It be Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Month: September 2010
Murkowski to Mount Write-In Bid for Alaska Senate
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who lost Alaska’s GOP primary last month in a stunning upset to a tea-party backed rival, announced Friday that she’s mounting a write-in candidacy in a bid to hold onto her job.
Murkowksi told supporters at a late afternoon rally in Anchorage that she’s worried about Republican nominee Joe Miller’s extremist views, as well as the Democratic candidate’s inexperience.
The decision follows Miller’s surprise win in last month’s primary. Murkowski acknowledged she made mistakes during the primary campaign, but promised she’ll be more aggressive this time in running against Miller.
I think that she will talke more votes from teabagger Miller than remarkably-liberal-for-Alaska McAdams.
Jimmy Carter: Still a Wanker
It appears that Mr. Carter still cannot get over his hatred of Teddy Kennedy, so he’s going after a dead man, blaming Kennedy for killing his healthcare proposal.
Just as classy as ever, I see.
He still thinks that the Kennedy challenge in 1980 is what cost him the White House. It’s wasn’t.
What killed his chance for a 2nd term in 1980 was one James Earl Carter, was elected with much hope, but found to be a sanctimonious jerk.
I would note that this assessment does not include my opinion that Carter is a war criminal on par with Henry Kissinger because he and Zbigniew Brzezinsk decided to purchase a civil war in Afghanistan, knowing creating untold suffering in that nation and its neighbors.
It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!! (Delayed for Holiday)
I’ve been off line for Yom Kippur, so this is a day late.
And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
- ISN Bank, Cherry Hill, NJ
- Bank of Ellijay, Elllijay, GA
- First Commerce Community Bank, Douglasville, GA
- The Peoples Bank, Winder, GA
- Bramble Savings Bank,Milford, OH
- Maritime Savings Bank, West Alis, WI
So, after 3 weeks with only one bank closing, we have 6 this week, plus the one credit union closed below.
This number appears to be on the fast track for breaking 150 this year.
And here are the credit union closings:
So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):
I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I’m keeping it here for historical purposes.
Just In Case .You’re Wondering……
My fast sucked.
Then again it’s supposed to suck, because no food or water for 25 hours is intended to be unpleasant.
As compared to prior Yom Kippur fasts, it was a little bit worse than average.
A Depiction of the Levels of Hell?
Click for full size (640 KB)
Your tax dollars at work
Or maybe just a description of development, procurement, and life cycle support costs of a weapons system for the Pentagon ……… but I repeat myself.
The problem here is that each one of these steps represents a place where some private contractor can sit astride the process and extract a toll.
This why it takes 25 years and billions of dollars to develop the next fighter aircraft, when the P-80 was delivered just 180 days after the go ahead was given.
If this is what the past 50 years of developments in systems engineering have given us, perhaps, just maybe, there are some deep flaws in the underlying assumptions of that profession.
The source for the link is the Defense Acquisition University, and yes Virginia, there is a Defense Acquisition University, and they have a handy, dandy interactive flash version available on site.
Senate Appropriations Committee Pulls F136 Alternate Engine Funding
In addition to zeroing out the alternate engine, they also cut 10 production aircraft from the FY 2011 for failure of the program to execute per schedule.
This implies to me that neither cut could have gone through on its own, but together, both those who have concerns about the JSF, and those who don’t want the engine got enough of what they wanted to support each other.
Meanwhile GE/RR is ramping up efforts to reverse this decision, noting, among other things, that the budget numbers that the Pentagon is putting forward on the F136 engine are sketchy at best.
Brazil to Delay Fighter Acquisition Decision
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will now make the decision after elections but before he leaves office:
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will decide who gets Brazil’s multi-billion dollar contract to build jet fighters after the October elections but before he leaves office on Jan. 1, his defense minister said Sept. 7.
The finalists now battling it out in the final stages of the tender are France’s Rafale made by Dassault, Sweden’s Gripen NG by Saab, and the F/A-18 Super Hornet manufactured by U.S. giant Boeing.
Da Silva favors the Rafale, because he thinks that there are more opportunities for technical transfer and other cooperation with the French, while the military favors the Gripen, which will be the least expensive aircraft over its life time, having half the engines, and half the weight of the two competitors.
As to the F/A-18, tech transfer is rather iffy, but the unit price is likely the lowest, and it might help with cooperation with any US military operations in Latin America.
My guess is that he will choose the Rafale, he has already expressed a strong preference for the aircraft.
At this point, there is no intention to use it on Brazil’s aircraft carrier, but that possibility might push them towards either the Rafale-M or the F/A-18 E/F, both of which are carrier capable.
Creator of the Merkava Tank Dies
Israel Tal has died at age 85.
In addition to being the moving force to creating the Merkava after the British backed out of deal to sell them Chieftain tanks, he is also rated as one of the top 5 tank commanders in history, one of two Israelis on the list, according to the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor, along with Moshe Peled.
Your Friday of Muppets
You’ve just been Rickrolled, and I am an @sshole.
People With Way Too Much Free Time
The Terran Research Ensemble, who are putting on an Opera in Klingon:
On Friday in The Hague, Netherlands, the Terran Research Ensemble raised the curtain on “U,” the first Earth opera performed entirely in Klingon. “U” is the Klingon word for “universe” or “universal,” and the opera tells the story of Kahless the Unforgettable, said to be the first Klingon emperor.
“Klingon are known as passionate opera lovers but at the same time very little was known about Klingon opera here so as far as I was concerned that was a very interesting challenge to try and make an authentic, or as authentic, something out of that as possible,” U co-creator Floris Schonfeld told Reuters and The BBC.
I will say that is only the 2nd most absurd juxtaposition of art and language, after the effort by South Africa in the Apartheid days to translate Shakespeare into Afrikaans:
Hamlet: Mein Papa der schpook!
Posted Without Comment
The Geek Hoodie
Click for full size
Because, Sometimes You Feel Like A Geek,
Sometimes You Don’t
You know, If I knew that I was going to meet Leonard Nimoy, I’d wear the jacket, and keep it zipped up, until just before I said goodbye.
Mr. Nimoy would probably hate that.
H/t The Big Picture
Fasting for Yom Kippur
No food or drink for the next 26 hours, and I will be off line, though I have stuff queued up.
Vote For Me You C@cksucking Losers Is Not a Good Campaign Slogan…
But it is the apparent strategy of Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions™ for the mid terms.
Here’s the story, a group of activists lobby the Obama administration to put Jimmy Carter’s solar panels back on the White House. They do a tour with a panel, and get people to sign a petition, and the panel gets on Letterman.
Truth be told, this is precisely the sort of guerrilla theater agitprop that I hate, but you know, whatever floats their boat.
So, they get their meeting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and what what happens next is illustrative: They meet with a couple of low level drones, who try to filibuster the meeting by reading Washington Post articles to them about how pro-environment they are, and then they refuse to have their pictures taken with either the panel or for the presentation of the petition.
When asked why, their response is, “If reporters call and ask us, we will provide our rationale,” and then they, “pass out Xeroxed copies of a 2009 memorandum from Vice President Biden,” and end the meeting.
So, here is your pamphlet, now get the f%$# out.
You know, whoever decided on this response, because it is clear that the drones were just following orders, are as Ronald Reagan, Jr. said about Dick Cheney, “[Not] a mindful human being. That’s probably the nicest way I can put it.”
Economics Update
It’s jobless Thursday, and the initial claims numbers are out, with initial claims falling to 450,000, the 4 week moving average falling to 464,750 last week’s 478,250, continuing claims falling 84,000 to 4.49 million, and emergency claims fell by over 500,000, which is all a good thing, though the story also mentions that the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index missed expectations, remaining in the contractionary range, while the New York Fed’s Empire State Index fell but remained in positive territory.
In terms of other general measures, we have conflicting data, with inventories rising strongly, retail sales rising in more sedately, and the NFIB’s small business confidence rising modestly to an anemic 88, while on the other side we see industrial growth slowing in August.
Real estate, on the other hand is pretty grim in the post-tax credit days, with home repossession spiking, and CoreLogic’s home price index showing no year over year gain for the first time in five months, and home mortgage applications fell this week.
On the inflation front, the Producer Price Index came out, and while there is still little inflation in the core rate, but food and energy costs are rising more sharply, though still well below a 6% annual rate.
Beating a Bald Eagle to Death With a Koran
Best metaphor for the Democratic Party ever.
I love Jon Stewart.*
*In a 110% purely heterosexual kind of way, of course, as the General would say.
Why is the Federal Reserve Freaking Out?
It appears that the Federal Reserve is putting out signals that it will be engaging in more quantitative easing (printing money) toward the end of this year:
The U.S. Federal Reserve could announce a new program of asset purchases to support a weak economy as early as November, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
“We don’t expect this at the Sept. 21 meeting, but in November or December there’s certainly a possibility that it will be announced,” Jan Hatzius, chief economist at the bank, said Tuesday. He added the Fed is likely to buy U.S. Treasurys worth around $1.0 trillion to kick-start the economy.
Maybe I am being alarmist, but I as Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Fed have already proven themselves to be remarkably blase about the unemployment levels, so I have to assume that they are expecting to see someting major shake loose in the financial markets, and they want to restart their sh%$pile for cash program to forestall this.
It might not be an economic or financial issue that is getting them to move though, as they are currently hamstrung by the intersection of the law and Barack Obama’s general unwillingness to challenge republicans on the stonewalling of even the most benign nominees.
As a result, 3 nominees for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are cooling their heels, and with the retirement of Donald Kohn, the board membership is down to 4 members, which means that they cannot make the emergency loans that they did following the collapse of Lehman:
Here’s a scary thought: Let’s say the European sovereign debt crisis flares up again, and one or two Euro banks fail. (Not a bank like UBS or Deutsche Bank, but a medium-sized bank like Bank of Greece or a Landesbank.) That, in turn, causes a U.S. money market fund — many of which have large exposures to Euro banks — to “break the buck,” which leads to another run on money market funds.
The Fed would be powerless to help. The Fed’s emergency lending authority (the famed Section 13(3)) requires that any emergency lending facility to non-banks be approved “by the affirmative vote of not less than five members” of the Fed Board of Governors. Currently, there are only four members of the Fed board: Bernanke, Warsh, Elizabeth Duke, and Dan Tarullo. Donald Kohn retired earlier this month, and the Senate has yet to vote on Obama’s three nominees (Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond, and Sarah Bloom Raskin).
Indeed.
Of course, Obama could fix this by making a recess apportionment, I would suggest that he actually appoint Jamie Galbraith, because it would freak the Republicans out, but he doesn’t have the guts for that, or much else.
Edwin Newman, Dead at 91
He was an old school journalist, though I best remember him for his curmudgeonly defense of the English language from those who would debase the tongue.
Japan Makes Banzai Charge Against Chinese Currency Manipulation
As a result of Chinese currency manipulation, the Bank or Japan has started selling Yen to keep it from strengthening it too much, which wold kill exports and likely create a trade deficit.
This the first time that this has happened in 6 years, but there is a twist to what the BoJ is doing:
At first glance, the action looks like a something-must-be-done-this-is-something -therefore-this-must-be-done move: a new prime minister and a “bold action” doomed to be proved ineffectual. The FX markets are so enormous (dollar/yen alone trades some $750 billion per day) that it’s hard to believe a single sale of less than $20 billion in yen could even have the short-term effect we saw last night, let alone have any lasting consequences.
But this isn’t just about FX-market intervention. This is also about monetary policy, and that could make a real difference:
………
In other words, the Bank of Japan isn’t simply selling yen, it’s printing yen. (And then selling them.) Given (a) that it’s the central bank and that it can print as many yen as it likes, and (b) that it would actually welcome a bit of inflation, there’s actually a non-negligible chance that this kind of non-sterilized intervention could work.
The term “non-sterilized” means printing money.
The Federal Reserve could do the same thing, and getting the dollar to a reasonable level versus the Chinese Yuan, and some inflation right now would be a good thing.