Year: 2012

Why Yes, Republicans are F%$#ing Nuts

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The latest target of their mishugas? Why it’s the Girl Scouts of America:

Next time you buy a box of Tagalongs, you might be helping to fund an abortion.

Or, at least, that’s what one Republican lawmaker in Indiana might have you believe. State Rep. Bob Morris (R) wants to kill a resolution honoring the Girl Scouts because they are a “radicalized organization” that promotes “homosexual lifestyles” and funds Planned Parenthood.

In a letter to his fellow Republicans on Saturday, Morris said he would refuse to support a resolution celebrating 100 years of the organization because “after talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing.”

The letter, obtained by the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, says that the Girl Scouts of America and the World Association of Girl Guides “have entered into a close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood,” though “you will not find evidence of this on the GSA/WAGGGS website—in fact, the websites of these two organizations explicitly deny funding Planned Parenthood.”

Seriously, when did those guys with newspapers wrapped around their feet and standing on street corners screaming obscenities at passers by become the Republican Party mainstream?

Federal Court is Dubious of Republican Redistricting in Wisconsin

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They have strongly suggested that the Republicans come up with something a bit less blatantly discriminatory before the trial:

Republican lawmakers said Tuesday they believe they have no power to make changes to election maps they approved last summer, inserting new questions into fast-changing litigation over those maps.

A trial over those maps began with a surprise Tuesday, when the presiding judge told the attorneys to confer with top legislative leaders and others to consider redrawing the maps taking into account legal challenges from Democrats and Latinos.

After a day of consultation, an attorney for the state told the three federal judges that top Republicans were willing to consider making changes to the maps but believed a 1954 opinion by the state Supreme Court prevented them from doing so. The attorney, Dan Kelly, said the state’s high court had found lawmakers can make changes to the maps just once a decade.

Two groups suing the state disagree and say the Legislature still has the ability to make changes.

Tuesday’s developments left numerous questions in place – including when the trial may continue in earnest. The presiding judge told the attorneys to be available Wednesday to return to court with 45 minutes notice, but made clear the court may rule only on the relatively narrow issue of the extent to which an attorney for the Legislature would have to later testify.

The panel – which includes two judges appointed by Republican presidents and one appointed by a Democratic president – has repeatedly criticized Republican lawmakers in written orders for their secretive process for drawing the maps.

On Tuesday, presiding Judge J.P. Stadtmueller did the same shortly after hearing that attorneys for the legislators had released a new batch of emails Friday that they had not previously disclosed they had. The release of emails came a day after the court had ordered the lawmakers’ attorneys to make public a separate group of emails.

“The facts are the facts and what has occurred here is beyond the pale in terms of lack of transparency (and) secrecy,” Stadtmueller said. “Appearances are everything and Wisconsin has prided itself one generation after another on openness and fairness in doing the right thing. And to be frank we have seen everything but that in the way this case has proceeded.”

Almost all lawmakers signed secrecy agreements about the maps and they tried repeatedly to prevent their aides from having to testify or produce documents. Those attempts were unsuccessful, and last month the panel ordered the Republicans’ attorneys to pay the other side $17,500 for filing frivolous motions.

Here’s a hint to the Republicans in the WI legislature and their attorneys:  When the judges demand the testimony of one your counsels, and fine your attorneys 17½ grand, your prospects are not good.

When you have pissed off the judges this much, Clarence Darrow couldn’t help you.

Del. Sam Arora Needs be Drummed Out of Politics

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For those who are not up on Maryland politics, Sam Arora was considered to be a politico with a great future, but he campaigned on a promise to support, and co-sponsor, a bill supporting gay marriage, and then he opposed it.

The bill passed the House of Delegates by virtue of a Republican vote delivered by the lobbying of Dick Cheney.

For once, it appears that there will be consequences of his action.

I’m sure he’s feeling courageous, but he’s a coward. If he had any guts, he would not have pretended to support marriage equality when he thought that there was no chance of it passing.

He campaigned on gay marriage, and when it looked like it would pass, he voted against it.

This is why members of the Democratic establishment in both Maryland and nationwide are currently determining the best way to ensure that he won’t work in Democratic Party politics ever again.

I would note that it’s likely that he’s going to have some staffing problems in the immediate future, as his his legislative director quit once he knew that he was going to vote against HB 348.

My guess is that this is the first of many departures, because if anyone on his a staff wants to have a future in politics, having Sam Arora on your resume after January 2012 will be toxic.

Iceland Wins

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I don’t understand why other countries don’t compare what has happened to Iceland, and compared it to what is going on with Greece, Ireland, Portugal, etc., and realizing that telling the banks to go Cheney themselves is the best policy. Fitch’s has just upgraded Iceland’s credit rating from BB+ to BBB-, which means that they are now investment grade.

What is of note here is that the Icelanders made the decision to favor their own people over the banks:

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.

Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.

“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”

The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.

What? You mean the people of Iceland don’t want to become part of an institution that increasingly is an instrument of Germany’s incompetent hegemony? Hoocoodanode?

What they also did:

The island’s households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.

Note that both of these actions are considered to be cardinal sins under the international financial consensus, which states that creditors must always be repaid under the most favorable terms.

The fact that, “Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn,” is an anathema to the large financial institutions, as is the implementation of capital controls in a crisis.  (And, BTW, they are prosecuting senior bank executives as well)

They argue that these sorts of policies put a damper on international credit and finance.

They may be right, but it increasingly appears that the capital flows that they are describing do more harm than good for everything but the bankster’s bonus checks.

Keynes was right about this, and Wall Street and The City should thank their lucky stars that Iceland is small enough (population 318,452) to be ignored.

If other countries followed their lead, not only would the “Masters of the Universe” be out of job, they would be under criminal indictment.

H/t Credit Write Downs.

Wanker of the Day

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John Corrigan, who thinks that people deserve to have their home stolen by the banks:

That can lead to confusion over who had the legal right to process the foreclosure. But it doesn’t mean the foreclosure itself was unwarranted.

So, foreclosing on someone who doesn’t have a mortgage, or for a mortgage that doesn’t belong to you, or illegally evading billions in title fees, or defrauding investors in mortgage backed securities is all OK, because you are robbing bad people.

H/t Atrios.

Why It’s Not Eleventy Dimensional Chess, It’s an Epic Fail

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At Digby’s place, David Adkins notes that the Obama’s “compromise” on birth control coverage with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has had the effect making opposition to birth control mainstream:

And guess what? As Digby points out, it’s working. What just a few weeks ago was considered so mainstream as to an afterthought (providing contraception) is now seen as some sort of controversial touchstone, even as “religious freedom” has become a buzzword in the press.

Democrats can high-five one another about Republican overreach and laugh hysterically at the increased number of votes Barack Obama will receive in 2012 over Mitt Santorum. But ultimately the joke’s on us. It’s been on us ever since the Obama Administration decided to concede an inch to the misogynist conspiracy of extremist fanatics that are the Bishops, rather than mock them immediately for being out of touch with their own flock, to say nothing of the mainstream American public.

The political ground on contraception has suddenly shifted to the right faster than I have seen on any social issue in my lifetime. It’s incredible.

The appropriate response to the outrage from the medieval set is, “Sorry, I live in the 21st century, if they don’t want to, then maybe they aren’t qualified to provide medical care or education.”

Next Generation Missile Cancelled

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The missile, intended to replace both the AMRAAM air-to-air missile and the HARM air-to-ground missile has been dropped from the Pentagon budget:

The US Air Force has cancelled the next generation missile (NGM) meant to replace both the anti-air AIM-120 AMRAAM and the anti-radiation AGM-88 HARM, both mainstays of the USA and its international allies.

The NGM programme, also formerly known as the joint dual-role air dominance missile and projected to cost up to $15 billion, was cancelled “for affordability reasons”, according to Gen Edward Bolton, USAF chief budget officer.

This is unsurprising.

In order to achieve what are almost diametrically opposed roles, the AMRAAM is a 7″ diameter missile which is designed to take a lofted trajectory to maximize range, and the HARM is A 10″ diameter missile which takes a direct route to the target to minimize time to target, you have to develop a whole series quantum leaps in propulsion and lethality, and gets the entire weapons system onto the cost escalation-schedule slippage hamster wheel.

It’s a good thing that this is canceled.

Obamacare Just Gets Better and Better

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As part of health care reform, consumers are supposed to be getting clear and simple summary of benefits and of an insurance policy.

This means things like deductibles, maximum out of pocket, and co-payments are supposed to be presented to the consumer in a simple and readable format.

The rather unsurprising development in all this is that Obama administration caved to insurers on the most important number of all, and there is no requirement for insurers and employers to tell people what they have to pay in premiums:

The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that health insurers and employers must provide more information to consumers shopping for health insurance. The ensuing coverage, shall we say, was a classic case of journalistic bungling. Reporters took what HHS officials fed them and crafted their pieces for public consumption. But the stories were confusing—in some cases flat-out wrong—and did not exactly offer the clearest of explanations about what’s supposed to be a clearer process for buying health coverage. I’d wager the public didn’t understand much of what the media dished out, and probably won’t until they actually start shopping for coverage again in the fall and find the government hasn’t made it easier after all.

…………

The report that HHS released to the media discloses some important numbers: the amount of the deductible; what services don’t count toward satisfying it; what’s not included in the out-of-pocket limits, like premiums and charges from doctors who balance the bill; the copays; and, probably most important, the amount of coinsurance—the percentage of a bill patients must pay, which is increasing with each passing year.

But insurers and employers do not have to tell consumers how much a policy costs—in other words, no premium information has to be given. Yep, that’s right—the key piece of information needed to make a good decision is missing. When insurers design a policy, they consider the interplay of coinsurance, copays, deductibles, coverage, and, of course, the premium, which lets them know what price point will make a consumer say “yes.” Price is the bottom line for consumers, but it’s poison for sellers, who fear a shopper might choose a policy with a lower price, other things being equal. So much for that price competition that was to solve all the ills of U.S. health care.

This was followed up by the media almost entirely simply reprinting the HHS press releases, which means that this crucial omission was largely ignored:

What was needed from the media was analysis and sharp questioning about what these new disclosures would really mean for consumers in terms of ease of use and availability during the shopping process. We know consumers hate shopping for insurance, and take shortcuts to finish the task as fast as they can. But instead of helping them through this dreaded chore, the media gave the Department of Health and Human Services a free pass.

This is not a product of a biased media, this is a product of lazy media, which is the real problem with the media, particularly given the financial pressures present in today’s media environment, because a lazy media is a cheaper media.

Republicans the Party of Values

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What a surprise. We have an Arizona sheriff being accused of corruption after he threatened to deport his gay lover in order to force his silence:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu’s personal attorney, who’s also running the sheriff’s campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.

He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.

This guy first came to prominence when one of his deputies fabricated a story about being shot at by illegal aliens, and Babeu went on a self promotional media tour.

BTW, until this all blew up, he was one of Mitt Romney’s campaign co-chairmen in Arizona.

Ha Ha!

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Lehman and its its creditors have subpoenaed Timothy Geithner over his discussions with JPMorgan Chase over the time when the investment bank collapsed:

Lehman Brothers‘ bankruptcy estate and its official committee of unsecured creditors asked a court late on Thursday to compel Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to testify about the investment bank’s collapse.

The request for a subpoena comes as part of the estate’s lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, which asserts that the bank illegally took $8.6 billion in collateral from Lehman, precipitating that firm’s demise.

The lawsuit’s main argument is that JPMorgan, apprised of Lehman’s fragile condition, improperly profited from making its collateral demands — and also pushed Lehman into bankruptcy.

Lawyers for Lehman’s creditors wrote in a court filing that they and the estate served Mr. Geithner with a subpoena last August, ordering him to testify about conversations he had held with both JPMorgan and Lehman over the former’s calls for collateral in early September 2008.

Mr. Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spoke with JPMorgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, 10 times in the week before Lehman fell, according to the filing. Many of those conversations, the lawyers contend, must have been about JPMorgan’s collateral demands.

Basically, Lehman is asserting that Jamie Dimon’s bully boys stole from them in order to push them over into bankruptcy.

The implication is that they did so because they knew that, in the event of a collapse, they would get to keep the money.

Note that they are not asking about deliberations at the NY Fed, but the content of his discussions with Jamie Dimon.

Still, I relish the though of Geithner in the dock forced to answer questions about his dealings with the big banks.

You Can Always Depend on Flight International for a Cutaway

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Full Size Pic at Link

This time, they are doing the Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle.

Seeing as how the F-15SE is supposed to have a very small forward aspect radar cross section, I have to wonder about their guess about the radar.

I am not am expert in low observability, but it seems to me that the radar would be angled off the centerline in order to reduce RCS.

While the full fit-out for the aircraft is not certain, how IRST is integrated into the airframe is unclear, for example, but the flight control system is is going to a digital fly by wire system.

It should be a good deal on fly away cost, but cost per hour might be higher than its likely competitors.

‘Phants Phess Up to Ph%$#ing Up Caucus Count in Maine

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So, Mitt Romney won by a couple of hundred votes, and the Maine Republican Party said that this was the end of the matter.

The problem was that there were a number of (Ron Paul trending) town caucuses in Maine that were not counted, as well as all of Washington County, which delayed the vote because of a snow storm.

So, after a rising crescendo of coverage of the irregularities, they are now apparently conducting a recount, as well as allowing Washington County to conduct its vote tomorrow:

The Maine Republican Party has reversed course and will recommend that delayed caucus results from Washington County be included in its final presidential poll tally. The party also is reconfirming results from local caucuses in the wake of the recent controversy over how its presidential caucuses were handled.

“The results of the Washington County caucus will be reviewed at the March 10 Republican State Committee meeting,” Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said in a prepared statement approved by the state party’s executive committee.

Note that March 10 is after Super Tuesday, so the effect of a Romney “win” turning into a loss won’t hit the media narrative until after he’s probably made his nomination a near mathematical lock.

This has happened twice now, so I think that the tinfoil hat explanation is gaining credence.

Sergey Aleynikov Freed

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You may recall that he was convicted under the Economic Espionage Act for downloading some high frequency trading software from Goldman Sachs, where he worked.

Apparently, the judge in the trial completely bought into the prosecutions expansion of the law, intended to prosecute people for selling military secrets to the Chinese, to this case, and the appellate court came down hard on the judge. They did not just remand this back to the lower court, they ordered the lower court to enter a judgement of acquittal.

Felix Salmon explains why whole case was such an outrage:

The secrets at defense contractors, of course, are secret for reasons of national security. The secrets at investment banks and hedge funds, by contrast, are secret purely for reasons of profit: they reckon that if they have some clever algorithm which nobody else has, then that makes it easier for them to profit from it. Which is why it was always a stretch for the government to use the EEA to prosecute Aleynikov — indeed, it is why it was always a stretch for Aleynikov to be criminally prosecuted at all. Goldman could have brought a civil case against him, but instead they got their wholly-owned subsidiary, the U.S. government, to come down on him so hard that he ended up with an eight-year sentence. Violent felons frequently get less.

The forthcoming decision from the Second Circuit is likely to be a doozy; I’m told that the judges shredded the prosecutors during the oral hearing. And certainly their decision to enter a judgment of acquittal, rather than any kind of retrial, is a strong indication that they handed down this order with extreme prejudice against prosecutorial overreach.

(emphasis mine)

This has been a lose-lose for the Vampire Squid. They looked like bullies, they brought a lot of attention to the bit of front-running that is high frequency trading, and they have now lost the case.

That being said, I don’t expect Goldman, or the prosecutors, to give up just yet.

Background here.

Fabulous!!!!!!!

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The Maryland House has just approved gay marriage in Maryland:

A bill that would legalize same-sex marriage squeaked through the House of Delegates Friday night with one more vote than the minimum needed for passage, putting Maryland on the cusp of being the eighth state to allow such unions.

Cheers erupted when the gavel dropped on the final 72-67 tally. Within minutes, Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, walked from his second-floor office to the door of the House chamber, embraced House Speaker Michael E. Busch and said, “Good job, man.”

“We are a good people. We all want the same things for our kids,” O’Malley said. Then he extended credit to delegates and activists, many of whom had been skeptical about his commitment to the issue. “These guys did it,” he said.

The measure now goes to the Senate, which passed a similar bill last year and is expected do so again. The chamber will likely take up the measure next week.

Should the bill pass in both chambers, activists on both sides believe it would be petitioned to referendum in November. If voters approve the measure, the earliest a gay couple would be able to wed is January 2013, when the law would go into effect.

The victory is significant for O’Malley, who threw the weight of his office behind the measure after a similar bill fell a few votes short in the House last year. The governor had been working the halls of the House office building at all hours to persuade wavering delegates.

In national terms, the Maryland vote caps a week in which proponents of same-sex marriage have scored significant victories with the signing of a similar law in Washington state and the Legislature’s approval of a marriage bill in New Jersey, though Gov. Chris Christie vetoed it Friday.

This is very good news, because it passed the state Senate last year, so it looks like it will make it to the Governor’s desk.

One weird bit: One of the people that we have to thank for this is Dick Cheney:

By far the biggest boost came in the morning when Republican Del. Wade Kach, who was considered a sure-fire no vote, threw his support behind O’Malley’s bill. Kach had voted against the bill two days earlier in committee.

The Baltimore County delegate said he reached his decision after mulling the testimony he’d heard during a nearly 11-hour hearing on the bill last week and watching how same-sex couples supported one another. “I thought to myself, if my constituents were here, they’d have a different perspective on the issue,” Kach said. “I’m sure of it.”

He also became the target of a last-minute lobby effort, and said his voice mail was full of messages from important people, including Mehlman, Bloomberg and an offer to talk with former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom Kach regards as a “great man.” All three are recognized for their support of gay rights issues.

But you know, I’ll take it.

That being said, there are still enough bigots in Maryland to put this on the ballot, and it’s probably gonna be close.