Year: 2012

A Baloney Sandwich

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Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, who rose to infamy when he pepper sprayed women who were peacefully behind a police line, has been thrown to the wolves by the city of New York, which is refusing to defend him in civil suits filed against him:

New York City has distanced itself from a high-ranking police official accused of firing pepper spray at Occupy Wall Street protesters, taking the unusual step of declining to defend him in a civil lawsuit over the incident.

The decision means Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna also could be personally liable for financial damages that may arise out of the suit, said lawyers familiar with similar civil-rights claims.

The 29-year veteran has asked a judge to reverse the city. “He wasn’t doing this as Anthony Bologna, mister. He was doing this as Anthony Bologna, deputy inspector, NYPD,” said his lawyer, Louis La Pietra. Mr. Bologna’s union, the Captains Endowment Association, is now covering the cost of his defense.

Mr. Bologna was one of the most contentious public figures to emerge out of frequent clashes between Occupy Wall Street protesters and police officers last fall. A video that purported to show him aiming pepper spray at a group of demonstrators who were being held behind orange netting was widely viewed on the Internet.

Four weeks after the Sept. 24 incident, which allegedly occurred during an unpermitted march that ended in dozens of arrests, an internal investigation found Mr. Bologna in violation of New York Police Department guidelines. He was given a departmental punishment called a command discipline and docked 10 vacation days.

The city’s action is an uncommon occurrence, and I’m wondering if this means that he will start rolling on higher-ups.

This should get interesting.

$10 Billion

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The program to extend the life of the B-61 nuclear bomb is looking to have a price tag in excess of $10 billion: (Paid subscription required)

In the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, (NNSA), officials of nuclear weapons programs try to keep them out of the limelight. But extending the life of the B61 is attracting all kinds of unwanted attention.

The cost of the nuclear bomb has doubled, with estimates now projecting that the weapon designed to defend Europe could cost $10 billion. On top of the weapon’s ballooning price tag, the Air Force is working on a $1.2 billion tail kit program that adds a limited guidance capability to the bomb. And the arms control community is starting to buzz about the implications.
News about the B61’s cost growth and two-year schedule delay is gaining traction on Capitol Hill. The concern among lawmakers could have implications for the program and the NNSA that oversees the U.S. nuclear force.
B61 bombs are the oldest in the U.S. stockpile. They entered the force in the 1970s, and can be used on fighter jets and long-range bombers. The arsenal has five different versions, both strategic and tactical, focused on protecting NATO members.
The latest life-extension program (LEP) aims to extend their life , merging four of those variants, all with different-sized explosive capabilities, into the B61-12. The B61-12 would draw on the design of the smallest nuclear explosive, or yield, weapon. The administration says using one variant will save money, and the B61-12 weapon would add an advanced security system to prevent unauthorized access to the weapons.

Serious, $10 billion to standardize on one bomb variant, and $12.2 billion to give it a tail steering guidance system?

These numbers are f%$#ing nuts!

Good Riddance

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In another Friday news dump, we discover that Cass Sunstein will be leaving his position as head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The man has been a train wreck if you are interested at all in the idea of regulation being a way to protect the public welfare:

“Cass Sunstein is the most well-connected and smartest guy who’s ever held the job,” said Rena Steinzor, president of the Center for Progressive Reform and a professor at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. “But he’s also done untold damage.”

…

Few proposed rules escaped his gaze or his editor’s pen. Of the hundreds of regulations issued by the administration as of late last year, three-quarters were changed at OIRA, often at the urging of corporate interests, according to an analysis from the Center for Progressive Reform, a liberal-leaning group that monitors federal regulation. For rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, the figure was closer to 80 percent, the group found. In virtually every case, the rule was weakened, the group claimed.

Professor Steinzor cited Mr. Sunstein’s role in the killing of the E.P.A.’s proposed tightening of the standard for ozone pollution, the indefinite delay of rules governing coal ash disposal and the withdrawal earlier this year of a proposed update of child agricultural labor standards.

And here is the money quote:

Mr. Sunstein’s recommendations carry extraordinary weight, White House officials said, but the ultimate decisions in those cases were made by the president, his senior political advisers or cabinet officers.

We also have these comments:

“It’s a glorious day,” said Frank O’Donnell, of the group Clean Air Watch. “Sunstein has been a blot on the landscape.”

And from an Obama adversary:

“The Chamber has enjoyed a good working relationship with Cass Sunstein and we wish him well in his return to Harvard Law,” said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Despite its happiness with Sunstein, the agency has spent millions of dollars attacking the president’s policies.

I think that the fact that the US Chamber of Commerce liked him is the best evidence about how harmful he was to the basic idea of regulations that protect the public.

The US Chamber of Commerce is to the idea of good governance and reasonable regulation as Colonel Sanders was to the life span of chickens.

And important thing to remember though is that the Cossacks work for the Czar.

As to the greater meaning to his departure, my guess is that Obama is looking to appeal to the base for the election.

I Hate My Son*

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So, we were driving back from the bookstore, and I ended up mentioningMad Magazine, and he goes, “What’s that?”

So I feel like I’m older than Methuselah, because, after all, what twelve year old doesn’t know about Mad?

So  I explain what it is, and give him a primer on the magazine, and the history of EC Comics, and what it was all about.

As we are parking, he reveals that he is fully cognizant of Mad, and that he’s been pulling my chain.

Sharper than a serpent’s tooth.

I am currently developing an appropriate plan for revenge.

*Not really, but I have to get him back for this.

Yet Another Reason Not to Give to the DCCC

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A detailed examination of how they spending their money reveals that DCCC chair, and former Blue Dog, Steve Israel, is favoring long shot conservatives over more competitive real Democrats:

Monday morning the DCCC was strutting around like a rooster bragging about the campaign to hold Republicans accountable, running an ad (below) called “The Millionaires,” against 23 “Republican Members of Congress who are about to vote for another tax cut for millionaires at the expense of the middle class and seniors.” Let’s not even get into the cynicism of the DCCC backing Blue Dogs who vote with the GOP on this and leave that for the day after the vote itself (when we can replay a tape of Debbie Wasserman Schultz defending anti-family ConservaDems because she’s so proud of her “Big Tent party”).

………

Who are these Republicans? Not many people have heard of any of them. They’re basically all a bunch of backbenchers without any power or influence, mostly pathetic freshmen. Fine… someone has to go after them. It’s a shame though, that that’s all the DCCC goes after! But let’s look at the Democrats running in these districts for a second.

………

So what would a progressive campaign look like instead of this attempt by “ex”-Blue Dog Steve Israel to restock the House Democratic caucus with conservatives?

………

The progressive target list, unlike the DCCC target list, includes vulnerable senior Republicans (Goliaths) like Paul Ryan and Buck McKeon, whose district’s Obama won, as well as vulnerable Republican incumbents with national reputations as especially hateful assholes, like Eric Cantor, Joe Pitts, Mike Coffman, Patrick McHenry, Ed Royce, and Mike Rogers. No one ever even heard of any of the DCCC targets beyond maybe the congresswoman in Palm Springs who used to be married to Sonny Bono after Cher and now lives with her braindead husband– a candidate for the U.S. Senate– in Florida. It’s a pretty unheroic list of targets– and not even one where there are many “sure things.” In fact, some of these people have absolutely no chance of winning whatsoever, like the poor schlemiels running against Vicky Hartzler (MO-04), Larry Bucshon (IN-08), Tim Murphy (PA-18), Kristi Noem (SD-AL), and Scott DesJarlais (TN-04). The money the DCCC will waste in those 5 districts alone could probably make the difference in defeating Paul Ryan, Buck McKeon and Ed Royce, 3 seats ripe for the plucking that the DCCC refuses to contest.

One lesson to be learned here is that while the Blue Dogs, and to a slightly lesser degree the New Dems, may not like Republicans, but they hate real Democrats.

Pick and choose your candidates, and vote for, and donate to, real Democrats.

If you delegate this to Steve Israel and the DCCC, we will get an affirmative action program for DINOs.

If Putin Wants Us to Stay in Afghanistan………

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The “Graveyard of Empires”, it’s a pretty good indication that our continuing involvement is not in our benefit:

NATO forces should stay in Afghanistan until their job is done, Russia President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, suggesting they should stay beyond a planned withdrawal of most combat troops in 2014.

“It is regrettable that many participants in this operation are thinking about how to pull out of there,” Putin said at a meeting with paratroopers in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk. “They took up this burden and should carry it to the end.”

He isn’t suggesting this because he cares about the Afghan people, and he isn’t suggesting this because it’s in the interest of the US or its NATO allies.

He’s doing this because it places stress on the US military and NATO, and as such it serves to ameliorate the threat that he perceives from them.

Say what you will about Putin, but our best interests is ths last thing that he has on his mind,

Lieutenant John Pike No Longer Works At UC Davis

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Breaking news,
University of California Police Lieutenant John Pike is no longer employed as a police officer:

Lt. John Pike, the UC Davis police officer who became a focal point of last November’s pepper-spraying incident during a campus protest, is no longer employed by the university, a spokesman confirmed late Tuesday.

UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller said he could not discuss the details of Pike’s departure, but in response to queries from The Bee, he said Pike was no longer employed there as of Tuesday.

“Consistent with privacy guidelines established in state law and university policy, I can confirm that John Pike’s employment with the university ended on July 31, 2012,” Shiller said. “I’m unable to comment further.”

Pike, 39, declined to comment when reached by The Bee as he was sitting in a meeting on campus where he said he was being terminated.

Pike’s 2010 salary was listed as $110,243.12. He has been on paid leave since the debacle unfolded last year, sparking worldwide outrage, numerous investigations and calls for the resignation of UC Davis leaders.

It certainly took long enough, he spent something like 8 months on paid administrative leave, but don’t blame the unions.

He’s a Lieutenant, and management, and so not covered by a labor agreement.

Instead blame an internal police department disciplinary process that is pretty much written by, and for, the benefit of the cops, not the general public.

H/t the Stellar Parthenon BBS for the PhotoShops.

What the F%$#?

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So, I’m driving to work, and they are discussing auto insurance rates, and they note that Massachusetts is one of the 3 cheapest states for auto insurance in the USA.

Over lunch, I confirm this.

I went to school in Massachusetts, and I had friends who used friends and relatives addresses in New Hampshire to register their car to save on insurance costs.

We have entered Bizarro world.

The idea that Massachusetts drivers have among the lowest rates in the nation is mind boggling.

Interesting Point About Religion

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One of the things that honks me off is the phrase, “Judeo Christian”.

I consider it to be code words for “White European”.

Jews are not Christian.

More than the whole “Jesus thing”, there are profound differences in how textual analysis is applied to scriptures, attitudes toward sex in marriage, the application of historical data to the analysis, and the acknowledgement of the oft contradictory character of the writings.

In any case, I came across a rather interesting analysis of one of the more troubling parts of Torah, the divine instructions to engage in what essentially was genocide in the conquest of Canaan following the exodus from Egypt.

Dr. Science of Obsidian Wings, a Jew by choice, compares two blog posts, one from an Evangelical Christian minister, and one from a Reconstructionist Jewish Rabbi, and puts to words a core difference in the intellectual approaches that I have always found difficult to put to words:

The two ministers come across as reasonably similar in personality and emotional tone — I suspect they would get along quite well. Both read the Bible in historical-critical context, but they insist that it is necessary to read the Bible, not to just follow your bliss. Neither is willing to accept the “genocide commandments” as-is, but neither is willing to just throw them out or ignore them, either.

And they approach this text from different perspectives: asking different questions, using different tools. I was brought up as a Christian (in a Catholic/Lutheran family) but am now a practicing Jew, so I find a compare/contrast very illuminating. In this case, the Christian asks about the character or personality of God; the Jew asks what we Jews should *do*.

(Emphasis mine)

At its core, this is why fundamentalism is not really a part of normative Judaism.  (Maimonides made the point nearly 900 years ago that a strictly literal interpretation is not compatible with a meaningful study of Torah.)

If you view scriptures as instructions on how to conduct your life on a daily basis, it is impossible to take scripture literally, because the myriad contradictions and inconsistencies become manifest, thus you need to put your brain in gear, and ask yourself, “What does this mean, and what do I have to do?”

It’s why the term Orthodoxy, meaning literally one way of thinking, is really not an accurate description of observant Jews.  Their practice of religion is very nearly the same, they are all a bunch of guys in black hats, but when you ask them why, or attempt to get an opinion on a part of Tanach (Torah, Prophets, and Writings) you will find them coming to this from distinctly different viewpoints.  (See Orthopraxy)

I am Sick to Death of Right Wing Democrats

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Case in point, the Obama’s OMB chair turned overpaid Wall Street puke ( Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup) Peter Ortag, who is suggesting that the solution to the problems of the US Post Office is to let the financial industry to steal it from the American people:

Those who believe in the usefulness of government must be vigilant about making sure all its activities are vital ones, since the unnecessary ones undermine public confidence. With this in mind, Congress should now privatize the U.S. Postal Service.

Further evidence for why this should happen came last week, when the Postal Service announced that it would be unable to meet billions of dollars in payments that are coming due in August and September for future retiree health benefits. Privatization is not always the best way to improve efficiency, but the problems facing the Postal Service will be difficult to address if it remains within the government, and there is no longer any sound reason for it not to go private.

This ignores the fact that the US Post Office, one of the functions specifically mentioned in the Constitution, is actually running a primary surplus.
It is having money problems because, in 2006, the Republicans required them to fully fund their pension plan out to 75 years over a 10 year period.

Right now, the Post Office is on track to default on a $5.5 billion pension payment to the US treasury tomorrow:

The U.S. Postal Service affirmed it won’t make a required $5.5 billion payment due tomorrow to the U.S. Treasury for future retirees’ health care, an obligation the agency said must end for it to become financially viable.

The service has said for months it couldn’t afford the payment, which was initially due last September, nor a $5.6 billion payment required by Sept. 30 for this year. Postal legislation passed by the U.S. Senate on April 25 would slow the schedule for those obligations. The House hasn’t acted on a different postal measure aimed at changes to help the service cope with declining mail volume.

“This has no effect on mail processing or delivery, no impact on post offices, and employees will continue to get paid,” Dave Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman, said today in a phone interview.

Just in case your wondering, the USPS is on a pace to lose about $12 billion this year, after taking into account paying for the retirement of people who haven’t been born yet.

Their pension is grossly over funded, (A true rarity in the US) and if they did not have to make these payments, then they would be turning something on the order of an $8 billion profit.

But according to Orzag, the real problem is that Post Office is not able to unleash its free market super-powers.

It’s really all about allowing his cow-orkers at Citi to generate the enormous fees that would be the product of any privatization this massive.