Year: 2010

A Bit Late on This But………

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Robert “Bad Hair” Ehrlich, who lost his bid for reelection against Martin O’Malley 4 years ago, has announced his intention to run for governor again.

Ehrlich seems to think that anti-incumbency gives him a leg up, but he has lost the advantages of incumbency, he cannot run against former Maryland Governor Paris Glendenning, as he did when he ran against Glendenning’s Lt. Governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend,* and O’Malley got his signature issue from 8 years ago, slots as a source of revenue, done.

And then there is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, which is that Ehrlich still speaks very positively of his former Lt. Governor, Michael Steele, which may harm him more among Republicans than Democrats.

On the plus side for him is the fact that he is keeping his radio show on WBAL until he formally files his paperwork in June, which gives him a very big megaphone to toot his own horn.

Still, I Ehrlich has to run the table, and O’Malley has to have a major stumble for him to be competitive in this thoroughly blue state.

*She’s a smart lady, she kicked Ehrlich’s butt during the debate in 2002, but she is the worst campaigner in the history of the Kennedy clan, and perhaps the worst candidate in the history of history.

I Wholeheartedly Approve

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Someone on DU related their experience with reporting someone threatening violence against Obama to the Secret Service: (Click for full size screen shot)

I called the Secret Service on a wingnut threatening Obama

Edited on Fri Apr-09-10 12:13 AM by Jack_Dawson

on his Facebook. “We need to take him OUT! BY ANY MEANS!” he said Friday night at 10:30 (one can only speculate whether alcohol played a factor).

I called my local SS field office on Saturday. Sent them screenshots. They followed up with him, and he mysteriously removed the OP. But that wasn’t good enough for the Secret Service. They called me again today to send them more screenshots – to see if he had redacted his comment. He had not.

Then about an hour ago, he posted this:

“I suggest REMOVING Obama from office through legal, lawful and Constitutional methods ONLY! I DO NOT AND WOULD NOT ADVOCATE VIOLENCE!

If you see / hear something similar, I suggest contacting your district office. They do follow up.

Indeed. There has been a lot of violent eliminationist rhetoric, and when it devolves to the point of being a specific threat, reporting it to the authorities is a civic duty.

I am not suggesting the sort of reaction that got Richard Humphreys 37 months in the clink for making “Burning Bush” jokes, but when speech becomes explicit threats, or an exhortation to specific violent action, it’s a problem.

Obama Authorizes Assassinations of American Citizens

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Radical Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi has now been placed on the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) target list, which means that he can be killed if spotted. (See also here)

Based on the reports that I’ve seen in the media, it’s pretty clear that there is probable cause to apprehend him on suspicion of a number of crimes, but basically, the JSOC is a hit list.

There won’t be any efforts to capture him, this means that he’s going to be taken out by a Predator drone or suchlike, and I find this to profoundly troubling.

Glenn Greenwald makes the point that this is authorizing the killing of an American citizen on the decision of one man, the President, a power that even George W. Bush did not claim, and I agree, though I am not quite as strident in my views.

Additionally, this has the effect of legitimizing the use of lethal force by other governments against those whom they deem terrorists.

Under the rules adopted, I could see the Chinese assassinating Uighur activists, the Russians assassinating Chechen activists, or the Turks assassinating Kurdish activists, on US soil.

Also, from a purely tactical perspective, if you have a person who is willing to die to accomplish their mission, and al Qaeda does, then it is rather simpler to locate the President of the United States than it is to locate Anwar al-Aulaqi or Saddam Hussein.

This may have the effect of encouraging direct action against American officials.

I Call This a Good Start

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The labor union the SEIU is starting a 3rd party named North Carolina First in that state.

They are collecting signatures to get qualified as a state party, and the implication is that they will be running candidates in the general against the Blue Dogs Heath Shuler and Mike McIntyre, as well as conservative Larry Kissell.

My attitude is that this is a good thing.

To quote James “I hate that smarmy bastard” Baker, “F%$# them, they didn’t vote for us.”*

I don’t have a problem with this. There is a difference between a conservative Democrat, and particularly in a conservative district, I understand the difference.

Shuler, McIntyre, and Kissell are disloyal democrats, and they can reliably be counted on to vote against healthcare, financial reform, and fair labor rights.

Truth be told, if they want to go after just one of them, I would suggest going after Shuler.

He’s the whip of the Blue Dogs, and taking him down would make the rest of those guys think twice about playing to Fox News as a political strategy

I would note that my hostility towards Shuler might be a function of his tenure as a Washington Redskins over-priced first round draft pick washout.

*Yes, I am aware that Baker said this about Jews and the Republican party while serving in the Poppie Bush administration.

Economics Update

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Well, today is jobless Thursday, and the the new unemployment numbers disappointed big time, with initial claims rising to 460,000, as opposed to falling slightly to 435,000, with the 4-week moving average rising 2,250 to 450,250.

On the bright side, continuing claims fell by 131K to 4.55 M, though one wonders how much of that was because of Tom Coburn’s petulant filibuster against extended unemployment benefits, which likely has depressed the number, which (full disclosure) has effected me directly. (Will no one rid me of ……… Oh, never mind.)

Meanwhile in consumer spending, February consumer borrowing fell at a -5.6% annual rate, wiping out, and then some, the growth in consumer borrowing in January that had economists crowing, though the Institute for Supply Management’s service sector index grew faster than it has since July 2004 in March.

On the brighter side, delinquencies in consumer loans fell in the 4th quarter of 2009.

In the world of national finance and central banks, we have a few developments with the 3-year, 10 year, and 30 year treasury notes falling and their yields rising, which implies that investors expect interest rates to increase, at least a bit.

Meanwhile, in central bank land, the Bank of England has left its benchmark interest rate and its quantitative easing unchanged, and the Bank of Korea also left rates unchanged.

In real estate, it’s been a pretty busy few days with the 30 year fixed rate mortgage hitting an 8 month high, which, unsurprisingly has depressed mortgage applications.

In residential real estate, foreclosures are still rising, and distressed home sales hit a new high of 29% in January, though delinquencies on sub-prime mortgages fell for the first time since 2006.

I’m thinking that the sub-prime delinquency rate fell because we have finally run out of people who have those mortgages who haven’t yet been forced out of their homes.

In commercial real estate, mall vacancies have hit an at least 10 year high, there are no records prior to this, and office vacancies hit 17.4%, the highest since 1994.

Meanwhile, in energy and currency, the bad job numbers drove crude prices down, and new concerns about Greece have driven the dollar higher.

This is a Big Deal

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The US and Russia have signed a treaty calling for a 30% reduction of their respective nuclear arsenals.

This is a very positive development, though it is more timid that I would have liked.

Of course, it still needs a ⅔ vote in the Senate to be approved, and Republican Mike DeMint seems to be determined to be the turd in the punch bowl, and attempt to extract promises for an extensive missile defense installation in Europe, which the Russians consider a deal breaker.

Pretty much everyone who isn’t tied to Bush/Cheney, of both parties, find this a good deal, but considering the fact that many Congressional Republicans sold their souls, and their testicles, to the Bush/Cheney agenda some years back, it should get interesting.

Also, I predict that Joe “Shanda before the Goyim” Lieberman will speak forcefully about his deep concerns regarding the treaty, in the hope of getting lots of face time on the teevee.

Our Man in Kabul

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It appears that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is mad enough to say to members of parliament that if things don’t go his way, he might join the Taliban:

At one point, Mr. Karzai suggested that he himself would be compelled to join the other side —that is, the Taliban—if the parliament didn’t back his controversial attempt to take control of the country’s electoral watchdog from the United Nations, according to three people who attended the meeting, including an ally of the president.

Mr. Karzai blamed the lawmakers’ resistance to his move on a foreign conspiracy, they said. The Afghan president’s latest remarks came less than 24 hours after he assured U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was committed to working with the U.S. That phone call was precipitated by a similar—but less vitriolic–anti-Western diatribe Mr. Karzai delivered earlier last week.

So he’s complaining that the Electoral Complaints Commission is appointed by independent judges and the UN, and that parliament is refusing to reorganize it so that he can appoint its members, and stack future elections.

It should be noted that the commission invalidated almost a million votes during his reelection bid, and found pervasive fraud by him and his allies, so I guess that he does not want a repeat of this.

Still, his statements make him both part of the problem, and probably completely f%$#ing nuts.

When juxtaposed with his ruinously corrupt drug running brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, whose actions are so suspect that US forces have threatened to kill him the next time he is seen meeting with a Taliban representative, it’s really a heady brew.

I Really Want to Know the Whole Back-Story On This

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According to the associated article, “As firefighters cleaned up the scene late this morning, Kali Burns, who lives next door, ran up and down the street dressed in a gorilla suit and caught the attention of some firefighters. Burns said his friends dared him to put the costume on, so he did. He said he only wanted to ‘cheer everybody up.'”

I dunno, I think that there is something deeper involved.

You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

H/t Americablog.

Quote of the Day

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This is as about as succinct a statement as to what needs to be fixed as anything that I have thus far seen:

Our position was simple: products having no economic purpose except to achieve questionable accounting, tax or regulatory goals; or that raise serious concerns that customers will use them to issue materially misleading financial statements; or that meet any of the other bullet points in the 2006 statement’s list, should, at a minimum, be labeled presumptively prohibited.

—Susan P. Koniak, George M. Cohen, David A. Dana and Thomas Ross in a New York Times OP/Ed

Basically, any transaction that has as a significant part of its purpose to obscure the material health of the firm should be be used only with prior approval.

Of course, it’s much to sensible to be adopted, either in regulation by Geithner,* et al, or in law by Congress.

*But remember, the Cossacks work for the Czar.

Adventures in Wingnuttery

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Now that Wisconsin state law requires teaching about the use of contraceptives in sexual education classes, the Juneau County Distract Attorney is threatening prosecutions of any teacher who teaches these classes, on the theory that teaching kids about condoms, etc. is, “Forcing our schools to instruct children on how to utilize contraceptives encourages our children to engage in sexual behavior, whether as a victim or an offender.”

He is threatening prosecutions for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Expect a baby boom in Juneau County shortly, because those kids will be f%$#ing anyway.

Business Lose

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The New Republic, which has over the past 36 years descended from a well respected liberal voice to a a bastion of white ivy-league entitlement, plagiarism, fabulism (making sh%$ up), Republican talking points, and a cut in its publishing frequency, and its circulation, by nearly ½.

Well, in yet another step towards total irrelevancy, the magazine has decided to start charging for “premium” online content, whatever that means.

It’s a magazine that you could not pay me to read, and now they want us to pay them.

Gordon Brown Calls Election

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Basically, the Tories have been slipping in the polls, and so Gordon Brown has called for a May 6 election.

I think that it still an uphill battle, but the Tories appear to be in, “Stepping on their own dick,” mode right now, and one poll shows the margin to be only 4%, so it is an opportune time for Labour to call an election.

I think that it will be a close thing, but my record on such things is less than stellar.

Jon Stewart Goes After Jon McCain

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Ouch!

John McCain, in a tough primary fight with a man whose political corruption John McCain covered up is now denying that he was ever a maverick.

Considering the fact that it was every 3rd or 4th word out of his mouth in the campaign, this merits some comment, of a particularly scathing nature.

Well, luckily, Jon Stewart writes a lot better than I do, so I will just leave you with his comedic flaying of the “straight talking maverick” from Arizona:

But even with all that, you never felt like the guy was selling his soul. You just felt like he was maybe shaving little slivers of his soul …off …for money. But you still always felt like he maintained a controlling interest in his soul. Fifty-one percent of his soul. The majority shares of his soul. Until now.

And then he goes say that McCain is making “soul default swaps on the back end,” in a masterful juxtaposition of corruption and our opaque financial system.

Really, I cannot do justice to what he does in just 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

He shows the hypocrisy and political cowardice of the the man that the Beltway pundits, and the Sunday talk show hosts, love beyond measure.

Of course the aforementioned Beltway pundits Sunday talk show hosts will never acknowledge that their guy is basically a selfish and petulant politician, but I think that the rest of America is starting to realize this.

Signs of the Apocalypse, Tom Coburn Edition

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Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

Wherein the raving nut job from the Sooner State says thatNancy Pelosi is a nice woman and that you should not believe everything htat you hear on Fox news:

“The intention is not to put anybody in jail,” Coburn said. “That makes for good TV news on Fox, but that isn’t the intention.”

Later, when his audience started to boo at the mention of Pelosi, Coburn stopped them.

“Come on now… how many of you all have met her? She’s a nice person,” Coburn said. “Just because somebody disagrees with you, doesn’t mean they’re not a good person.”

“Don’t catch yourself being biased by Fox News that somebody’s no good,” Coburn added.

Coburn urged audience members to widen their points of view by reading and watching different media outlets, not just the ones they agree with.

(emphasis mine)

This from a man who says that abortion doctors should face the death penalty, and that he, in the course of his duties as an OB/GYN, has performed abortions, so maybe he can hold these rather disparate thoughts in his head because if he is batsh%$ insane.

In China, He Would Already Would Be Dead

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As would be the regulators and judges that Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has assiduously cultivated over the years.*

They would have been tried, convicted, and had a bullet in the base of their skull.

As it is, the Upper Big Branch Mine, where 25 miners have died and 4 are still missing, has a long history of repeated violations, 1,342 since 2005, and 50 just last month is a case of a wealthy business owner buying off the local Mandarins, and then having a very public disaster.

This is classically a situation where the Chinese legal machinery rolls into action and does a few executions for PR.

They’ve done it to corrupt brokers, and it appears that in this case, the model would be to execute Blankenship, the judge, and a few bureaucrats in the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

All in all it would make the world a better place, particularly in the case of Blankenship, whose company has left a trail of avoidable mining disasters behind it.

And then the meds kick in, and I remember that I oppose the death penalty.

*He quite literally bought a West Virginia Supreme Court justice some years back.

Please, God, Let This Be True!

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The rumor is that Larry Summers is dissatisfied with his relative lack of power in the Obama administration, and will soon be leaving.

I am generally not a big follower of the Kremlinology school of politics, which looks obsessively at petty power squabbles amongst the courtiers in the White House, but it appears that Larry Summers, after being denied Treasury Secretary because he was too toxic, was expecting that he would be appointed to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chair.

Well, Joshua Green at The Atlantic notes that Summers has started demanding perks, such as, I kid you not, “golf dates with the president,”* and that he is most unhappy with his role as head of the Director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and is considering leaving.

Well, all that I can say is, hip hip hurray!

Larry Summers, whatever his academic achievements have been, has been deeply, profoundly and disastrously wrong on every venture into the real world, as evidenced by Mark Ames’ devastating portrait of his performance as a public servant which shows him to be both incompetent and corrupt.

Here’s hoping that Barack Obama does not feel the need to keep him around. Larry Summers is not just the wrong man for these times, he is the wrong time for any times.

Next up, Tim Geithner, and if the Senators place a hold on his successor, then recess appoint Sam Webb.

It is a disaster on both a policy and a politics level to allow senior economic staff to be so captured by wall street.

*Golf Dates? F%$#ing Golf Dates?!?!? How fucking egotistical and petty can you be?

What is Missing From This Video?

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Using a blender to reduce an iPad to iPowder

The answer is after the break, but here is a hint: it involves one Steve Jobs in a redux of a very specific scene from one of Kubrik’s better known films.

Do you know what I am referring to?

Do you have an inkling?

Well, if you do not get the answer, just, “click for more” to see the answer, with appropriate photographic documentation.

Blah, blah, blah!

The video, as delightfully perverse as it is, lacks that special something: Steve jobs restrained and forced to watch the liquidation of the most recent vision to spring forth from his metaphorical loins.

I am referring, of course to the brainwashing scene in A Clockwork Orange with Malcolm McDowell.