It’s on how much the Obama is willing to cave on healthcare.
The best line though, is “Worse than Scranton.”
Month: November 2009
Complaints About Google Ads…..AGAIN
Once again, the geniuses at Google™ Adsense™ have served up an ad which appears diametrically opposed to what I write about.
I saw this on Monday, but I’ve set it to post on Tuesday at 10:00am, because driving watchers to the interview might lead other news folks to interview her in search of ratings.
Please note: once again, that I do not vet, nor do I endorse any ad that appears on my site, and I reserve the right to mock both the ads that appear on my site, as well as the advertisers.
Also, please note, this should be in no way construed as an inducement or a request for my reader(s) to click on any ad that they would not otherwise be inclined to investigate further. This would be a violation of the terms of service for Google™ Adsense™.
On the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Obviously, I have opinions on the behavior of the Church, and particularly the US Conference of Bishops, but to get true clarity, you need the viewpoint of someone raised in the faith. Case in point is thhis post by Lance Mannion:
Taking orders from the priests is exactly what JFK had to promise he wouldn’t do when he ran for President.
Several Democrats, including Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pennsylvania, said they are in touch with their Catholic bishops back home. Altmire said he must have the approval of his bishop in Pittsburgh before he can vote yes.
That’s from CNN by way of Ed Brayton by way of Mike the Mad Biologist. And Altmire was talking about a health care reform bill that hadn’t been amended by Stupak-Pitts yet. He was planning to ask his bishop for permission to vote to expand health care to the poor and protect the sick from losing it.
Mr. Mannion was a devout Catholic in his youth, and lays some serious whup ass on the Church. I highly recommend that you read it.
It is remarkable the change. In 1928, Al Smith was the target of claims that a picture of him opening the Holland Tunnel was actually a “tunnel to the Pope,” and today, it appears that the Conference of Bishops is demanding a tunnel to the pope.
I would also point you to the debate on the BBC about whether or not the Catholic Church was a force for good in the world, between Ann Widdecombe and Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan on the pro side, and Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry (of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder, etc) on the other.
Hitchens is, as always, an obnoxious drunk, who delights in offending the religious, and so was not interesting, but Laurie, I think, has genuine affection for faith in general, but not the church.
There is a difference between criticizing a religion for it’s beliefs and observances, and criticizing any organization for its policies.
The Catholic Church is a hierarchical absolute monarchy, and as such, their policies, whether it be the Pope lying about the use of condoms to prevent aids, or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbying against healthcare, though not, it should be noted not saying a word on the death penalty, which is also deemed a sin, need to be viewed in the exact same context as the United States setting up Gulags and torturing people.
A condemnation of torture, and wars of choice, is no more a condemnation of Americans than a condemnation of the Church in its actions regarding AIDS, or healthcare for the poor, or the complicity of its officers of state in concealing child abuse.
The BBC vid is after break. It’s broken into 5 parts, and cycles though, and Fry is on at about 2:20 in the 3rd segment.
I Think that It’s A Joke
Atrios calls Mark Shields his Wanker of the Day for the following (video after break):
SHIELDS: We have a president of real intellectual horse power who is cool, detached and analytical and if anything you can watch the emotional side of him emerge in this whole process.
I mean…We saw it at Arlington, we saw it at Fort Hood, we saw it at Dover Air Force Base
There’s an emotional aspect, the comforter in chief as well as the commander in chief. Both roles. And I think it makes me nostalgic for those days when we had a manly man in the White House who could say, “Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards” you know? That’s what we really need instead of any reflection.
(emphasis mine)
If I thought that Shields were seruious, I’d be dismissing him as a wanker too, but I think that the, “Manly man in the White House,” is the tell here. It’s a joke, and the the target here, I think is actually David Broder, who that morning wrote the following on Afghanistan (no direct link to the Kaplan Test Prep Company), “The urgent necessity is to make a decision — whether or not it is right.”
Mark Shields was calling David Broder out, in the smarmy, inside-the-Beltway subtle way….You see, if he had said it with a jacking off motion with his hand, it would have been clear, but instead, he just used an arch voice.
Just When I Thought That Bush and His Evil Minions™; Could Not Be Any Worse….
I find out that the Bush appointees in the Veteran’s Administration went all out in an attempt to deny care to soldiers suffering from PTSD.
The reason that they gave was because they believed that it was an indicator of insufficient patriotism and faith in God, but there is also a more sinister, and self-serving calculus here (at bottom), one that would have Richard Dawkins maintaining that these folks would be damned for all eternity:
During the Iraq war, however, the great difficulty veterans experienced in getting psychiatric care—greater than before—was not a product of cost-cutting, but of conviction: many Bush administration officials believed that soldiers who supported the war would not face psychological problems, and if they did, they would find comfort in faith. In a resigned tone, one prominent researcher who worked for the VA, and asked that he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, explained that high-ranking officials believed that “Jesus fixes everything.” Benimoff and the others who returned with devastating psychological injuries found a faith-based bureau within the VA. At veterans’ hospitals, chaplains were conducting spirituality assessments of patients.
Sullivan was working as an analyst at the Veterans Benefits Administration in Washington in early 2005 when he was called to a meeting with a top political appointee at the VA, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Michael McLendon. McLendon, an intensely focused man in a neatly pressed suit, kept a Bible on his desk at the office. Sullivan explained to McLendon and the other attendees that the rise in benefits claims the VA was noticing was caused partly by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were suffering from PTSD. “That’s too many,” McLendon said, then hit his hand on the table. “They are too young” to be filing claims, and they are doing it “too soon.” He hit the table again. The claims, he said, are “costing us too much money,” and if the veterans “believed in God and country . . . they would not come home with PTSD.” At that point, he slammed his palm against the table a final time, making a loud smack. Everyone in the room fell silent.
“I was a little bit surprised,” Sullivan said, recalling the incident. “In that one comment, he appeared to be a religious fundamentalist.” [Appeared to be? Is a religious nutcase] For Sullivan, McLendon’s remarks reflected the views of many political appointees in the VA and revealed what was behind their efforts to reduce costs by restricting claims. The backlog of claims was immense, and veterans, often suffering extreme psychological stress, had to wait an average of five months for decisions on their requests.
….
When a 2006 Government Accountability Office report raised questions about whether soldiers were getting the psychiatric help they needed, an assistant secretary of defense disputed the report’s findings, pointing to the fact that soldiers were being referred to chaplains. During this time contracts for veterans’ services were increasingly parceled out to leaders of faith-based organizations rather than to secular ones, even though veterans’ advocates opposed any bias toward faith-based treatment and argued that replacing empirically proven, nonsectarian programs with faith-based ones was a mistake.
(emphasis mine)
We have to realize that there was more to this though, than just penny pinching, or a wish to rely on the the great “Sky God”, this is also all about patronage.
The Bush administration used its “faith based initiative” as a patronage and pork-barrel program, and every dollar that they diverted to their Evangelical Christo-Fascist allies was a dollar that could be used by these folks to politically support the Republican Party.
Deep Thought: Our Connected World
Click image for full size, with swear word.
H/t driftglass.
The Joys of Children Are Without Number
Last Wednesday, Charlie went on a field trip to Biztown, a Junior Achievement sponsored program for elementary school students.
We pretty much had to use explosives get him out of bed, and off to school.
He has been complaining about the program, which is a part of his curriculum, for weeks. He thought that it was a complete waste of time, and he has been scheming the whole time to find a way to ditch this.
Eventually, we made it clear to him that he wasn’t going to get out of it, and when I dropped him off at school (his delaying tactics made him miss the bus), I explained to him that whether he liked it or not, he’d enjoy it a lot less if he went in to the experience determined to be miserable.
I spent the entire day expecting a call from administrators about him having a melt-down.
When he got home, he said that he loved Biztown, and he wants to do their summer camp.
Great googly moogly, this was a lot of tsuris (aggravation) for nothing.
Excuse me now, while I bang my forehead against the monitor.
1937 All Over Again
This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it. Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions™ are looking at budget cuts to reduce the deficit.
Dude, we are in a liquidity trap, take your foot off the accelerator now, and we are all toast.
You are talking about doing what Roosevelt did in 1937, and it will get very ugly if you do.
Don’t make me call out Freddie Dalton Thompson on you….Oops…too late.
The real lesson of the last stimulus package is to ignore the “moderates”, who will make a cut just to make a cut, and include tax cuts, which offer the smallest bang for the buck.
Republican Family Values
Blake Hall, a fixture in Idaho Republican politics, he’s a member of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Bonneville County’s Chief Civil Attorney, former Idaho Republican Chairman, and former school board member, pled guilty to stalking a young woman:
Idaho Falls police reported that witnesses said Hall disposed of used condoms on the lawn of the woman’s house. Nineteen condoms were turned over to police, collected on 10 different dates, according to a police report. Both Hall and his lawyer acknowledged the condoms belonged to him, according to a police report.
Also, between March and August, Hall repeatedly followed the woman to restaurants, the movies and her home, and he ignored her repeated requests that he leave her alone, according to police and court records.
The victim testified Friday that Hall once followed her to a Walmart and took her car keys and would not return them until she agreed to “hear him out” concerning her marriage, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported.
(emphasis mine)
You do get all the cranks, creeps, and perverts in the GOP, don’t you?
9/11 Plotters to be Tried in United States
There are a couple of interesting points to this development, the first is that Attorney General Holder is clearly cherry picking, with those people for whom he feels that a conviction is guaranteed, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, getting trials in Federal Court, while other people getting military commissions, because they evidence is either shakier or tainted:
Mr. Holder also announced military tribunals for five other Guantanamo detainees, including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged to have planned the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. Officials said the tribunals were chosen, over civilian courts, based on several factors, including the fact that their alleged crimes were against military targets or occurred overseas.
Navy Lt. Cdr. Stephen Reyes, the lawyer for Mr. Nashiri, said “The decision today was legally unsound. The real reason why the government chose to go to a commission was to ensure a conviction through otherwise inadmissible evidence.”
Another issue, and one that has not yet been brought up in the press is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s children are currently being held by the United States, or held by someone with whom the United States has significant control over, and I’m waiting for a defense attorney to say that their client cannot aid in their own defense because, “KSM’s children [ages would appear to be in the 8-12 year old range] are held hostage by the United States.”
I am not a lawyer, I am an engineer, dammit,* but if I were a lawyer, and I were his lawyer, this would be one of the first motions that I would bring up, because if your client has the prospect of harm to his children hanging over his head.
It’s clear that the US knows the location and condition of his children, and this would be yet another mess left by Obama’s refusal to thoroughly clean house following Bush’s gulags.
*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!
Interesting Animation of Unemployment Progression Across the United States
Actually, it’s kind of scary, it was created by LaToya Egwuekwe, and you can see the full size (1500 x 1400 big) animation here.
Malaysia Still On Board for A400M
Unlike South Africa, who canceled their order of the A400M military transport in the face of delays and performance issues, Malaysia has decided that it is still interested in the turboprop transport.
Same as the Old Boss
So, Bob Gates has blocked the release of torture photos, nominally because they would “endanger US forces”, which is a sack of sh$# they hate us already.
The real reason is that if we see pictures of children being tortured, there might be an outcry for prosecution of the senior officials who authorized this, and that is something that the Beltway Bozos and His Evil Minions™ simply cannot abide.
Our Parrots in Congress
Click for full size
He was an overpriced rookie flameout with the brain of a turnip* then, and he’s an overpriced rookie flameout with the brain of a turnip* now.
So, big pharma is trying to get a bill through Congress for draconian exclusivity periods for so called “biologics” drugs. It’s 12 years, but with minor changes, snipping a hydroxyl, or adding a time released variant, they could drug companies could extend their government granted monopolies virtually infinitely. (also here, both from Jane Hamshire)
Well, in response to Jane’s push against these provisions, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) turned on their lobbyists, and wrote statements that 42 Congressmen read into the record, almost verbatim.
The kicker is that there were two versions of their talking points, a Republican version and a Democratic version, so depending on party, they were using different cheat sheets….Except, of course for Heath Shuler (DINO-Loser Land), who somehow or other managed to use the Republican version of the talking points.
As a Washington Redskin’s fan, this wanker has been bedeviling me since 1994…..Please, make it stop!!!
Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch after the break.
*My apologies to anyone who fancies turnips.†
†Like this guy.
Quote of the Day
—Barry Ritholtz discussing an article in GQ that excoriates the author.
Ritholtz himself describes her as a, “pedantic bore,” who writes, “blindingly horrific prose.”
I agree with both, though I have never been able to force myself to read anything of hers beyond The Virtue of Selfishness, a perusal of which made me <sarcasm>long for the straightforward and beautifully written prose of Immanuel Kant</sarcasm> and consider self immolation as an alternative to reading any more of hew work.
His last bit is prize:
Worst of all, Rand’s Objectivism has become the rationale for all manner of morally repugnant behaviour. However, I did take one personal lesson from Atlas Shrugged to heart: Anytime I see a parked car with a John Galt bumper sticker, I like to knock off one of the sideview mirrors, and leave it on the hood. I include a note stating my selfish, random act made me feel good, and therefore should be a perfectly fine act in their world.
I assume the recipients miss the irony . . .
The Fed Is Responsible for 10.2 Percent Unemployment in the Same Way That Al Queda Was Responsible for September 11th
Dean Bakes states the obvious in response to a pathetic OP/ED by David Ignatius.
Go read it, it’s only 5 ‘graphs.
Swiss Look to Postpone Fighter Selection
It looks now like the final decision by the Swiss will likely be delayed until 2011, (paid subscription required) and the size of the order may be reduced from 30 to 22 aircraft.
It looks to me like budget considerations are an issue, which would mitigate against the $100-$140 million Eurofighter Typhoon. The Rafale is somewhat cheaper, at about $80 million, and the Gripen is “cheapest” at $40-60 million, which would tend to favor the Gripen.
Additionally, the Gripen is about ½ the size of the competitors, which means that operating costs would be much less, and the aircraft that it is replacing, the F-5 was never the high end of the Swiss AF fighter mix anyway.
Of course, Saab lacks the industrial connections for potential offset deals too, and if the Swiss wish to train at nearby bases, these bases will either have Rafales (France), or Typhoons (Germany, Italy, and Austria) already deployed there, which might simplify support there.
This makes the entire decision process hard to predict, to put it mildly.
Israel Drops V-22
The IDF is looking at the CH-53K instead.
It makes sense, really. Israel is the size of New Jersey, and the CH-53 is much more flexible, and the difference in speed does not make much of a difference.
Let’s roll the numbers
| V-22 | Ch-53K | |
| Speed | 450 km/h | 315 km/h |
| Payload | 6,800 kg | 15,900 kg |
| Range | 1,627 km | 841 km |
| Cabin Size (lxwxh) | 7.3m x 1.8m x 1.8m | 9.1m x 2.7m x 2.0m |
Since going from one corner of Israel to the other is on the order of 400 km, the CH-53 K can cover the entire country, carrying more, and carrying more internally.
Additionally, the V-22 costs about $70 million as versus about $30 million for the CH-53K.
With a reduced payload and supplemental tanks, something like a special forces insertion is going to have similar range, and the larger internal payload allows the on an offloading of larger vehicles more quickly.
Finally, in a “hot” landing zone, the V-22, with its heavily loaded props/rotors, is more susceptible to vortex ring state (basically a stall in a rotary winged aircraft), and has to descend more slowly, increasing vulnerability to ground fire.
It’s a no brainer for Israel not to buy the V-22.
Come to think of it, it may be a no brainer for everyone not to buy the V-22.
Remember the White House Counsel Getting Fired?
It only happened on Friday, and my comment at the time about Greg Craig’s replacement, Robert Bauer was, “Think Alberto “Abu” Gonzales writ small.”
Well Glenn Greenwald comes across an essay that Mr. Bauer wrote, where he supports the pardon of Scooter Libby, what’s more he does so in the crassest terms, by suggesting that Bush would harm himself more by pardoning Libby.
Keep this guy away from toilet paper, because he will sign anything.
For Your Amusement
Pigeon Impossible, courtesy of Boing Boing.
BF Skinner, eat your heart out.