Month: November 2013

Elizabeth Warren’s Is Now Being Touted as the Anti-Hillary in 2016

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Basically it comes down to the fact that the Clintons policy on the FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate) has always been driven by Bob Rubin and his proteges, so now Elizabeth Warren’s drive to limit the reach of big finance is being viewed in the context of the 2016 Presidential race:

You can frame this conventionally: supporting regulators, punishing rules violators, mopping up 2008-style disasters to limit the damage and attempting to prevent such chaos from happening again. But by “tougher rules,” maybe Americans are really signaling a vague but persistent dissatisfaction with an economy that has become dominated by the financial sector. And you can see within that how transforming banking back to its traditional purpose — as a conduit for putting capital in the hands of worthwhile business ventures and driving shared prosperity — would be one antidote to an unequal society full of financial titan gatekeepers, who confiscate a giant share of the money flowing through the system.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren — in many ways the avatar of a new populist insurgency within the Democratic Party that seeks to combine financial reform and economic restoration — will speak later today in Washington at the launch of a new report that marks a key new phase in this movement. Released by Americans for Financial Reform and the Roosevelt Institute – and called “An Unfinished Mission: Making Wall Street Work for Us” — the report is a revelation, because it finally invites fundamental discussions about these issues. Its 11 chapters from some of the leading thinkers on financial reform do look back at the successes and failures of the signal financial reform law of this generation, the Dodd-Frank Act. But the report also weaves in a story about how we can reorient finance as a complement to the real economy, rather than its overriding force. Mike Konczal, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the co-editor of the report, tells Salon, “The financial sector is still eating up a lot of GDP [gross domestic product], and it’s not clear what we’re getting out of it. We want to get the conversation at that level.”

While Dave Dayen (above) is rather circumspect about the potential impact  on the Presidential Campaign, Noam Scheiber is not in his analysis in TNR, “Hillary’s Nightmare? A Democratic Party That Realizes Its Soul Lies With Elizabeth Warren.”

I get the sense that Warren is about as interested in running for president as I am interested in the sport of curling, but I do think that she wants to make sure that the next Democratic nominee will be free of the thrall of the Rubenites.

You Must Read This

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Digby explains how allowing torturers and over-aggressive prosecutors and cops to walk away from their crimes corrupts our entire society:

I think the rationale for this is the same one they use for failing to punish the CIA torturers — if we prosecute them they will be unwilling to take chances in the future and then criminals/terrorists will kill us all in our beds. This has always struck me as a fairly insulting indictment of public servants who take oaths to our constitution. It implies that unless they are given immunity in advance from any accountability they will refuse to do their job to protect and serve. And frankly, I don’t think that’s fair to them. Indeed, what’s happened is the opposite: there’s no advantage to being a straight arrow and following the rules so the incentives go the other way.

This is a sickness throughout our culture. Government authorities at all levels, from the cops who overuse the taser because they know there will be no ramifications if their torture leaves no mark to the top Justice Department torture advocates who are now feted as “experts” and heroes, there is little accountability. And it tars all the ones who do follow the rules of the constitution and just plain human decency with the same taint.

Read the whole thing.

Why Does Richard Cohen, and His Editor, Still Have a F%$#ing Job?

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As if Richard Cohen had not jumped the shark before, he is now claiming that people are nauseated by the sight of an interracial couple: (No link to the original article, ever)

Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.

And Fred Hiatt, his editor?  The guy who let this through?  The guy who apparrently thinks that racism is OK at the Post?  His response is, “Oops!”

Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt took the blame for outrage, telling TheWrap: “Anyone reading Richard’s entire column will see he is just saying that some Americans still have a hard time dealing with interracial marriage. I erred in not editing that one sentence more carefully to make sure it could not be misinterpreted.”

Dude, this guy is the Racist Uncle who you have to tiptoe around every holiday season!

If you want him at the table, you need to figure out how to keeping him from sh%$#ing in the f%$#ing punch bowl?

And by the way, Richard Cohen has a sad about being called a racist bigot:

“The word racist is truly hurtful,” he added. “It’s not who I am. It’s not who I ever was. It’s just not fair. It’s just not right.”

Dude, you said that it was OK for merchants to lock blacks out of their stores. You said that Trayvon Martin to be shot for wearing a hoodie!

You are a f%$#ing bigot, even if your publisher, Katherine Weymouth, calls your column genius.

Jeff Bezos, I have three people you could fire and improve the paper.

Ezra Klein, who also works for the Post, and always gives me the sense that he is walking on egg shells, felt compelled to call Cohen’s bigotry out, noting that 87% of the population approves of interracial marriage.

BTW, a quick examination of how this exploded across the Twitterverse is rather amusing and informative.

This one is my favorite:

Imagine how much Jeff Bezos would have had to pay for the Washington Post if Richard Cohen didn’t work there.
— Matt O’Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) November 12, 2013

Well, they Did Get Capone for Tax Evasion

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So I am amused that AT&T might be liable for violation of telemarketing rules over its data sharing with the CIA:

It’s like getting Al Capone for tax evasion. The CIA and AT&T figured out how to get around legal restrictions on giving the CIA access to domestic phone call information, but in doing so they violated a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that protects you against telemarketing.

According to this story in the New York Times, the CIA paid AT&T to provide them with information on calls passing through its international telephone system. Because federal law prevents the CIA from spying inside the United States, the CIA could not legally get info on calls terminating in the U.S. But, of course, calls from suspected foreign terrorists (aka “anyone outside the United States”) that terminate in the United States are the most interesting to the CIA.

So what’cha gonna do if you’re a poor spy agency or a patriotic mega-corp who understand that sometimes you have to break few privacy eggs to make a freedom omelet? According to the article, when a call originated or terminated in the United States, AT&T would “mask” the person’s identity by revealing only some of the digits of their phone number. The CIA could then refer this information to the FBI, which can get a court order and require AT&T to provide the rest of the phone number and all other relevant identifying information. Then the FBI can kick that information back to the CIA.

Unfortunately for the CIA and AT&T, while this might work to get around the limits Congress imposed on the CIA, it looks like it violates the law requiring phone companies like AT&T to protect your privacy. Section 222 of the Communications Act, also known as the rule on “customer proprietary network information” (CPNI), prohibits AT&T from selling anyone information on who you call or who calls you without your consent. Nor does this contract with the CIA fit into any of the law’s exemptions for information sharing. This is a private contract, just the same as if AT&T had contracted with Blue Cross to let them know if anyone Blue Cross insured sent out too many times for pizza and other unhealthy food.

The fact that AT&T did not fully disclose the full phone number or the name of the subscriber associated with the call does not make it any less of a violation. Under the law, AT&T violates the CPNI rules just by looking at any records associated with the phone number for any purpose other than actually providing service, billing, 9-1-1, or other exemptions found in the statute. The phone company doesn’t even have to disclose the information to anyone else (which, of course, it did, and which, of course, is also illegal) to violate the law.

If you have AT&T, you might want to call them and opt out of this program, which is your right under federal regulations.

Better yet, get a lawyer, and get a class action on.

Why any Healthcare Reform Should Start With the Goal of F%$#ing the Insurance Companies

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I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

Who could have imagined that Anthem Blue Cross and Wellpoint would used Obamacare as a mechanism to cheat their customers:

Anthem Blue Cross tricked tens of thousands of Calfornia policyholders into giving up health insurance plans from which they could not be dropped and pushing them into policies that Anthem knew would be cancelled, according to two lawsuits filed in Los Angeles.

 The lawsuits, filed Monday in Superior Court, may signal an emerging customer pushback against the approximately 900,000 cancellations in California alone of individual health insurance policies that will take effect Dec. 31.

 Before the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was passed March 23, 2010, California policyholders who bought individual insurance policies and kept up with premiums were grandfathered in, meaning the insurer cannot drop them. However, policy holders who purchased their insurance after March 23, 2010, or who switched out of plans purchased before the law was enacted, are not grandfathered and must, by Jan. 1, 2014, pay for a policy that is compliant with Obamacare. In some cases that means premium increases, especially for those who don’t qualify for federal subsidies. Others will lose access to their personal physicians or trusted specialists.

 The two lawsuits allege that Anthem Blue Cross, California’s largest insurer and a unit of insurance giant WellPoint Inc., deceptively enticed tens of thousands of Californians to switch out of their grandfathered plans, a practice known as “twisting,” in violation of a state law and to cut its own costs.

This is why Obama’s initiative to bring in the insurance companies as “Stakeholders” was a disastrous decision.

They were not stakeholders, they were among healthcare’s worst offenders. Bringing them into the decision making process is akin to bringing in Willie Sutton as a bank security consultant while he was still robbing banks.*

*It should be noted that after he left the slam, Sutton did serve as a security consultant for banks, but that was after he stopped robbing banks.

Might I Suggest Bruce Schneier?

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It appears that the White House is looking at appointing the first civilian ever to head the NSA, but they have concerns that, “Finding the right civilian candidate with the technical understanding and familiarity with intelligence gathering would be a difficult task.”

Bruce Schneier has a sterling pedigree, and a long history of calling out wasteful security theater and the surveillance state.

Not going to happen. Obama is not going to cross the state security apparatus, but I can dream.

The Triumph of Wicked Stupid Ideas

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It appears that the US Marines are to replace the C-2 carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft with the V-22, because increased orders should lower the unit price of the V-22 and allow the Marines more of the expensive, crash prone, and maintenance intensive dog.

The Marines have been very good at lobbying for really bad ideas lately, the EFV,* adding STOVL to the JSF, and now, this:

“The C-2 makes us so much more flexible that we could support three separated groups, if necessary,” boasted Rear Adm. Marshall White, commanding air forces in the Western Pacific.

Faster-flying, longer-ranged and more capacious than the predecessor C-1 cargo plane, the ungainly C-2s and their crews were the unheralded heroes of the naval crises of 1968 and countless incidents since. Produced in a second batch in the 1980s and since upgraded, today a force of 35 C-2s based in key locations allows America’s 10 carriers to range the globe, waging aerial war and responding to diplomatic crises without planners having to worry about stranding the vessels beyond range of aerial resupply.

Rarely have so few airplanes of a single—and relatively unsophisticated—type been so vitally important to the conduct of a superpower’s global affairs. “The C-2A allows carriers and the fleet to maintain a ready position by supporting the vital supply line,” says Brian Scolpino, who oversees the C-2 force for the Navy.

But the Navy could end up retiring the C-2s and replacing them with a far inferior plane—one that’s not really a plane at all, but a controversial hybrid craft. The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey can take off vertically and cruise like an airplane thanks to its rotating wingtip engines, but lacks the C-2’s far-flying efficiency and its ease of use rooted in nearly 50 years of institutional experience.

………

The Pentagon is no stranger to pricey, ill-advised weapons development scheme, but even in this wasteful institution the plan to scrap the C-2 stands out as especially self-defeating. America’s world-spanning carrier fleet is one of its key advantages over its enemies. Constraining the flattops’ resupply could force them to stay closer to their home ports, reducing Washington’s options in the event of war and diminishing U.S. influence during peacetime.

………

The Navy is well aware of the Cod’s enduring qualities. “The C-2A has not experienced any limitations as the Cod aircraft,” Scolpino writes. But concerted lobbying by the Marines and Boeing have practically forced the sailing branch to at least consider buying the V-22. If politics triumph and the tiltrotor takes the C-2’s place, the fleet could find itself moving backwards in time, to a state of constrained fighting ability not unlike that that preceded the Cod’s arrival in 1966.

………

But the V-22 has less range and less payload than the C-2: Northrop’s prop plane can haul five tons of stuff 1,500 miles, but the V-22’s range with the same load could be as little as 50 miles, according to Navy statistics and Bell and Boeing’s own literature. That’s in part because the V-22 has just over a third the internal space of a C-2 and in the case of bulkier supplies would likely need to haul them slung by a rope suspended from the fuselage—a huge source of drag.

………

Extending the tiltrotor’s flying distance would require the constant attention of Air Force aerial tankers, which can cost up to $10,000 per hour to operate. The V-22 is also slightly slower than the C-2, can’t fly as high because it’s unpressurized and costs more: $68 million for a new V-22 compared to an estimated $50 million for a new C-2.

Note that the Marines succeeded in delaying the CH-53K, which had been under budget and ahead of schedule, in order to secure more orders for the V-22 as well.

This is a complete clusterf%$#.

*Full disclosure, I worked for General Dynamics, the prime contractor, on this vehicle when it was called the AAAV.

Another Nail in the Anti-Vaxxers Delusions

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Researchers have determined that indicatations of autism are present in children in the first 6 months of life:

An early indication of autism can be identified in babies under six months old, a study suggests.

US researchers, writing in Nature, analysed how infants looked at faces from birth to the age of three.

They found children later diagnosed with autism initially developed normally but showed diminished eye contact – a hallmark of autism – between two and six months of age.

A UK expert said the findings raise hope for early interventions.

In the study, researchers led by Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta used eye-tracking technology to measure the way babies looked at and responded to social clues.

They found infants later diagnosed with autism had shown a steady decline in attention to the eyes of other people from the age of two months onwards, when watching videos of natural human interactions.

Lead researcher Dr Warren Jones told BBC News: “It tells us for the first time that it’s possible to detect some signs of autism in the first months of life.

“These are the earliest signs of autism that we’ve ever observed.”

I’m not surprised by this study.

My wife pegged Charlie as being on the spectrum in his first week outside of the womb. She knew something was different in the first 5 minutes.

Of course, she is a trained special educator, so it’s in her profession.

What this means is that autism is present well before when know-nothings claim that vaccinations “cause” autism.

Can we please stop listening to Jenny McCarthy Now?

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!

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 My bad, I missed last week, Bank of Jackson County was closed last week.

What’s more it was closed on a Wednesday.  I’ve looked, but there appears to no reason for this rather rare middle of the business week act.

And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. Bank of Jackson County, Graceville, FL

Full FDIC list

So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):

Just So You Know, a Former President Has Declared His Intent to Destroy the Jewish People

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And I am not referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I am referring to George W. Bush.

You see, he is going to be fundraising for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute:

Next week, former President George W. Bush is scheduled to keynote a fundraiser in Irving, Texas, for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, a group that trains people in the United States, Israel, and around the world to convince Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The organization’s goal: to “restore” Israel and the Jews and bring about about the second coming of Christ.

Messianic Jews have long been controversial for Jews of all major denominations, who object to their proselytizing efforts and their message that salvation by Jesus is consistent with Jewish theology. ………

I’m no fan of Obama, as readers of my blog know, I am no fan of Barack Obama.

I think that he is a crypto-Blue Dog corporate sellout.

That being said, the accusations that he is an antisemitic crypto-Muslim intent on destroying Israel, something I frequently hear from the right wing Jews regularly, has always been bullsh%$.

Messianic Jews have as their goal to use deception to encourage Jews to abandon their covenant with God.

I’m not going to be mealymouthed and just say that this is “offensive.”

It is pretty much the same thing that Antiochus tried to do to the Jews without the Greek/Syrian soldiers attempting to kill us.

Give Snowden a Medal and a 6-Figure Pension, Already

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Surprise! Snowden’s actions have inspired other whistle blowers:

The “courage” of Edward Snowden is “contagious,” according to lawyer and transparency advocate Jesselyn Radack, who says that additional employees at the National Security Agency are now coming forward with what they consider objectionable practices by their employer.

In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, Raddack revealed that an influx of NSA whistleblowers, inspired by Snowden, are now knocking on the doors of her organization.

According to Radack, several more whistleblowers have approached the Government Accountability Project (GAP)—the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization where she is the director of National Security and Human Rights—since Snowden’s story broke earlier this year.

“There definitely could be more revelations in addition to those that Snowden has revealed and that are continuing to come out,” she told ABC News.
The Obama administration’s “war on whistleblowers” is backfiring, said Radack.

“I think the government hopes to chill speech by employees in the national security and intelligence fields, especially those at the NSA and CIA, but the unintended consequence is [that] more and more whistleblowers are coming through the doors of the Government Accountability Project (GAP),”  said Radack. “I think courage is contagious, and we see more and more people from the NSA coming through our door after Snowden made these revelations.”

Courage is contagious.

This must be Barack Obama’s worst nightmare.

Crap. Comcast Wins in Seattle

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Comcast, the evil empire of cable companies (scary thought), decided to dump a huge chunk of change on the Seattle Mayoral election to sabotage Mayor Mike McGinn’s gigabit fiber initiative:

One of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s big policy initiatives has been expanding the quality and quantity of high-speed Internet access throughout the city. A public-private partnership plans to offer higher speeds at lower prices than most broadband providers currently offer. And incumbent providers, particularly Comcast, have invested heavily in defeating McGinn in Tuesday’s mayoral election. While Comcast denies there is any connection between McGinn’s broadband policies and their donations, the company has given thousands of dollars to PACs that have, in turn, given heavily to anti-McGinn groups.

 McGinn’s major opponent, state Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle), has committed to honoring the city’s existing contracts for a 14-neighborhood pilot project, but has shown limited enthusiasm about McGinn’s plans to expand the network in the future. So the election could determine whether Seattle residents have new options for high-speed broadband service, or will have to make do with the slower services already offered by incumbents like Comcast.

 McGinn’s broadband initiative

 According to Robert Cruickshank, a senior communications adviser for McGinn, one of McGinn’s core promises in the 2009 campaign was to “develop a city-wide broadband system.” The mayor considered creating a citywide broadband system as a public utility, like water or electricity. But aides say that would have been too expensive, so the mayor settled on public-private partnerships using city-owned dark fiber. This dark fiber was laid down starting in 1995, and the mayor’s office now says there are some 535 miles of it, only a fraction of which is being used.

 In a partnership with the University of Washington, the city put out a request for proposals in late 2012. “The RFP process is not intended to pick one provider,” says Cruickshank, but one company — Ohio-based Gigabit Squared — is currently farthest along. The company is still wrapping up its funding and finalizing plans with the city. They expect to begin offering gigabit-speed service to households with a combined population of 50,000 in early 2014, according to Mark Ansboury, co-founder of Gigabit Squared.

 In June, Gigabit Squared announced pricing for its Seattle service: $45 dollars a month for 100 Mbps service or $80 a month for 1 Gbps service plus a one-time installation cost of $350 that will be waived for customers signing a one-year contract. For comparison, Comcast, one of the primary Internet providers in the area, offers 105 Mbps service in the area for $114.99 a month according to their website. (It’s unclear if there is an installation charge.)

So the solution to the problem is to toss the mayor out at reelection time, so that you can continue to maintain you extortionate rates.

The bummer is that it worked:

Mike McGinn, who was elected mayor in 2009, was denied a second term on Tuesday as voters turned instead to Ed Murray, a longtime state senator and leader of last year’s successful drive for same-sex marriage in the state. It was the third time in just over a decade that an incumbent mayor had lost his job.

With two days of ballots counted in the all mail-in election, Mr. Murray led with more than 55 percent of the vote, enough to give him a victory over Mr. McGinn, according to The Associated Press. Mr. McGinn, 53, who had a reputation for bluster, faced widespread voter disapproval over public safety and transportation even as Seattle’s economy gained strength and created thousands of jobs as it emerged from the recession.

Mr. Murray, 58, who will take office as the city’s first openly gay mayor, pledged to start his administration with a new police commissioner and a more collaborative tone at City Hall.

“Collaboration is not a code word, for, you know, a fluffy approach to administering,” Mr. Murray said in a news conference. In the state Legislature, he said, he was able to build coalitions around gay rights and other issues by including opponents in the discussion. “You make them part of the process, and almost every time I’ve used that method I’ve been pretty successful in moving controversial issues,” he said.

Mr. McGinn seemed in some ways like a mayor from central casting when he took office in 2010: a bike-commuting, slightly scruffy, bearded social liberal and former leader of a Sierra Club chapter.

But he finished second in the primary election in August behind Mr. Murray, which advanced both men to the general election. Mr. Murray then pulled ahead in fund-raising. His prominent role in the battle to win same-sex marriage rights for Washingtonians last year — hugely popular in Seattle — helped him in many city neighborhoods.

And all that Comcast money did not hurt either.

You know, if Osama bin Laden had targeted the cable companies, instead of the World Trade Center, he’d be president of the United States today.

This Might Even Be a Worse Public-Private Partnership than the Chicago Parking Deal………

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You arrogant ass. You’ve killed us!

In this case, it appears that Fukushima Daiichi cleanup is being run by the Yakusa.

Yes, various Japanese organized crime syndicates are running the labor force:

The complexity of Fukushima contracts and the shortage of workers have played into the hands of the yakuza, Japan’s organized crime syndicates, which have run labor rackets for generations.

 Nearly 50 gangs with 1,050 members operate in Fukushima prefecture dominated by three major syndicates – Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai, police say.

 Ministries, the companies involved in the decontamination and decommissioning work, and police have set up a task force to eradicate organized crime from the nuclear clean-up project. Police investigators say they cannot crack down on the gang members they track without receiving a complaint. They also rely on major contractors for information.

 In a rare prosecution involving a yakuza executive, Yoshinori Arai, a boss in a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai, was convicted of labor law violations. Arai admitted pocketing around $60,000 over two years by skimming a third of wages paid to workers in the disaster zone. In March a judge gave him an eight-month suspended sentence because Arai said he had resigned from the gang and regretted his actions.

 Arai was convicted of supplying workers to a site managed by Obayashi, one of Japan’s leading contractors, in Date, a town northwest of the Fukushima plant. Date was in the path of the most concentrated plume of radiation after the disaster.

 A police official with knowledge of the investigation said Arai’s case was just “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of organized crime involvement in the clean-up.

 A spokesman for Obayashi said the company “did not notice” that one of its subcontractors was getting workers from a gangster.

 “In contracts with our subcontractors we have clauses on not cooperating with organized crime,” the spokesman said, adding the company was working with the police and its subcontractors to ensure this sort of violation does not happen again.

I am so glad that I live on the Atlantic roast.

H/t Americablog.