Year: 2012

We Are Not Looking at the Collapse of the Euro Zone

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We are looking at a collapse of the whole European.

If the Euro goes titsup in Greece, UK Prime Minister David Cameron intends to ban Greek immigrants if the country leaves the Euro:

David Cameron is prepared to override Britain’s historic obligations under EU treaties and impose stringent border controls that would block Greek citizens from entering the United Kingdom, if Greece is forced out of the single currency.

The prime minister told MPs that ministers have examined legal powers that would allow Britain to deprive Greek citizens of their right to free movement across the EU, if the eurozone crisis leads to “stresses and strains”.

In an appearance before senior MPs on the cross-party House of Commons liaison committee, the prime minister confirmed that ministers have drawn up contingency plans for “all sorts of different eventualities”.

Angela Merkel is not just threatening the Euro, she is putting the whole European Experiment is at risk.

So, Here I Am in the Jury Room

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They are showing the Sandra Bullock movie, The Blind Side, which is technically a public showing in violation of the law.

I will not be live blogging my jury duty because:

  • I don’t want to post anything that I shouldn’t.
  • It’s pretty f%$#ing dull unless I get called to sit on a jury, and then I am prohibited from discussing anything until the trial is over.

Another Defense Procurement Fail

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The US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was billed as a modern replacement for the frigate.

It combines the size of a frigate with the firepower of the (smaller) corvette, with the (alleged) advantages of greater flexibility, through the use of swappable mission modules, and a smaller crew. (They also go like scorched cats, topping out at over 40 kts)

As I’ve noted earlier, the mission modules don’s fit as well as they should, and now the navy has realized that they cannot run the ships at their current crewing levels, and they are increasing crewing levels by 50%:

Years after sailors and planners realized the crew size of littoral combat ships was too small, the U.S. Navy has decided to increase the number of sailors on the ships.

The changes will be made on the first LCS, the Freedom, starting in July — in time to beef up the crews for next year’s 10-month deployment to Singapore.

Twenty additional berths will be permanently installed onboard Freedom — two for officers, two for chief petty officers and 16 for other enlisted — but the final manning plan has yet to be decided, Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, the director of surface warfare, said during a June 26 interview at the Pentagon. The ship right now has a core crew of 40, but because there is no manning plan, it’s still unclear how many sailors will be added to the crews.

The added billets “will run the gamut, from support to engineering to operations to boatswain’s mates,” Rowden said. “We’ve got to get the right skill set and the right seniority.”

Among the known manning deficiencies is the need for more junior sailors, Rowden said. LCS crews tend to be more senior, reflecting the need for sailors with multiple qualifications in a small ship.

So, the latest whiz bang navy idea appears to have failed to achieve every one of its goals.

Yes, This is Worth Breaking My Embargo of HuffPo

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The invaluable Dan Froomkin looks at Patrick Fitzgerald’s record as a prosecutor, and concludes that he went out of his way to avoid a serious investigation of the people at the top of the pyramid:

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s prosecution of former CIA officer John Kiriakou for talking to journalists about the Bush/Cheney torture program has at least one thing in common with his conviction of I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby in 2007.

In both cases, Fitzgerald went for the little fish. But the big fish got away. (See related story on the Kiriakou case.)

In the Plame case, Fitzgerald prosecuted Libby, then-vice president Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, for perjury and obstruction of justice related to the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity as a covert CIA operative. But he stopped short of charging Cheney or top presidential adviser Karl Rove — both of whom had been targets of his investigation.

It appears that FBI investigators thought that they had Rove completely nailed, and that Cheney was at significant risk of indictment, but that Fitzgerald backed off.

Well, he was appointed by a Republican president on the recommendation of a Republican senator.

Economy Suckage Continues

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Click for full size


It’s the cuts in government employment, stupid!

Yes, yesterday initial claims improved a bit yesterday , but today’s monthly job figures are horrible, with unemployment (U-3) staying at 8.2%, and only 80K jobs, less than needed to match population growth.

As Felix Salmon notes, the real problem is that government payrolls have been slashed for the past year or so, as people make invocations to the austerity fairy.

BTW, while the U-3 unemployment rate was flat, but the less conservative, and to my mind more representative, U-6 unemployment rate rose to 14.9%.

Not good news.

Once Again Matt Taibbi Proves Me Irrelevant

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In this case, he’s all over the LIBOR manipulation scandal, where banks manipulated reporting of interbank lending rates in order to generate additional profits and create the illusion of financial health, with Barklays being at the center of the investigation for now (it’s cooperating with authorities)

So just go read Taibbi on the emails and recorded conversations, the Royal Bank of Scotland joining the dance, and allegations that the Bank of England (the British central bank )directed the conspiracy, which are backed up by internal emails.

He’s gets to the heart of the matter in a way that the non-financial wonk can understand.

Just go read him.

What, You Mean the Money Won’t Only Go to Jeebus?

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Legislators in Louisiana have just realized that when they voted for Governor Bobby Jindal’s school voucher program, that they voted to fund Muslim schools as well:

Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Watson, says she had no idea that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s overhaul of the state’s educational system might mean taxpayer support of Muslim schools.

“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools,” the District 64 Representative said Monday.

“I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school,” Hodges said.

Hodges mistakenly assumed that “religious” meant “Christian.”

So I guess that she opposes giving vouchers to Yeshivas as well.

Also, this is a very, VERY stupid person.

H/T Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Happy Independence Day!

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The European Parliament has resoundingly rejected ACTA, the draconian Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, 39 to 478:

Six months ago, the situation looked very dark. It was all but certain that ACTA would pass unnoticed in silence. The forces fighting for citizens’ rights tried to have it referred to the European Court of Justice, in order to test its legality and to buy some time. Then, something happened.

A monster by the name of SOPA appeared in the United States. Thousands of websites went dark on January 18, and millions of voices cried out, leaving Congress shellshocked over the fact that citizens can get that level of pissed off at corporate special interests. SOPA was killed.

In the wake of this, as citizens had realized that they didn’t need to take that kind of corporate abuse lying down and asking for more, the community floodlights centered on ACTA. The activism carried over beautifully to defeat this monster. Early February, there were rallies all over Europe, leaving the European Parliament equally shellshocked.

………

In theory, ACTA could still come into force between the United States and a number of smaller states. Ten states have been negotiating it, and six of those need to ratify it to have it come into force. In theory, this could become a treaty between the United States, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland. (But wait, the Mexican Senate has already rejected ACTA. As has Australia and Switzerland in practice. Oh well… a treaty between the United States and Morocco, then, in the unlikely event that the United States will actually and formally ratify it. You can see where this is going.)

As described before on TorrentFreak, without the support of the European Union, ACTA is dead. Doesn’t exist.

Note however that this is not an end, but merely one battle:

Many of the bad things in ACTA will return under other names. For the lobbyists, this is a nine-to-five job of jabbing against the legislation until it gives way. Just another day at work. We need to remain vigilant against special interests who will return again, again, and again, until we make sure that the legislative road for them is completely blocked. We must remain watchful.


This is Not Star Trek. In Startrek, the Evil Spock has a goatee. In our world the evil James O’Keefe is clean shaven.

People who understand IP and the net have been raging against the overreach against since the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (AKA the Mickey Mouse Protection Act), and it appears that it’s finally beginning to find some sort of currency.

H/t Jamie O’Keefe (the good one)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot??!!??!!??

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Wingnut Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, he of the “emergency manager” law intended to make sure that Black votes don’t count, has just vetoed the latest voter suppression bill to come out of the Michigan lege:

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed election reform bills that sparked angry protests and cries of voter suppression during committee hearings.

Snyder, in one day doubling the number of bills vetoed during his tenure, nixed bills that aimed to prevent voting fraud by requiring a voter to reaffirm U.S. citizenship before receiving a ballot and requiring photo ID when picking up an absentee ballot from a city office.

He also rejected a bill that would have required training for people, companies and organizations participating in voter registration drives.

Snyder in a release said he appreciates the issue of ensuring voters are eligible and U.S. citizens, but believes the bills would have created voter confusion among absentee voters.

Snyder also said he supports the concept of training individuals involved in voter registration, but said the changes with the registration of third party voter registration organizations, and the timing and training of those entities, may cause confusion with ongoing voter registration efforts.

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this.

He’s arguably one of the three biggest Teabagger governors in the country, and he just vetoed a Republican voter suppression effort.

And Then They Turn to Blackmail

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The latest twist in the Barklays LIBOR price fixing scandal is that the (now former) CEO of the bank tried to blackmail the Bank of England:

The chairman resigns to save the CEO. The CEO makes a public threat to drag the central bank into the mire. And the previous government. And the Treasury.

Next morning, the CEO resigns and the chairman re-installs himself to “oversee transition”. The police, who said they could not prosecute, now say they might.

You have just seen the British establishment operating at a level of panic and indecision on a par with the Norway disaster in 1940. And it is not over.

These are people whose job is to speak to each other on a daily basis. But trust is shattered at the very top of the financial system.

He was claiming that the Bank of England approved the manipulation of the crucial interbank lending rate, there are witnesses who corroborate this:

On a crucial day (29 October 2008) the Bank of England’s Paul Tucker had a conversation with Bob Diamond, as a result of which, more junior Barclays employees came away with the impression that they had been instructed by the central bank to manipulate Libor down.

I want the same thing as the cat, someone frog marched out of their offices in handcuffs.

This Is The World’s Violin, and It’s Playing Just For You

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Yes, the rat F%$# made this Ad

Republican political adman Fred Davis, the man who created Carly Fiorina’s infamous “Demon Sheep” ad, is sad because he’s caught flak for the fact that he’s a contemptible human being:

He’s not a witch.

Nor, Fred Davis wants the world to know, is he a racist.

Humbled, humiliated, saddened and chagrined, the Republican ad maker recently sagged into a chair in a noisy Las Vegas restaurant and for more than an hour talked about May 17, a date that will forever be ringed in red as one of personal infamy.

That day the New York Times published on its front page details of a proposed Davis-run campaign against President Obama, focusing on the incendiary Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the president’s former pastor, “in a big, attention-arresting way.”

The intent, a do-over of sorts, was to “inflame … questions” about Obama’s character and competence. A 54-page outline, leaked to the newspaper by someone apprehensive of the plan, was very much like Davis himself: jokey, irreverent and a bit out there.

Obama was described, and demeaned, as a “metrosexual black Abraham Lincoln.” Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee for whom Davis worked, was derided as “a crusty old politician who often seemed confused” and failed to exploit the target-rich opportunity presented by the venomous Wright.

………

Two of his commercials were among the most widely noticed of the 2010 campaign: the infamous “demon sheep” ad for California’s Carly Fiorina and his meet-the-candidate spot for Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell, with its indelible opening, “I’m not a witch.” Both U.S. Senate hopefuls lost their elections, though Fiorina made it through a combative primary and, hey, Davis made you look, didn’t he?

………

But when it comes to the proposed super PAC campaign, Davis insisted, it was never his intention to use race as an incitement. “I am maybe the only person in America who didn’t see that as racist,” he said of juxtaposing the president with the fiery rants of his longtime pastor, who Obama disavowed in the heat of the 2008 primary. “I saw it as an interesting fact in a guy’s upbringing and the way he’s formed his opinions.”

No, you’re not a racist, and you’re not an asshole, because your previous oeuvre has been so uniformly positive and nice.

Listen while I say this slowly: If you did not see that as racist, it is because you are not only racist, but because you are a stupid racist.

Your presentation was too racist for a Republican billionaire, OK?

You f%$# with the bull, you get the horns.

Perhaps you want some cheese with your whine?

Here’s a Meme to Run On

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This is a rebate check from an insurance company because of Obamacare:


Click for full size.

The short version (more at link) is that insurance companies have to spend 80% of premiums on healthcare, as opposed to paying obscene bonuses to its executives.

Any excess has to be returned to the ratepayers.

I’m no political consultant, but I think that video of people holding up checks that they got back from insurance companies might play well on Youtube.

I’m just sayin’.

Catch Phrases III

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Blah, blah, blah!


This could very well be the stupidest person on the face of the earth. Perhaps we should shoot him.*

*What, you’ve never seen Ruthless People? Great movie.

condi quote with link:

Trust me, she is no expert on the Soviet Union
I actually saw this ditz in action. She came to Berlin and was giving all the strategic intel troops in Europe a speech about the Eeeeevil Empire :shudder: and how they were so numerically and militarily superior to our troops, how they had Super Weapons That Could Shoot Through Fifty Feet of Concrete…and all this time, I’m looking over at my guys like “we’re talking about the same Soviets, right? The ones we have can’t shoot, can’t march, are underfed, can’t run…” We’re passing notes between the Berlin contingent, the Augsburg contingent, the Bad Aibling contingent, the human-intelligence guys, the Spetsnaz analysts…and we all came to the same conclusion: the Soviet Army Condi Rice was working was a hell of a lot better than the one we were.

Finally my colonel looked at me and said, “Jim, I’ve had about enough of this shit.” He actually stood up and said, “Ms. Rice, one question. What are the true-unit designators and honorifics of the units you are describing?” Condi Rice’s response was classic: “What is an honorific?” If you do not know what an honorific is you are no expert on the Soviet Army, and Condi Rice didn’t know. (We didn’t tell her either; we all left at that point.)

All Soviet units had a true-unit designator and an honorific. The TUD was easy enough to understand: your unit is the 1st Guards Army or the 20th Motorized Rifle Division. (The title Guards was awarded at the end of WWII to units who fought with great valor.) Each Soviet unit was organized in honor of a famous communist–maybe you were the 144th “Feliks Dzherzinsky” Guards Artillery Battalion. Feliks Dzherzinsky was your unit’s honorific. They’d hang Feliks’ picture in your unit dayroom and everything you did was to impress ol’ Feliks.

IOW, the colonel was telling Condi to put up or shut up; we knew their guys weren’t half as good as Condi was telling us.

Condoleezza Rice was an expert on Ronald Reagan’s Soviet Army, the unstoppable bogeyman raised to justify the runaway military spending of the Reagan era. But Reagan’s Sovs and my Sovs were two completely different armies. Condi’s Sovs were absolute masters of the art of land warfare; my Sovs trained for five months, rotated a quarter of the company, and did the exact same five-month training schedule again. (Later, after reunification I went to a Soviet Army base on an open-house tour and saw a genuine Soviet Army company training schedule. It was painted on a sheet of plywood and bolted to the wall.)

Levels of Tzedaka

    You have problem with Corporate Capitalist ™®©, comrade?*

    True_dat

    Click for full size pop up


    Another day, another shooting

    Good news everyone!


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

    I Wonder if This Will Effect Coverage of Outsourcing

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    Romenesko is reporting on a This American Life story about how a local news service is using overseas reporters and having them use aliases in order to conceal the fact:

    The latest “This American Life” looks at hyperlocal content provider Journatic and interviews Journatic writer-editor Ryan Smith, who reveals that the company uses fake bylines for its Filipino writers — or did, until “TAL” blew the whistle on them.

    Smith tells TAL’s Sarah Koenig that “when I ended up looking at the names on a lot of the stories [he edited], the names on the stories that were published weren’t the ones that I saw had written the stories.”

    One piece, for example, had the byline of “Ginny Cox,” when the story was actually written by Gisele Bautista in the Philippines.

    Producer Koenig says: “Looking at the computer system that the company uses to manage its stories, it seems that when Gisele worked on this real esate story, there was a button called SELECT ALIAS, and when she clicked on it, she had a choice: she could either be Ginny Cox, or Glenda Smith.

    Journatic and the Chicago Tribune’s TribLocal have used other fake bylines for stories written by Filipino writers, including Jimmy Finkel, Carrie Reed, Jay Brownstone and Amy Anderson.

    Romenensko (and apparently TAL), are focusing on the journalistic ethic issues of fake bylines.

    I’m actually more interested in the effect that this will have on the coverage of outsourcing and moving overseas that we see from the mainstream media.

    I have always felt that one of the conceits which gave us generally laudatory coverage of moving jobs  overseas was the conceit that reporting could not be outsourced.

    Now that they know that it’s their jobs on the line, I wonder if the tenor of the stories will change.

    Another Day, Another Failed Military Procurement Program

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    The US Army has canceled the Boeing Hummingbird:

    This month, the Army planned to deploy to Afghanistan an unusual new drone: an unmanned eye-in-the-sky helicopter programmed to use high-tech cameras to monitor vast amounts of territory. But now the drone might be lucky to be deployed at all, as the Army has moved to shut down production — possibly ending the program forever.

    That drone would be the A160 Hummingbird, which the Army planned to equip with the powerful Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, or Argus. But earlier this month, the Army issued a stop-work order — one step away from termination — to the drone’s developer Boeing. The reason? A high “probability of continued technical and schedule delays,” costs and risks that have “increased so significantly that program continuation is no longer in the best interest of the government,” said Donna Hightower, the Army’s acting product manager for unmanned aerial systems modernization.

    The A160 was set to be one of the Army’s most radical new drones. The chopper-drone could loiter for 20 hours at up to 15,000 feet, with a range of 2,500 nautical miles. It could observe up to 36 square miles, thanks to its Argus sensors. Also, Argus has a 1.8 gigapixel camera. Viewed through 92 five-megapixel imagers and 65 video windows for zooming in at ultra-high resolution, the the A160 drone would have been well-suited for spying on enemy fighters in vast and remote terrain like in Afghanistan, where three of the drones were scheduled to deploy this month. The A160 has also been sent on special operations workouts.

    It appears that there were problems with the sensor suite, but perhaps more significantly, the aircraft experienced vibration problems during a flight test, and it’s innovative variable speed rotor system was supposed to address this, so it puts the basic architecture in question.