Month: January 2012

13 January 2012, 7:20 PM

Heh.

It looks like it will be just Romney and Paul on the Virginia primary ballot, because the VA Republican party actually started verifying signatures:

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who came within a few votes of winning the Iowa caucuses, didn’t get on the ballot in Virginia or the District of Columbia. His campaign also filed incomplete slates of delegates in Illinois and Ohio, which could limit his ability to win delegates in those key states.

Virginia has been a tough ballot to crack for several GOP candidates because the state requires campaigns to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters. Romney and Paul were the only ones who made theballot for the March 6 primary.

Perry sued, and was later joined in the lawsuit by Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum. But on Friday, a federal judge in Richmond refused to add them to the ballot, saying the candidates should have challenged Virginia’s primary qualifying rules earlier.

Whatever you say about Paul, his campaign has it’s sh%$ together, and Romney, with his high dollar campaign, is on all the ballots as well.

The rest of them are running a junior varsity campaign.

12 January 2012, 11:57 PM

It’s On (Sort of)

Stephen Colbert has passed the Colbert super PAC to Jon Stewart, (the special effects involved could be best described as “low budget”) and established an “exploratory committee” to “explore” run for the Republican nomination in his native South Carolina.

Cool.

He could probably beat John Huntsman.

The video will be up on Comedy Central tomorrow some time.

12 January 2012, 10:05 PM

Good News Everyone! Bigots Don’t Get to Steal Property.

So a bunch of bigots were upset with the Episcopal Church not hating on te ghey enough, so they left the Episcopal Church, and affiliated with a “Kill the Gays” Anglican Bishop in Nigeria.

Well, now a judge has ruled that their churches are property of the Diocese of Virginia:

A Virginia judge has ruled against seven conservative congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, rejecting their argument that they should be able to keep some $40 million in church real estate that the national denomination also claims.

The case has drawn worldwide attention because it involves a cluster of large, prominent churches with well-known conservative pastors and because the issues at hand — particularly the Episcopal Church’s acceptance of same-sex relationships as equal to heterosexual ones — are roiling much of organized religion. Various Protestant congregations in particular have wound up in litigation across the country.

The 113-page ruling was handed down Tuesday by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows.

A spokeswoman for the congregations said they were considering their next step, but a letter sent to some 4,600 congregants sounded as though they are bracing for the worst. Each congregation has a contingency plan if they have to vacate, said Caitlin Bozell Manaois.

Couldn’t happen to a more repulsive group of people.

For too many people, religion is just an excuse to hate.

BTW, it appears that Caitlin Bozell Manaois is Brent Bozell’s daughter. (She works at CRC Public Relations, which is one of his front groups)

Brent Bozell is the head of the “Media Research Center” and is probably best known for referring to Barack Obama as a, “skinny ghetto crackhead.”

12 January 2012, 7:36 PM

Manning is Referred For Court Martial

22 counts, including “aiding the enemy, which carries a potential death penalty, for leaking thousands of files to Wikileaks.

It appears that the “the enemy” is the American public.

It’s a f%$#ing kangaroo court, as evidenced by the convening authority refusing to allow the most of the defense’s witnesses, because the goal, of both the military and the Obama administration is to suborn perjury from Manning, so that they can manufacture a case with which to prosecute Julian Assange.

12 January 2012, 7:01 PM

It’s Jobless Thursday

Initial claims just rose to 399,000, up 24K from last weeks “already revised upward” number, basically the dividing line (rule of thumb 400K) between getting worse, and not getting worse, with the less volatile 4-week moving average rising by 7,750 to 381,750, with continuing claims rising as well, though emergency claims fell.

One step forward, one step back.

11 January 2012, 9:45 PM

Supreme Courts Says that there are Limits to Campaign Donations

So, if you are a foreign person, you are still forbidden from making campaign donations:

In a terse four words, the Supreme Court on Monday issued an order upholding prohibitions against foreigners making contributions to influence American elections.

The decision clamped shut an opening that some thought the court had created two years ago in its Citizens United decision, when it relaxed campaign-finance limits on corporations and labor unions. On Monday the Supreme Court, upholding a lower court’s decision in Bluman, et al., v. Federal Election Commission, refused to extend its reasoning in Citizens United to cover foreigners living temporarily here.

Foreign nationals, other than lawful permanent residents, are completely banned from donating to candidates or parties, or making independent expenditures in federal, state or local elections.

The Supreme Court’s order did not discuss the merits or suggest that there was any dissent among the justices.

It sounds to me like they just said that foreign persons cannot make campaign donations, but under Citizens United, foreign corporations can.

Our political system, brought to you by BMW, the ultimate driving machine.

11 January 2012, 7:54 PM

I Don’t Want to Start Any Blasphemous Rumours…*

Because the one of the Vatican’s child safety coordinator has just been sentenced to jail for downloading child pr0n:

He was arrested after uploading images of pre-pubescent boys on to the Ning social networking website.

Police officers who traced him to his home in Plymouth, Devon, found more than 4,000 child porn images, mainly of boys aged 10 to 12, on his church-supplied computer and a memory stick when they raided the house in Penrose Road.

The court heard that 4,389 images were found on the laptop and memory stick.

The majority, 3,721, were at Level One, the lowest level for abusive images.

But there were 120 at Level Four, which includes scenes of child rape, and 12 at Level Five, which can include scenes of torture and sadism.

Jarvis, who the court heard claimed he was abused as a child, was sentenced at the city’s crown court after admitted 12 counts of making, possessing and distributing indecent images at a previous magistrates’ court hearing.

You know, notwithstanding the assertions of people like ……… You know ……… the Pope that it’s all an aberrations and caused by our wicked society.

I think that a bit of self examination is order here, because lashing out at the rest of the world over this seems to be just a bit delusional.

H/t Americablog.

^*The refrain from the Depeche Mode song Blasphemous Rumors is, “I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumours, But I think that God’s got a sick sense of humor, And when I die I expect to find Him laughing.”

11 January 2012, 7:15 PM

The New Beige Book is Out

It’s showing some improvement, but nothing to crow about, the quote, “expanded at a modest to moderate pace,” is a pretty good description.

The improvement is pretty modest, but it’s in eleven of the twelve Fed Banks’ regions.

10 January 2012, 10:55 PM

OWS Update

Good news everyone!

I invented a device that makes you read this in your head using my voice!

Civil rights group have gotten the police to take the barricades around Zuccoti (Freedom) Park.

H/t MP at the Stellar Parthenon BBS, who is probably at the park as we speak.

Honestly, I expect Mike Bloomberg’s bully boys will find a way to ignore the law in just a couple of days.

Videos of some cop beating up a crippled child at a protest to follow in a few days.

Full statement after the break.

City Removes Illegal Barriers at Zuccotti Park One Day After Rights Groups Send Threatening Letter

January 10, 2012 — NYPD officers removed barriers tonight at Zuccotti Park, just one day after the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild put New York City on notice that its arbitrary and inconsistently applied rules and security measures restricting the public’s access to the park violated city zoning laws.

“We’re pleased the city is finally giving the park back to the people,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “We hope Zuccotti Park can now resume its rightful place as a center for meeting and protest in New York City.”

On Monday, the groups sent a letter New York City Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri urging him to promptly address the violations and ensure that Zuccotti Park is open and accessible to all members of the public on an equal basis. Metal barricades had encircled the park since the NYPD cleared the Occupy Wall Street encampment there on Nov. 16. Until tonight, the public could only enter the park through two gaps where security personnel selectively subjected people to searches.

The groups said that these security measures and the constantly changing, selectively enforced and unwritten park rules violated zoning laws, longstanding city policies, and park-owner Brookfield Properties’ legal obligations under a 1968 special zoning permit that established the park as a “permanently open park” for “the public benefit.”

10 January 2012, 6:30 PM

Louis Freeh to Account Holders, Drop Dead

You knew it was coming when this corrupt rat-bastard was appointed trustee. Now he’s trying to f%$# the account holders out of the money that JP Morgan Chase and the rest of the usual suspects stole from the:

MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF)’s creditors should have some priority to be repaid by the bankrupt estate, said Chapter 11 trustee Louis Freeh, citing intercompany loans made between the failed parent and its operating unit.

Freeh, representing the interests of creditors of the parent company, commented on the legal principles that will govern repayments in papers filed late yesterday in Manhattan bankruptcy court. Former customers of the broker-dealer unit, seeking an estimated $1.2 billion missing from their accounts, are being repaid in a related case overseen by a different trustee, James Giddens, appointed under the Securities Investor Protection Act.

The holding company has “substantial intercompany claims” against the broker-dealer unit on account of former intercompany loans, and any recoveries of that money shouldn’t be “diverted” to customers, giving them a priority at the expense of creditors of the parent company, Freeh said.

Freeh is concerned that “an inappropriate interpretation” of the law may lead Giddens to deny the rights of creditors to recover from property that was never deposited by them, lawyers for Freeh wrote.
Customer Pool

The conflict is “not whether certain estate property can be distributed to customers, but whether estate assets that would otherwise be available for distribution to MF Global Inc.’s creditors can be reallocated to the customer pool,” Freeh said.

Seriously, the assets he is referring to were stolen by those “creditors”.

First, he obstructs the investigation of the theft of client accounts, and now he’s trying to f%$# the account holders.

It must be nice to be able to be so blatantly corrupt and get paid for it.

10 January 2012, 11:41 AM

Mitt Wins, Huntsman is Toast

Basically, Huntsman needed to come in 2nd place, and he’s a distant third:

Mitt Romney swept to victory in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, turning back a ferocious assault from rivals who sought to disqualify him in the eyes of conservatives, in a contest that failed to anoint a strong opponent to slow his march to the Republican nomination.

Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, won by a double-digit margin, a validation of his strategy to use his neighboring state to cement his standing as the front-runner. The candidates who had hoped to use the primary to emerge as his leading rival fared poorly, leaving a fractured Republican opposition.

“Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow we go back to work,” said Mr. Romney, who strode into his victory party at Southern New Hampshire University less than 30 minutes after the final polls closed to present himself as the candidate to beat for the Republican nomination.

Representative Ron Paul of Texas, whose candidacy has never concerned Mr. Romney, finished second. Former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, who staked his entire campaign here, placed a distant third but pledged to fight on.

A week after winning the Iowa caucuses by just eight votes, Mr. Romney pieced together a coalition of moderate and conservative voters. The margin was more comfortable than commanding, but he will benefit handsomely by having five rivals still competing against one another to emerge as his main opponent as the race moves to South Carolina.

So, it’s now Mitt’s race to lose:

Huntsman bet it all on New Hampshire, and lost.
Paul won’t win, ever
Santorum flamed out, Google Bombed out, lobbyist cashed in out, and crazied out.
People now remember that Newt Gingrich is that guy who used to be Newt Gingrich.
Rick Perry is too stupid for people who fondly remember George W. Bush.

What will be fun is watching Newt going after Mitt for being a successful capitalist while the Frothy Mixture and Perry compete for the Neanderthal vote, which is big in the Palmetto State ‘Phant primary.

The only question now is whether Perry of Santorum gets outed in an airport bathroom first.

9 January 2012, 9:45 PM

Next, Dump Geithner

In a move that should spurprise no one, William Daley is leaving his post as Obama’s Chief of Staff:

President Obama announced Monday that the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, was stepping down, jolting the top ranks of his administration less than a year before he faces a difficult re-election. Mr. Daley will be replaced by Jacob J. Lew, the budget director and a seasoned Washington insider with ties to Capitol Hill.

Mr. Daley, a fellow Chicagoan who was recruited by Mr. Obama a year ago to help strike bipartisan legislative deals, struggled to find his footing in a ferociously partisan Washington and failed to help his boss broker a huge budget agreement with Congressional Republicans last summer. His departure interrupts a run of good news for the White House, with tentative signs of life in the job market, victory over Republicans on the payroll tax and Republican presidential candidates assailing one another on the campaign trail.

This was inevitable once much of his duties were pulled a few months back.

Basically, he was incompetent, and he got Harry “Milquetoast” Reid to hate his guts, which appears to be a fairly tough thing to do.

Of course, the masters of the universe in finance must be reassured at all cost, as when Daley (JP Morgan Chase), replaced Emanuel (Fanny Mae), he will be replaced by Jacob Lew (Citigroup).

Lew made a lot of money betting against the housing market for Citi, so we can expect more ass-kissing directed Wall Street’s way.

If this is an attempt to reshuffle his organization and political posture for the upcoming election, he’s firing blanks.

If Obama really wants to win the election, he needs to start prosecuting the banksters, starting with Robert Rubin.

He’s carry more than 40 states if he did that.

9 January 2012, 7:31 PM

Outside Fenway, In the Cold, Shaking Hands

That’s one Elizabeth Warren, and she looks like she is enjoying herself.

This is a big change from Martha Coakley’s infamous quote, “As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?”

It’s why she’s leading Scott Brown by 7% in the polls right now.

I’m just hoping that she can sustain the inevitable assault from the ‘Phant slime machine.

9 January 2012, 7:23 PM

There’s a Reason You Aren’t Seeing Pat Buchanan on MSNBC

It appears that he has been suspended, and looks on his way out the door for his latest bigoted screed, Suicide of a Superpower.

It’s only about 4 decades late.

This guy has been peddling bigotry since he was a speech writer for Nixon.

I only hope that his suspension becomes permanent.

(on edit)

I think that his appearances on white supremacist radio to hawk his book might have had something to do with this.

9 January 2012, 6:08 PM

Irony, Neh?

Have you heard the latest joke?

It goes like this, Rick “Frothy Mix” Santorum has declared that Iran must not have nuclear weapons because they are a theocracy.

This from a guy who had declared himself Jesus’ Candidate.

Who says that irony is dead?

8 January 2012, 8:36 PM

We Are Doomed…

A few days ago, I wrote about the wife of Switzerland’s central bank president engaging in insider trading.

Well what do you know, it ain’t the wife after all, it turns out that it was Philipp Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank doing the insider trading:

Switzerland’s central bank was embroiled in an insider trading scandal after bank chief Philipp Hildebrand was accused of speculating on currency transactions only weeks before he instituted dramatic policy changes that shifted prices in his favour.

The accusations, which have rocked the Swiss banking industry, were made by Swiss weekly newspaper Die Weltwoche in a statement before its Thursday publication. It said that previous reports that Hildebrand’s wife was responsible for the foreign exchange transactions were misplaced and it was the bank chief who was behind the purchase and selling of currency that triggered an investigation by the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

The bank chairman also made several other dollar and euro transactions on the foreign exchange market between March and October last year, according to Die Weltwoche, which is close to the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP).

Let me explain just how f%$#ed we all are.

The guy in charge of regulations for the Swiss is engaging in insider trading.

If the Swiss are screwing with banking, it’s not just the end of banking as we know it, it’s the end of the the concept of money as we know it.

Stockpile canned goods and ammunition, because you can’t eat gold.

8 January 2012, 7:49 PM

OK, This is Good Policy from the White House

But I’d approve of anything that had the effect of f%$#ing the airlines:

Starting in late January, the Obama administration will force airlines to be more transparent about the full cost of tickets they often disguise in ads touting cheap fares. Low-price airlines Southwest, Spirit, and Allegiant are going to court to stop the rules, arguing that they violate corporate free speech rights.

But consumer advocates say the changes are a positive development for travelers who have been swindled by airlines for too long:

………

This is common sense regulation, and as to the argument business have a free speech right to defraud consumers, talk to the cat.

7 January 2012, 7:58 PM

First Ron Paul, Now RuPaul

Are politicking in New Hampshire:

Drag superstar and reality TV host RuPaul made an appearance on the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Looking spruce in an ice blue tailored wool coat and studious-looking, horn-rimmed glasses, the nearly seven foot tall “Supermodel” singer was “campaigning” in the state. He announced that his goal is to raise awareness that he is not Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), and that he is not running for president. The latter piece of news was met by the assembled crowd with some disappointment.

The International Man/Woman of Mystery then issued a challenge to Ron Paul and all of the other Republican candidates before reminding the crowd, “You better vote.”

If he were in the debates, it would be one for the ages.

The oddest thing here is that if he were running for the Republican nomination, I think that it would actually make it a more reality based community.

We are living in very strange times.

7 January 2012, 7:39 PM

The Euro Crisis Starts to Hit Defense Contractors

It looks like Italy is having 2^nd thoughts about its JSF purchase🙁paid subscription required)

The Italian government is ushering in a new round of defense cuts in which, for the first time, the fate of Rome’s participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be seriously threatened.

The newly launched defense review not only has sweeping implications for Italy’s defense ambitions but also rings in a further belt-tightening in Europe among countries that are just beginning to come to grips with the scale of their budget and debt problems. Spain, where a new conservative government is grappling with greater-than-anticipated economic troubles, may follow with budget reductions. France is also expected to scale back defense spending after presidential elections in May.

In Italy, much of the work on the military review remains to be completed. Nevertheless, a sharp reduction in the number of F-35s Italy will buy is virtually certain, military officials say. At least a third of the 131 fighters slated for procurement will likely fall under the budget ax, with some minority parties arguing for an outright program termination.

Rome is one of the largest international buyers of the F-35—after the U.K. drastically cut its procurement objective in its 2010 spending review. Italy plans to spend €13 billion ($16.7 billion) to buy and sustain both the F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing and the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing versions, though it has not ordered any aircraft yet.

I wonder how people are going to start feeling about the austerity fairy fixing everything now that it’s defense spending on the block.

The folks who endorse austerity always seem to think that it’s just things like healthcare and the social safety net that need to be cut, and that somehow, the bloated derfense procurement programs all over the world will somehow continue apace.

I think not.