows regarding healthcare, is also extremely well paid by the health insurance industry.
The problem with corruption in Washington is not campaign donations, though they are a bit of an issue, it is the fact that anyone who is in Congress knows that if he sucks up to corporate interests, he can get a 7 figure a year gig lobbying or giving strategy advice when they leave office.
*Yep, it’s another of Matt Taibbi’s bon mots.
Just Read This
Obama: knowing when to be an asshole
It’s a good article, even though the title gives it away.
Economics Update
Housing Starts, Courtesy Calculated RiskI guess that it’s time to rejoice, because the IMF’s chief economist is saying that the global recession is over…Seeing as how they handled things like the Asian Financial Crisis of the 1990s, I’m inclined to believe that they are not a reliable source.
I would also note that he has a huge caveat in this, “we may not go back to the old growth path … potential output may be lower than it was before the crisis,” which to my mind sounds like a permanent decline in economic activity, and thus the recession might be over because normalcy is being redefined.
That being said, we are seeing signs of either a recovery, or a pause in the path downward, with credit card defaults moderating somewhat, so, for example, BoA’s charge-off rate dropped to 13.81% last month, down 0.05% from the level in June.
Basically, the numbers are still pretty horrible, but they aren’t getting any worse…yet.
We also have a stronger consumer confidence level in August, with the Investor’s Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence (IBD/TIPP) Economic Optimism Index rising to 50.3 in August from 46.3 last month, and this is a real positive number as 50 is the dividing line between optimism and pessimism.
In inflation, producer prices fell by -0.9% from the previous month, and the year over year price decline was -6.8%, beating the predictions of -0.3% and -5.9% respectively.
Meanwhile, in the UK, consumer inflation remained steady at 1.8%, but it had been predicted to drop to 1.5%.
Real estate is confusing, or at least the reporting of it is.
The data came out today, and the coverage is interesting, with Bloomberg noting that single-family housing starts rose for the 5th straight month, but CNN noting that housing starts and building permits declined with only single family housing starts showing an improvement, and that the year over year numbers are way down.
I’d go with CNN here, because:
- We know that more than a third of single family home sales are distressed.
- As an aside, we know that people are coming out of the woodwork looking for distressed sales, and prices are still falling, driven by foreclosures and short sales, as evidenced by the latest data out of California.
- The month to month numbers are seasonally adjusted, but I think that the current market is so out of whack that the seasonal adjustments do not serve their intended purpose.
- The drop in multi-residential buildings indicates that fewer people are moving into condos/townhouses, from which they would trade up to single family structures.
Then again, YMMV, and I always see the economic glass as half empty.
Oil was briefly back above $70/bbl before settling at $69.19, largely on a report that US crude inventories have dropped, and the dollar and Yen both fell against the Euro, largely on more optimistic business sentiment in Germany.
Talk About Damning With Faint Praise
As some of might know, professor Niall Ferguson wrote an article in the Financial Times where he said that, “President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky. And that pretty much sums up the 44th president of the US.“
I saw it, I read it, and thought that it was sophomoric bullsh@$ of the sort you frequently see college students who want to play at radicalism, both left and right.
One of the people who called him out on this was Paul Krugman, who said that he could not, “fathom is how any editor could think this was a good thing to appear in the FT’s pages,” and James Fallows, who suggested that would like to see him, “discussing this over a beer with his Harvard colleague Henry Louis Gates.“
I did not blog about it, because I didn’t have anything to add, but Niall Furguson decided not to let sleeping dogs lie, and he did discuss it with Dr. Gates.
So Krugman offers an apology of sorts:
What can I say? While the Ferguson line was deeply offensive — everyone I know asked, “Did he really write that? Did the FT actually publish it?” — it never occurred to me that it had anything to do with the question of whether Felix the Cat was supposed to be African-American. The mind reels.
For the record, I don’t think that Professor Ferguson is a racist.
I think he’s a poseur.
I’m told that some of his straight historical work is very good. When it comes to economics, however, he hasn’t bothered to understand the basics, relying on snide comments and surface cleverness to convey the impression of wisdom. It’s all style, no comprehension of substance.
And this time he ended up choking on his own snark.
(emphasis mine)
Remind me to never demand an apology of Nobel Prize winning economists.
Robert Novak, at 78
In a small way, the world today is a better place than it was yesterday.