Year: 2010

Senator Chris Dodd to Retire

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It’s a pity, he’s a good man, and he has now announced that he won’t be running for reelection.

He’s leaving because he believes that it’s an uphill fight for him to win the election:

Polling in Connecticut suggested that Mr. Dodd had been hurt both by his association with Countrywide and by criticism for his role in legislation that appeared to clear the way for bonuses to be paid to executives of American International Group, the insurance firm that received a government bailout. (Last month, Kenneth R. Feinberg, who is charged with monitoring pay at companies that received taxpayer bailout funds, imposed pay limits for A.I.G.’s top executives.)

Republicans had viewed the Countrywide loans and the A.I.G. bonuses as potentially powerful weapons in the campaign.…………”

His spending a year in Iowa to run for President, and the Countrywide loan deal, which he was personally unaware of, hurt him, but what really hurt him was the AIG bonus scandal, where the Obama and His Evil Minions™, most notably Timothy Geithner, strong armed him into including a section in the relevant bill to allow the obscene bonuses, and then refused to admit the truth for weeks, leaving Dodd twisting in the wind. (See here, here, and here…………Note that the first link has my prediction that, “Geithner will be gone by June,” so much for my powers of prediction)

[on edit]I forgot to note that Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal (D) has announced that he will run, and is now the presumptive favorite in the heavily blue Nutmeg State.

Big Surprise

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The Conference Board’s survey of US job satisfaction hit an all time low. 45%, the lowest number since the survey began in 1987.

There is some surprise that, even as workplace safety and things like vacation days have increased, this number had trended downward:

“[That] could spell trouble for the overall engagement of U.S. employees and ultimately employee productivity,” she [Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board] added.

The report notes that job satisfaction has steadily declined over the years despite big improvements in the work environment, such as a reduction of workplace hazards and an increase in vacation days.

Simply put, we are at the point where the fetishism of management for screwing with their workers may start hitting the bottom line.

This is basic primate behavior: People know that that upper management’s wages have gone up by more than 10 times, while their wages have stagnated.

The National Geographic noted this over 15 years ago:

Monkeys Show Sense Of Fairness, Study Says
Sean Markey
National Geographic News
September 17, 2003

If you expect equal pay for equal work, you’re not the only species to have a sense of fair play. Blame evolution.

Researchers studying brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) have found that the highly social, cooperative species native to South America show a sense of fairness, the first time such behavior has been documented in a species other than humans.

The question of whether human aversion to unfair treatment—now shown by other primates—is an evolved behavior or the result of the cultural influence of large social institutions like religion, governments, and schools, in the case of humans, has intrigued scientists in recent years.

The new finding suggests evolution may have something to do with it. It also highlights questions about the economic and evolutionary nature of cooperation and its relationship to a species’ sense of fairness, while adding yet another chapter to our understanding of primates.

……………

Tobacco Regulations Largely Upheld By Court

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Big tobacco had a minor win, the judge said that the FDA could not the use of color and graphics in their advertisements, which is pretty much in line with the law as I understand it for “corporate free speech,” but allowed a ban on using merchandise and sponsorships to stand:

The judge struck down some modest restrictions on color and graphics in tobacco and on labels that tobacco companies said violated their free speech rights.

U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley approved bans on sponsorships of athletic, cultural and social events and the use of tobacco imagery on such things as caps and T-shirts, rejecting the companies’ argument that the ban was too broad and failed to differentiate between adults and children.

He also upheld a requirement that warning labels cover half of the front and back of the packaging of tobacco products.

So, their package will be dominated by warning labels, and they cannot sponsor events or hand out ball caps, but they can use pictures and color on the labels.

Pretty much a win for the government.

First Massachusetts Senate Special Election Poll Out

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It’s Rasmussen, and they say that Democrat candidate Martha Coakley leads Republican Scott Brown by 50% to 41%.

Not particularly surprising.

Obviously special elections are rather quirky affairs, what with turnout being low, but Coakley’s turnout machine worked well in the primary, so I think that this is, absent her doing something really stupid, is in the bag.

There is an interesting point here though: If Brown were to win, the Dems would be down to 59 seats, and the Republican filibuster would hold, which might force the White House and Congress to use reconciliation, which might create a much better bill.

So, which is it, The Lady or the Tiger?

Read the Rude Pundit

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He’s a genius, as he shows in his latest, “It Shouldn’t Surprise Us that Some Ex-Gitmo Detainees Want to F%$# Us Up.” (%$# mine):

We are incapable of dealing with the notion that whether you’re the good guy or the bad guy is a matter of perception. And that sometimes the United States is the bad guy. Unless we’re willing to confront that and do something about it (like, at minimum, apologize and offer compensation), then we shouldn’t be surprised that Yemeni Mel Gibsons will seek to go all Lethal Weapon on us.

The man is a genius, if somewhat profane.

Go read.

The Religious Right Really Needs To Get Laid

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Because, they are really wound way to tight.

Case in point, their collective sh%$ fit over the appointment of Amanda Simpson as a senior technical advisor to the Commerce Department, where her portfolio will include the export of dual use technologies, because she is transgendered.

You can see excerpts of the freakout by focus on the family about this at the link, and my conclusion is that they are freaking, because no one there has gotten their porcupine properly whacked in a very long time.

As to her qualifications:

Simpson is highly qualified for the position. She has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, most recently serving as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration, and is a certified flight instructor and test pilot with 20 years of experience.

So she’s a test pilot and a f%$#ing rocket scientist, but all that the religious right can think about is that her plumbing has been altered.

Economics Update

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If anyone thinks that real estate can lead us out of of a recession, or even that we can, as Mssrs. Obama, Geithner, Summers, etc., think that we can reinflate the bubble, you need to look no further than the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Pending Home Sales index, which fell 16% in November well under the forecast of -2%, though it is still up year over year.

They are trying to reinflate a balloon with a hole in it.

In any case, the horrible housing numbers drove treasury prices up as investors fled to safety.

It does appear, however, that foreign investors were going elsewhere, with the dollar falling against the yen, and in energy .

Olbermann Jumps the Shark

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No, I’m not talking about his bit with Richard Wolffe, where conflates bureaucratic turf wars with a group of Republican moles actively aiding terrorists, I mean his new feature, the 2 short “mini-comments”, each 1 minute long, which will air each show.

Normally, I use the phrase “Jump the Shark,” to describe some sort of gaffe which will forever tarnish the person who uttered the bon mot.

However, in this case, I am referring to the original, and rather more mild definition of, the point in a television program’s history where it’s done, and there is not much more to get out of it.

Regular twice-a-show mini “Special Comments” are an indication that the program has run out its string.

It’s not surprising: Countdown was always more driven by snark, particularly in the early days, and outrage at Bush and His Evil Minions™ and Olbermann is a (very good) sportscaster who tends to see political confrontations in the same sort zero-sum terms of a ball game.

BTW, if one of my reader(s) could rat me out to Olbermann as a “Worst Person in the World“, please do so. I could use the eyeballs.

I’m more of a policy wonk myself, and as such I prefer Rachael Maddow’s show, and I will always be grateful to Keith Olbermann for introducing me to her show.

I’ll still probably watch it streaming on my PC, in the background, which is what I do with both of their shows now, but Keith does not surprise me much any more.

Normally, I Don’t Quote Paul R. La Monica…………

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I find him rather to excessively optimistic, glib, shallow, and thoroughly conventional in his journalism.

That being said, his review of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech at the American Economic Association meeting in Atlanta, nails it in the title, “Surprise! The Fed says don’t blame the Fed.”

That pretty much captures the substance of what Bernanke said in a nutshell.

The Masque Slips

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Republican Congressional Candidate Allen Quist has just said that it’s more important to fight Democrats than it is to fight terrorism:

“It’s because I, like you, have seen that our country is being destroyed. I mean, this is — every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom. This is our fight. And this is our time. This is it. Terrorism, yes — but that’s not the big battle. The big battle is in D.C., with the radicals. They aren’t liberals, they’re radicals. Obama, Pelosi, Walz — they’re not liberals, they’re radicals. They are destroying our country. And people all over are figuring that out.”

Well, it’s nice that at least one of them is telling the truth, that they find the quest for power is more important than the well-being of the nation.

Here is the video, you can see that statement at about the 3 minute mark:

Why the Air Force as an Independent Service Should be Abolished: Part 32

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Matthew Yglesias reports that retired USAF Lieutenant General Tom McInerney has just called for mandatory strip searches of all Muslims aged between the ages of 18 to 28 in an interview with (who else)Fox News.

This guy is bats%$# insane, but his insanity is endemic with the Air Force, as has been noted in a number of stories regarding a pervasive atmosphere of religious harassment at the Air Force academy.

(I’ve done a couple of posts on the problem generally.)

The problem here is not that he was in the Air Force. Any organization will have its share of crazies, criminals, and incompetents.

The problem is that he made it to 3-stars, despite being clearly unhinged, and there is way too much of that in the US air force.

In fact, in the video below, it’s clear that it’s so crazy that the interviewer on Fox feels the need to call him out on this, because of the hostility it would engender:

Bootnote: It looks like Al-Jazeerah is already covering it, so congratulations general, you just murdered a dozen or so US troops over the next few months.

Let Me Get This Straight………

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Investors are suing Bank of America, charging that the bank (and I use the term loosely) deceived investors over the terms of bonuses to Merrill Lynch executives prior to the vote to acquire the brokerage.

Well, it appears that much BoA’s defense appears to be that if its investors ignored what they said, and read the financial press, they would have known anyway, but the judge just shot down that argument:

Bank of America Corp. suffered a setback in its defense to civil claims that it misled investors after a judge ruled that it may not introduce at a trial testimony about media reports predicting it would pay bonuses.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the lender on Aug. 3 claiming it misled investors about bonus payments while buying Merrill Lynch & Co. Bank of America said in a November 2008 proxy statement that Merrill agreed not to pay year-end bonuses when the bank had already agreed to Merrill’s paying as much as $5.8 billion, the SEC claims. A trial is scheduled for March in New York.

As part of its defense, Bank of America has argued that shareholders already knew, as a result of media reports, that Merrill would likely pay billions of dollars in bonuses. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan today barred the bank from offering testimony about such reports because the proxy statement itself told shareholders to ignore them.

“In effect, the bank is arguing that, even though it expressly warned its shareholders to disregard the media, it can now defend itself by asserting that a reasonable shareholder would have disregarded these warnings and, by consulting the media, perceived that the bank’s alleged lies were immaterial,” Rakoff wrote in a six-page opinion. “Even a zealous advocate might perceive that such an argument hints at hypocrisy.”

(emphasis mine)

So your argument is that you were telling a baldfaced lie, and everyone knew that you were lying?

Well, good luck with that.

When your defense against fraud charges is that the newspapers had shown that they were lying sacks of s%$#, I think that you are missing this whole “how to win the case” thing.

When a Big Box Stores Turn to Terrorism

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I don’t mean terrorism in stores, I mean terrorism by stores.

Specifically, a vicious and malicious assault on the eyes by a warehouse store known as Brandsmart.

As “jollyreaper,” who introduced me to the photo, notes, “Never did I think I could find a store to make Best Buy seem tasteful and sedate. That entire store is turned up to 11. “

Maybe even turned up to 12:


Click for full size

I think that my eyes are now bleeding, and it’s way worse in full size.

Speaking of Michelle Bachmann’s Frothing at the Mouth Lunacy on the Census

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Click for full size



The Crazy, It Burns US!!!!

She has stopped asking people not to fill out the Census over the past few months.

Why is this? Well, perhaps it’s because if Minnesota loses a Congressional district, it’s likely it will be her district that goes the way of those dinosaurs that she does not believe in:

State demographer Tom Gillaspy has been
warning for months that the next census
could result in the loss of one congressional s
eat in Minnesota. In fact, he confessed last
week that, until the recession hit, he was
almost resigned to the probability that
Minnesotans would be allowed to elect only
seven U.S. House members from newly
drawn districts in 2012.

……………

It’s ironic that a Minnesota member of Congress, Republican Michele Bachmann, went so far last summer to declare her intention to only partially complete her census forms, and to suggest reasons for others not to comply with the census law. If Minnesota loses a congressional seat, Bachmann’s populous Sixth District could be carved into pieces. She likely would have to battle another incumbent to hang on to her seat. We’ve noticed that her anticensus rhetoric has lately ceased. We hope she got wise: Census compliance is not only in Minnesota’s best interest, but also her own.

As Eric Kleefeld notes at TPM:

The really fun fact, as I’ve learned from Minnesota experts, is that Bachmann’s district would likely be the first to go if the state lost a seat. The other seats are all fairly regular-shaped, logical districts built around identifiable regions of the state (Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Iron Range, and so on). Bachmann’s district is made of what’s left over after such a process, twisting and turning from a small strip of the Wisconsin border and curving deep into the middle of the state. As such, the obvious course of action if the state loses a seat is to split her district up among its neighbors.

Basically, her district is made up of all those areas left over after they did the first 7, which are made up, in classic “Minnesota Nice” manner to be contiguous and to represent regions accurately and fairly.

I’d say that Karma was a bitch, but that would probably make Brit Hume angry.