Year: 2009

Something To Blow Up, Burn Up, and Make Mayhem With

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Good times, good times………


(on edit) I love the car

When I was a young lad, fresh out of college, I came across some bad influences in my life, and they introduced me to the Peeps® sacrifice. (Hi Cris, Hi Tom)

The marshmallow birds were immolated with lighter fluid, dismembered with axes, run over by a 1973 Ford Malibu, and all manner of heinous violence was done against them.

When they brought me into their perverse observances, I had just one question, “Have you ever tried SolidOx Pellets?”

They knew not of this little bit of (now unfortunately discontinued) Hardware Store fun.

SolidOx pellets were (The product appears to have been discontinued) basically Sodium Perchlorate with some fiberglass and Manganese Dioxide to have them burn in a controlled manner. They were associated with an oxyacetylene (might have been oxy-propane) torch, and you were supposed to strike them like a match, and then toss them into a pressure tank, where they would supply oxygen, without the bother of actually storing pressurized oxygen.

What I had discovered in my teens was that they burn ferociously, making both much light and much heat along with the oxygen (and a fair amount of smoke).

The end effect is rather similar to what you see on shows like MythBusters when they work with thermite, and it will burn its way through relatively thin sheet metal, as many a destroyed cheap hibachi can attest to.

In any case, the “coven” of Peeps® sacrifice knew not of SolidOx pellets, and thus I was their path to new enlightenment.

We applied the holy pellets to all forms of Peeps®, as well as one rather ratty and very old pillow, which had through the juxtaposition of degraded stuffing and hair oils achieved a wondrously explosive finale (thanks for the Pillow, Diana).

Looking back on it, I’m surprised that I am typing this with all 10 fingers.

Please note that I have not been paid, nor receaved any products of schwag from Just Born® or any of their agents, though, if they would like to send me some of their goodies, I would be most grateful.

The official press release from Just Born® follows after the break.


PEEPS & COMPANY™ TO OPEN ITS FIRST RETAIL STORE IN NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND – 07/14/2009

Bethlehem, PA, July 8, 2009 –Just Born, Inc., maker of PEEPS®, MIKE AND IKE®, HOT TAMALES®, TEENEE BEANEE® and PEANUT CHEWS® candies, is pleased to announce that it will open its first retail store, PEEPS & COMPANY™, at National Harbor, Maryland. In addition to its great tasting candy, PEEPS & COMPANY™ will offer an array of high-quality branded items such as apparel, gear, china and toys within a fun, branded retail location.

Slated to open this fall, PEEPS & COMPANY™ will be located at the very center of National Harbor’s dynamic main plaza and the branded environment will be custom designed by the Chicago Office of RTKL Associates, Inc. Directly in front of the PEEPS & COMPANY™ store is Seward Johnson’s famous statue, The Awakening, along with sweeping views of the beautiful Potomac River. The store’s location is at a converging point for residents and thousands of visitors arriving by metro bus, car, and ferries, which dock at the piers in front of the store.

In a joint statement, David Shaffer and Ross Born, Co-CEOs of Just Born, commented, “This is a momentous occasion for Just Born, our family of associates, and fans of our candy. For years, we have seen tremendous growth and excitement in our brands, and received many requests for a store in just the right location. In an extensive search, assisted by Cooper Retail Consulting, we selected National Harbor which promises to meet all of our needs.”

National Harbor: Rising from the banks of the Potomac minutes from Washington D.C. and just south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Prince George’s County, MD, National Harbor is a 300-acre, mixed-used development that includes five hotels (including the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the largest such facility on the East Coast), thousands of residential units, tree-lined promenades with scores of shops and offices, a marina and much more. Created by Washington, D.C.-area developer, The Peterson Companies, the project will command a mile and a quarter of the Potomac.

Dana Milbank is a Complete Tool

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So, Dana Milbank has one of his Washington Sketch columns in the Kaplan Test Prep Company today, and it’s all about how Max Baucus f%$#ing his employee and then recommending that she be made US Attorney isn’t a big deal because he is, “just too much of a nerd for a sex scandal to stick.”

He then goes on to describe why this should the the strategy of other people involved in sex scandals, including a recent scandal involving a sports figure who is on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named.

You see, it’s no news when a sitting Senator sexually harasses an underling while still married, and then tries to get her appointed to a position of trust within the Department of Justice, but some sports figure chasing skirts, that’s a big deal.

Needless to say, if it had been a real Dem, instead of Max Baucus, Milbank would have been all over the scandal like US Magazine, but because it’s one of the “Moderates,” everything is just ducky:

Yet his colleagues jumped to his defense when word got out Friday night — in contrast to the initial reaction to other senatorial sex scandals. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) immediately announced his “full support” for Baucus.

That’s because he’s not giving blow jobs in a Minneapolis airport bathroom, wearing diapers, or paying hush-money and diverting campaign funds to his mistress’s benefit.

Truth be told, I’m inclined to think that what what John Ensign did was worse: He used both the apparatus of the Senate, and the Apparatus of the Republican Party* to benefit his mistress and her family, while Baucus banged a chippie who worked for him and recommended her for a plum position†.

But as to Larry “Wide Stance” Craig, and David “Diaperman” Vitter, these transgressions did not bear on their official duties beyond the hypocrisy angle.

The reason, of course, that Baucus is getting so much support is because there are other Senators out there doing the same thing: i.e. banging staff, not the US Attorney bit, and so the Senate rallies to him, because too many of them have the same vulnerability.

Wanker supreme Dana Milbank rallies to Baucus’ side because he’s an inside the beltway punk, and because he thinks that he’s being witty.

Wanker.

*It’s wrong. I feel schadenfreude because it happened to Republicans, but it’s still wrong.
†Pun intended.

Why is He Acting Like Bush?

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So the Grauniad* is covering Obama’s picking up his Nobel Peace Prize, and their title says it all, Nobel peace prize: Norwegians incensed over Barack Obama’s snubs:

Barack Obama’s trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel peace award is in danger of being overshadowed by a row over the cancellation of a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner.

Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit.

The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children’s event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre.

He has also turned down a lunch invitation from the King of Norway.

(emphasis mine)

Let’s be clear: He’s president of the United States of the America, and he’s a busy guy, so some of the stuff should fall by the wayside, but ditching a lunch with the King of Norway?

I’m not sure what’s behind this, but it seems to be nothing more than an outbreak or gratuitousl rudeness because they can.

Sounds like Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, and how they treated “old Europe”.

*According to the Wiki, The Guardian, formerly the Manchester Guardian in the UK. It’s nicknamed the Grauniad because of its penchant for typographical errors, “The nickname The Grauniad for the paper originated with the satirical magazine Private Eye. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as The Gaurdian, though many recall the more inventive The Grauniad.”

Supreme Court Appears Hostile to Theft of Honest Services Law

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One of the ways that federal prosecutors have gone after corruption recently has been with the theft of honest services law enacted in 1988.

The theory behind the law is that if people are taking bribes, they are depriving the taxpayer of their honest services, and so can be prosecuted.

Well, the initial reports from oral arguments indicate that the Supreme Court is not inclined to support the law in its current form:

Justices across the court’s ideological spectrum took turns on Tuesday attacking the law as hopelessly broad and vague.

Justice Steven G. Breyer estimated that there are 150 million workers in the United States and that perhaps 140 million of them could be prosecuted under the government’s interpretation of the law.

Complimenting the boss’s hat “so the boss will leave the room so that the worker can continue to read The Racing Form,” Justice Breyer said, could amount to a federal crime.

I tend to agree, you saw this law being used by Bush and His Evil Minions™ to go after political rivals, on the theory that they were stealing their full performance from their state jobs, because they spent a lot of time serving as state legislators …… Funny how everyone prosecuted was a Democrat, and most of them were black.

The downside is that one of the plaintiffs are crooks and corrupt.

The first plaintiff is Conrad Black, the former Hollinger International CEO, who stole from his company and shareholders to finance a lavish lifestyle, and the other plaintiff, Alaska legislator Bruce Weyhrauch, soliciting lucrative employment from VECO at the same time that he was shepherding their requests from the legislator for taxpayer money.*

Still, seeing how the law has been abused, killing it would be a very good thing.

*A word about Alaska: The taxpayers in Alaska are basically the oil companies, as Alaska relies on oil revenues, and does not collect state income or sales taxes.

I Am Glad that I Pulled My Email(s) from the OFA Mailing List

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Because I don’t get the sort of blatantly dishonest fundraising pitches that Kos gets:

We will not back down

From: President Barack Obama to Markos

Markos —

As we head into the final stretch on health reform, big insurance company lobbyists and their partisan allies hope that their relentless attacks and millions of dollars can intimidate us into accepting the status quo.

So I have a message for them, from all of us: Not this time. We have come too far. We will not turn back. We will not back down.

But do not doubt — the opponents of reform will not rest. So I need you to fight alongside me.

We must continue to build out our campaign — to spread the facts on the air and on the ground, and to bring in more volunteers and train them to join the fight. I urgently need your help to keep this 50-state movement for reform going strong.

Please donate $5 or whatever you can afford today:

http://my.democrats.org/…

Let’s win this together,

President Barack Obama

I agree with Markos Moulitsas:

This is so freakin‘ obnoxious I can hardly stand it. We are about to get a turd of a “reform” package, potentially worse than the status quo. We have the insurance industry declaring victory, Republicans cackling with glee, and the administration is using that piece of sh$% to raise money?

($% mine)

I can think of no better way to demoralize the base than for Obama and His Stupid Minions™ to keep acting this way.

It’s enough to make me wonder if he is a Manchurian candidate, only it’s not bin Laden who’s backing him, it’s Dick Cheney….

And then the drugs kick in, and I feel much better…

I Really Want to Live in the UK

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Well, we now have the details on Alistair Darling’s proposal to tax bonuses in the UK, and it looks very good: It’s a 50% tax on all bonuses in the banking industry in excess of £25,000.00 ($40,700).

What is interesting is that this is not a tax on income, but a tax on the bonus reserves themselves, so it avoids the human rights:

Instead of legislating for a levy on individual bankers, the Treasury has focused on the simpler and potentially legally safer route of taxing the bonus pool used by banks for staff compensation.

The recipient of such a bonus would still have to pay personal income tax, so, if he would normally have received a bonus of £100K, he would get a bonus of £50K, and that would be subject to taxation by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. (see also here)

It disincentivizes the huge bonus awards, and it fills a significant hole in the UK budget, raising £550 million this year, and £3 billion in the future.

In any case, Bloomberg decided to waste a reporter’s day by making him write a story about how it probably won’t happen in the United States.

Well, duh, banks here are largely succeeding in gutting financial reform here.

Make them pay their fair share of taxes? Fuggedaboudit!

Its a Death Trap, It’s a Suicide Rap*

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Ah, yes, the “centrists” in the Senate. They are what Obi Wan Kenobi was speaking of when he said, “Never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”‡

Their latest “gift” to the rest of us? They are proposing a commission in order to create a back door way to defund Social Security and Medicare.

In this case, it’s Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, (DINO-ND) along with Senatior Judd Gregg (R-NH):

The commission’s main goal would be to figure out what the country needs to do to get its budget back on a more balanced track.

Specifically, the commission would suggest ways to curb spending growth — especially in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — and to boost tax revenue.

There is a simple solution: You just raise the maximum income taken for social security, and let it cover everything that is remuneration, and it’s solvent forever.

In fact, it’s solvent enough that it can fix the medicare funding issue too.

Of note is how this committee is structured, with 18 members, 8 of each party appointed by Congress, and 2 appointed by the White House, and that it would require that at least 14 of the 18 members approve any report, which would be submitted to Congress for an up or down vote.

So, for any tax increase, you would need at least ½ of the Republicans to approve, and you won’t get one.

It’s a Trojan horse, and should be left outside the gates.

It fills the gap, and then some, while

*Apologies to the Boss. It’s a line from Born to Run†
†That’s Bruce Springsteen to those of you who are musically illiterate.
‡Star Wars, you remember that? It was a minor film released in 1977 by the director of THX-1138.

Economics Update

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H/t New York Observer

We have another sign of “green shoots,” with wholesale inventories rising for the first time in 13 months.

I’m not sure if this is a trend, or if wholesale inventories are hitting a kind of “zero bound”, where it just cannot go any lower.

We also saw treasurys falling, and yields rising, after a weak auction of 10 year treasuries.

In real estate, mortgage applications hit a 2-month high, largely on people refinancing to lock in lower rates, but more significant is the fact that the best estimate of losses in home value in 2009 was $500 billion, which, surprisingly enough is a major improvement, as home values fell $3.6 trillion.

In currency, the dollar fell today, most likely on profit taking after 3 straight days of gains, and in energy, oil fell on more reports of strengthening inventories.

Just Heard on Maddow

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It appears that the two Ugandan legislators who have been the driving force for putting forward a bill to apply the death penalty for homosexuality intend to come to the United States next year to attend the National Prayer Meeting, as they did last year.

The kicker is that Barack Obama attended it this year and is expected to attend it next year.

The appropriate response to these folks is to deny them entry to the USA, but my guess is that he won’t do that, and if they show up, he’ll probably talk anyway, spouting something about the need for people to talk.

This is What an Interview is Supposed To Be

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Rachael Maddow, does her homework, has the bigot’s books in front of her, and tears him to bits when he lies.

It’s a well spent 17:56.

This rarely happens on the network shows, Jon Stewart excepted.*

It’s interviews like this that have me skipping Keith to make time for Rachael when I have a busy evening.

*Which raises the obvious question: Why the F%$# should we have to rely on a comedian for competently done interviews?

Martha Coakley’s Wins Bay State Senate Primary

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This is no surprise, she ran a good campaign, and her main opponent was rather incoherent in his campaign, and allowed her to paint him as being against abortion rights.

She will be running against Republican state Senator Scott Brown in the general, but she is pretty much in a dead girl/live boy* situation.

*Edwin Edwards, when discovering that he would be facing David Duke in the Louisiana governor’s race, said that the the only way that he would lose were if he were, “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy”.

What a Whiny Bitch

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So it appears that Barack “Panders to Wingnuts” Obama, took it upon himself to call call Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers to ask him to stop “demeaning” him publicly disagreeing with him on issues like healthcare and Afghanistan:

President Barack Obama recently called Rep. John Conyers Jr. to express his frustrations with the Judiciary Committee chairman’s criticism.

In an interview with The Hill, Conyers said his opinions of Obama’s policies on healthcare reform and the war in Afghanistan have not sat well with the president.

According to the lawmaker, the president picked up the phone several weeks ago to find out why Conyers was “demeaning” him.

Obama’s decision to challenge Conyers highlights a sensitivity to criticism the president has taken on the left. Conyers’s critical remarks, many of which have been reported on the liberal-leaning Huffington Post, appear to have irritated the president, known for his calm demeanor.

Conyers, the second-longest-serving member of the House, said, “[Obama] called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him and I had to explain to him that it wasn’t anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues. And he said, ‘Well, let’s talk about it.’”

Note that Conyers was the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Obama, and spent much of 2007 and 2008 campaigning for him, but he is now saying things like, “Calling in generals and admirals to discuss troop strength is like me taking my youngest to McDonald’s to ask if he likes french fries,” which is pretty funny, when you think of it.

Shadenfreude

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Remember when I talked about the folks at AIG who were threatening to leave because the Pay Czar wants to limit their pay to just $½ million?

Well, one of the most vociferous opponents of the pay limits, AIG General Counsel, Anastasia Kelly, has been informed that her services are no longer required.

Considering her history, that, “before joining the bankrupt firm, was a GC at such reputable organizations as MCI/WorldCon (sic) and Fannie Mae,” I’m not sure why anyone would require her services ever.

Heh.

As I’ve said before: The US government is a majority shareholder in the insurance firm, and as such, it should be making it clear to the board of AIG that they would enforce non-compete agreements to the fullest extent of the law.

Senate Dems Cave on Public Option

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It’s not like Harry Reid and Barack “Status Quo O” Obama were ever really interested in change, so the Senate killing the public option is hardly a surprise, though it is a bummer.

What did they get in response? Well it appears that they got the ability for people aged 55-65 to who are making not more than 150% of poverty buy into Medicare, at an cost per individual around $625/month.

That’s pretty weak tea.

Well, at least the Dems told Ben Nelson to pound sand on his abortion restrictions, and killed his amendment.

My expectation is that this will get a lot worse as time goes on, and it will get a lot worse in conference committee, and Barack Obama will be able to sign his piece of toilet paper.

Economics Update

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The Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose for 7th straight month in November, as did the Japanese coincident indicator index for the month of October.

On the other side of the coin, the National Federation of Independent Businesses is reporting that small business optimism fell in November, and a recent poll is showing that Americans are becoming more pessimistic about the economy, and the Australian consumer is in a foul mood too.

In real estate, by dint of many government efforts to reinflate the bubble, Freddie Mac is reporting that home prices are up for the 2nd straight quarter.

So, we can expect more tax credits and suchlike in order to put off a final day of reckoning.

We had a major monkey wrench thrown into the the works of international finance today, when Fitch’s downgraded Greece’s credit rating from A- to BBB+, which has spooked the markets generally, most notably this news has pushed the Euro lower, with investors moving to the dollar and Yen, mostly the Yen, the dollar was up vs the € and down vs the ¥, looking for a safe haven.

Additionally, an update on Japan’s GDP numbers for the 3rd quarter slashed growth from the initial reading of 4.8% to 1.3%.

The rising dollar, along with reports of strong inventories, drove oil to below $73/bbl.

I Spoke Too Soon

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It looks like Barack Obama’s pay Czar will back down on pay restrictions:

Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. paymaster for rescued companies, will exempt some executives at American International Group Inc. from a $500,000 salary cap after at least five employees threatened to quit because of the limits, people familiar with the matter said.

Feinberg may issue a ruling as early as next week on pay limits for 75 of the bailed-out insurer’s executives, the people said. Last week, five executives said they were prepared to resign if their compensation was significantly cut, according to the people, who declined to be named because the talks are ongoing. Two have since retracted the threat, the people said.

I kind of expected it from “Status Quo O”, change you can’t believe in.