They have decided to start publishing essays by serial liar Andrew Breitbart, so, not only won’t I link to them, I won’t go to the site.
Month: March 2011
So, There’s a No-Fly Zone in Libya
The UN Security Council just passed it.
So it’s war, by any other name.
I think that this is a bad idea, and whatever emerges at the other end, and my money is still on Qaddafi, the opposition will now lack legitimacy, as will a successor government.
Kevin Drum has an interesting take on this, which is that administration ambivalence on this actually led to the widespread support necessary for the Security Council resolution.
I’m not sure, but I feel that this won’t end well.
When one backs a revolution, one expects some say over the outcome, and looking at the history of that, (*cough* reinstating the Pshaw of Iran, which lead to the current theocracy *cough*) it never ends well.
The Michigan Fascism Bill Passes, and Heads to the Governor’s Desk
The legislature has now passed the bill, which would give the governor the power to declare any government or school district in the state and take it over, hand it to a crony, and dismiss elected officials he did not like.
Background here.
CIA Mercenary Released After US Pays Blood Money
And I mean this literally.
Under Pakistani law, if the families of the victim accept payment, the defendant can be acquitted, and this is what happens in Pakistan.
The fact that the US government had to pay several million dollars to the families in order to extract their “diplomat”, his status is actually indeterminate, marks a shift in diplomatic immunity.
Scott Horton notes that this is a shift in how governments view diplomatic staff, but I’m not so sure that it’s a change in policy as much as it is a recognition by foreign governments in areas of intense US interest that the establishment of sprawling embassies, consulates, and various satellite offices have nothing to do with diplomacy, and everything to do with placing spies in those places.
So Why is the Yen Skyrocketing?
Normally, a disaster has a country’s currency falling, but the earthquake, and the nuclear power plant problems have the value of the Yen hitting a post World War II high.
So, why is this happening?
Two words: Carry trade.
You see interest rates in Japan are very low, so some people borrow money in Japan, and invest it elsewhere at higher interest, and thereby pocket the difference in interest rates.
The risk here is that the loans have to be paid back in Yen and if the currency strengthens, then you can end up owing more than you borrowed, a lot more than what you borrowed, and because this is typically very highly leveraged, it means that you lose a lot of money.
What is happening here is the concern that Japan will cash in, or more likely stop buying, US treasuries, because they need to spend the money on reconstruction, which strengthens the yen.
As the ¥ strengthens, the hedgies decide that they need to get their cash back into Yen before it appreciates any more, and so magnifies their losses.
So while normal concerns push the Yen up, you also have panicked (is their any other kind) traders who are desperately trying to buy into a rising market, which pushes up the Yen, which panics the traders more, who try to sell more $AUS or South African Rands to buy Yen, which further pushes it up.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Obama Pulls Another Deepwater Horizon
S%$# Heads!Yes, in response to the Japanese nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, they are doubkling down on more loan guarantees for US nuclear power:
The Obama administration will press ahead with efforts to expand loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors while investigating the failure of Japan’s power plants after an earthquake, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
The U.S. Energy Department is seeking to add $36 billion in loan-guarantee authority to the program’s existing $18.5 billion, Chu said today at a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel hearing. President Barack Obama asked lawmakers to expand the program in his February budget request.
An earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant with explosions, fires and radiation leaks. As Japan tries to avert a meltdown at the plant, Obama and his energy advisers have said U.S. nuclear reactors are safe.
Un-dirtyword-believable.
These guys never miss a chance to miss a chance.
Economics Update
Really just a few data points here, with housing starts falling sharply, 22%, in February, and we are seeing uptick on the producer price index.
The former is a mark of sanity, there are still too many homes, new, used, and foreclosures, out there, and if you are building houses without a buyer committed ahead of time, you are nuts in most parts of the country.
As to the PPI, it’s all volatility in commodities, so I would not worry right now, which is what the FOMC said yesterday in its statement as well.
Correction on Power Plant
It appears that the any removal of all the workers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant was only temporary:
Correction: March 16, 2011
A news alert associated with an earlier version of this article, relying on an English translation of remarks by Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, incorrectly stated that workers had been evacuated from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A core group of workers remained at the plant.
They had a radiation spike, and removed them for the duration.
Additionally, it appears that electric power may be run to the plant shortly, which would allow for the normal coolant pumps to operate.
Why they didn’t bring in a boat with a genset and anchor it offshore at the start of this is beyond me.
Oh Crap
In a news conference, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary said that they were pulling everyone out of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, though it appears that a small number of workers have elected to stay on:
11:13 P.M. |Core Group of Workers Remain at Plant
The Times’s Hiroko Tabuchi reports that a small group of workers remains at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, contrary to what an English translation of the chief cabinet secretary’s remarks had implied.
10:22 P.M. |Chief Cabinet Secretary’s News Conference
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, is holding a news conference that is being broadcast live on Japanese television. Mr. Edano said radiation readings started rising rapidly Wednesday morning outside the front gate of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. “All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have,” he said, according to a translation by NHK television.
This is not good, that if the situation is as reported, those men remaining at the plant have to know that they are at very real risk of death.
We also have a report that a fire has restarted at the power plant, though it is unclear where this fire might be.
If this is the zirconium cladding of the spend fuel rods in the cooling pools, this could get very ugly very quickly.
If interested, you can see satellite and U-2 imagery here.
OK, Libya is Getting Weird
And that whole “no fly zone” thing just got a lot more difficult, because, it is reported that reble jets and helicopters just sank two of Qaddafi’s warships, as well as bombing a government controlled airfield.
If this is true, it does not signify a change in the recent reversals that the rebels have experienced, but it may very well make a meaningful no-fly zone impossible to enforce.
Economics Update
The Federal Open Market Committee has released its statement, and its policies of low (basically zero) interest rates and quantitative easing (printing money) remain in effect.
Meanwhile, home builder confidence rose in March, but remains really really low, while the New York Feds Empire State Index Rose.
Full FOMC statement after the break:
Release Date: March 15, 2011
For immediate releaseInformation received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January suggests that the economic recovery is on a firmer footing, and overall conditions in the labor market appear to be improving gradually. Household spending and business investment in equipment and software continue to expand. However, investment in nonresidential structures is still weak, and the housing sector continues to be depressed. Commodity prices have risen significantly since the summer, and concerns about global supplies of crude oil have contributed to a sharp run-up in oil prices in recent weeks. Nonetheless, longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable, and measures of underlying inflation have been subdued.
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. Currently, the unemployment rate remains elevated, and measures of underlying inflation continue to be somewhat low, relative to levels that the Committee judges to be consistent, over the longer run, with its dual mandate. The recent increases in the prices of energy and other commodities are currently putting upward pressure on inflation. The Committee expects these effects to be transitory, but it will pay close attention to the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations. The Committee continues to anticipate a gradual return to higher levels of resource utilization in a context of price stability.
To promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to continue expanding its holdings of securities as announced in November. In particular, the Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings and intends to purchase $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011. The Committee will regularly review the pace of its securities purchases and the overall size of the asset-purchase program in light of incoming information and will adjust the program as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability.
The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period.
The Committee will continue to monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and will employ its policy tools as necessary to support the economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate.
Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Charles L. Evans; Richard W. Fisher; Narayana Kocherlakota; Charles I. Plosser; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Daniel K. Tarullo; and Janet L. Yellen.
2011 Monetary Policy ReleasesLast update: March 15, 2011
And Now the New York Times
Has an editorial condemning the torture of Bradley Manning:
Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been imprisoned for nine months on charges of handing government files to WikiLeaks, has not even been tried let alone convicted. Yet the military has been treating him abusively, in a way that conjures creepy memories of how the Bush administration used to treat terror suspects. Inexplicably, it appears to have President Obama’s support to do so.
They are wrong, of course about how his torture is inexplicable. The Obama administration has aggressively covered up the wrongdoing of their predecessors, and gone after whistle-blowers with an aggressiveness that makes Bush and His Evil Minions™ look like advocates for open government.
The torture of Manning, as well as the malicious prosecution of whistle-blowers at all levels is clearly a result of a mania in this administration, and considering its aggressiveness, it almost certainly comes straight from the top.
It should be noted though that, true to their mealy mouthed tradition, there no use of the word “Torture” to describe extended solitary confinement, sleep deprivation.
This is rather more significant than the OP/ED in the Baltimore Sun I mentioned yesterday, because, on the villagers inside the Beltway actually read the New York Times, and care what is in those pages.
I’m hoping that this is some sort of elaborate hoax, but I fear that it isn’t:
Al-Qaeda has launched a magazine for women that not only offers beauty and fashion tips but also gives advice on suicide bombings.
The front cover of the glossy magazine, called ‘Jihad Cosmo’, features the barrel of a sub-machine gun next to a picture of a woman in a veil, reports the Daily Mail.
There are exclusive interviews with martyrs’ wives, who praise their husbands’ decisions to die in suicide attacks.
The slick, 31-page Al-Shamikha magazine – meaning The Majestic Woman – has advice for singletons on ‘marrying a mujahideen’.
Stop the world, I need to get off.
Nice to See This Getting Some Mainstream Coverage
It’s not the Washington Post or the New York Times, but my hometown paper, The Baltimore Sun has an Op/Ed, Why is the United States torturing Private Manning?
It is significant that a regular columnist, WBAL talk jock Ron Smith, both condemned the treatment, and used the word “Torture.”
It is also significant that the members of the White House press corps(e) are actually starting question Obama on this
Smith is described as a “Paleoconservative” in Wikipedia, though he had enough integrity to describe Bush, Jr. as “Joe Isuzu”, so it is likely that hostility to or distrust of Obama may have something to do with his opinions, but it is still significant that people are starting to use the word “torture” do describe what he calls, ” the field-stripping of a young man’s mind.”
Something Else Obama Lied About
I honestly thought that P.J. had committed bureaucratic Seppuku when he gave an honest opinion about the torture detention conditions of alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning, so on one level, I am not at all surprised that Barack Obama fired him.
But Will Bunch, who was lied to by Obama during the campaign, Barack said that he would prosecute torturers and other administration and official law breakers, nails the dishonesty and hypocrisy involved:
“I don’t want to have people who just agree with me. I want people who are continually pushing me out of my comfort zone.”
— Barack Obama, June 18, 2008.Barack Obama lied.
He lied because somebody — a good man, a decent man, and a respected spokesman for the U.S. State Department — pushed Obama out of his comfort zone this week. And so what happened? — the Obama administration forced him out of his job. Apparently Obama does just want to have people who agree with him. Imagine that.
I’m not surprised, but I am disgusted.
Oh S%$@!
In Japan, they are pumping seawater through the cores of 2 units at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and plans are being made to distribute iodine pills, which prevent the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine from a radiation leak.
I don’t know how bad it is, but lordy, this ain’t good.
Deep Thought
I was shoe shopping with the kids, and a clerk noticed me pacing, and asked, “Are you OK?”
“No,” I responded, “I’m shopping for shoes with my 13 year old daughter.”
Why Some Annoying People Are Not on the List…
Submitted for your approval, Carlos Irwin Estevez
The They Who Must Not Be Named list, of course.
You see, some of the people who appear to be worthless are actually talented.
Charlie Sheen is a really funny guy, as this sketch shows, and I’m not sure if he’s crazy or not, because, unlike Bill Frist and Charles Krauthammer, I don’t do diagnoses long distance, but it seems to me that even if he is a bit nuts, he is less nuts than he appears.
In any case, this video is hysterically funny, and the butt of Charlie Sheen’s jokes is one Charlie Sheen.
So he has been removed from the list.
Busy Day, But I Am Relieved
That a friend of mine who lives in Japan is fine, as is his wife, and the earthquake did no damage to his home.
A word of note, if this hit anywhere in the US, we would not have the infrastructure of personnel to handle this, and we would already be seeing private profiteers cheating people.
Also note that the Republican budget cuts include cuts to the Tsunami warning system.
Nope, No Corruption Here. None At All
Allegedly Democratic Co-Chair of Obama’s deficit reduction (aka cat food) commission, Erskine Bowles, was recommending changes to Social Security that would likely lead to its privatization while on the board of directors of Morgan Stanley:
Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s debt-reduction commission, said his job as a Morgan Stanley (MS) director didn’t influence his work on the panel’s recommendations for balancing U.S. spending, which said taxes are sapping the competitiveness of companies.
He and the commission’s co-chief, Alan Simpson, told an audience of bankers, investors and executives at an Economic Club of New York lunch meeting March 7 that the country may face a crisis if it doesn’t rein in the debt. Bowles, 65, has been a member of the bank’s board since the end of 2005.
“It didn’t have any effect on me at all,” he said in an interview after the lunch, when asked if his work for New York- based Morgan Stanley influenced the commission’s December proposals. “We tried to gore every ox we could.”
He also said that “The check is in the mail, this won’t hurt a bit, I’ll respect you in the morning, and I won’t cum in your mouth.”
Note also that Barack Obama was the one what hired these guys.