Ummmm….Folks, this is so not Tikkun Olam.
I hope whoever did this gets caught and prosecuted to the full extant of the law…..And hung from a flag poll by their eye lids.
Month: September 2008
Must Read on History of Ratings and How they Destroyed Wall Street
Another Taser Death
This one is from egregious misuse. Cops tasered a disoriented naked man on a fire escape, and he fell to his death.
He was not a threat to himself or others, and him falling off the fire escape and being seriously injured or killed was foreseeable, so someone should be up on manslaughter charges, because this is clearly a callous disregard for human life.
Gitmo Prosecutor Quits Over Lack of Due Process
Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld has quit as prosecutor, claiming that, potential exculpatory evidence has not been provided to the defense in the case of a teenager accused of throwing a grenade at US soldiers in Afghanistan.
Good for him, though the fact that he has refused to testify without immunity indicates that this is worse than just ignoring a bit of evidence.
A Rather Disquieting Headline
US to Lose Financial Superpower Status
It’s just a statement by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, but he is saying what a lot of people have been feeling for a few weeks or months now, that the US-British “Anglo-Saxon” model of capitalism is broken and corrupt.
When You F*#@ Up a Trial THIS Badly…..
When you look at the trial of Saddam Hussein, you have to start with one fact: He was as guilty as hell. He was so guilty of brutality, genocide, and other crimes against humanity, that it would have been impossible not to get him on something.
But still, the Western lawyers who attempted to create a fair trial say that the trial was neither free nor fair.
When someone is this guilty, why on earth does the Iraqi government feel the need to cheat….Why does the US sponsored Iraqi government feel the need to cheat….Why does the Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Iraqi government feel the need to cheat…And deliver a verdict just days before the 2006 mid terms elections.
Never mind, question answered.
To Be Placed in the Hold for Future War Crimes Trials File
Newly released documents make it clear that members of the Bush administration held specific discussion to specifically authorize torture by the CIA, and Condoleeza Rice has admitted to this in a written statement to the Senate.
I do not believe that we will be able to hold a fair trial in the US, so send them to the Hague, even though the death penalty is off the table there.
Palin Took Blessing From Witch Hunter After He Unleashed Anti-Semitic Screed
I can’t believe that I’m quoting aAndrew Sullivan, but he has the video, where he makes this comment at about 1:10:
The second area whereby God wants us, wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It’s high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations. That’s what we are waiting for. That’s part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the — you know — if you look at the Israelites, that’s how they work. And that’s how they are, even today.”
(emphasis mine)
And at 7:20 Sarah Palin walks up to stage to accept a blessing from him.
She wasn’t just in the audience, she walks up and accepts his blessing after an anti-Semitic screed.
I agree with Andrew Sullivan, when he says, with no small amount of snark, “Sure they vetted her.“
Iraq Passes Provincial Election Law
It still has to pass the presidential council, which vetoed the prior version, but this seems reasonably likely.
A good, easily understood analysis of this law, and the handling of the Kirkuk issue (they basically kick the can down the road) can be found at Abu Aardvark.
Simple Answers to Simple Questions
Is there any chance that George W. Bush appearing on television could do anything other than deepen people’s sense of panic?
NO.
This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions
Free Sarah Palin
Campbell Brown lets the McCain Campaign have it with their sexist treatment of Sarah Palin:
Heh
Clueless on the DPRK
It’s amazing how bloody clueless both Bush and His Evil Minions™ and the press covering this don’t get it, as typified by the hed, “U.S. Bewildered Over N. Korea Nuclear Defiance.”
It’s very simple. While the folks in North Korea are not particularly trustworthy, there has been a consistent pattern where they have taken steps they have agreed to, and the US has refused to make the steps that it has agreed to.
You could pull the DPRK off the list of “terrorist sponsoring states” in 15 minutes, and you could put them back in 15 minutes, but the brainless trust headed by Cheney and Rice won’t do anything ever, because keeping our side of the bargain is to their minds capitulation.
The North Koreans are restarting their Yongbyon nuclear power plant because they have absolutely no faith in the word of the United States to keep the deal.
God Bless The Onion
Gov. Palin Has No Experience
vs.
Please Keep Your Voice Down, My Poor Retarded Child Is Sleeping
The Bailout in Clearer Terms
House of Representatives Passed New Credit Card Regulations
It’s some fairly minor stuff, but it’s a start, though I doubt that it will make it past the Senate, though considering that the distinguished gentleman from MBNA Delaware is otherwise occupied, it’s possible.
Basic provisions:
- requires a notice period for interest rate increases
- prohibits interest charges on balances paid during grace periods
- bars issuers from applying payments first to lower-interest debt while debt carrying a higher interest rate remains unpaid.
The Seeds of the Next Crash Have Just Been Sown
The Federal Reserve just eased regulations on minority ownership of banks, raising the percentage of stock ownership allowed to be raised without requiring registration as a bank holding company”
Key changes in the guidelines include allowing an investor to buy up to a 15 percent voting stake instead of the previous 9.9 percent limit. Investors can also buy up to 33 percent total equity interest, including voting and non-voting shares, instead of the 25 percent prior limit.
Allowing greater ownership before regulation, reminiscent of the S&L crisis, when many of these institutions were purchased by developers, who then lent to themselves at unrealistically attractive rates.
Of course, these days, it won’t be real estate developers, but private equity firms who can use this to exert influence over banks for capital.
Not enough bullets.
H/T Calculated Risk.
Rick Davis Was Getting Freddie Mac Money Until Last Month
John Sidney McCain III’s campaign manager’s firm was getting $15,000 a month until the government took them over.
Note that Davis is still on the board of Davis & Manafort, and two sources in the story that the money was specifically in order to maintain access to John McCain.
McCain claims to have learned from his Keating 5 experience, but now it appears that he could swim in a sea of knowledge, and emerge completely dry.
Nouriel Roubini Produces Another Must Read
What Do You Call This?
The punch line is the same as for the joke that starts, “What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?” (Answer at bottom of post)
The head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, Lalit Kishore Choudhary, was beaten to death by employees he had sacked.
I have said on a number of occasions that if you want to go postal, go after upper management first, and it seems that these employees were of a like mind.
The quotes regarding this, show just how callous people are:
A spokesman for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said: “Such a heinous act is bound to sully India’s image among overseas investors.”
That is an unbelievably cold statement. Some dude got beaten to death, and the only comment is, “It’s bad for business.”
Of course, being the Times of London, they are wringing their hands over this, and note the violence at the location selected by Tata for a factory to manufacture its ultra cheap Nano, but refuse to mention the fact that the land in question was stolen from the peasant farmers who had worked it for hundreds of years.
Meanwhile India’s Labor Minister has apologized for saying that the murder of Choudhary should, “serve as a warning” to managers to treat workers compassionately.”
He was right the first time.
If you want to read a more full throated, and more eloquent endorsement of actions that might make senior executives think twice, you need to go no further than Exiled Online
Live by heartless officialese, die by heartless officialese plus a hammer upside the skull. Nothing could be fairer than that. Proceed with the mob beatifications as soon as we get their names. And somebody find that f@#$-you-Mr.-Cheney guy’s name too while you’re at it. Something about the politeness of the “Mr.” right after the “f@#$ you” really enchants us. This is a guy who understands the importance of human dignity. No doubt, with a little encouragement, he could put together a nice mob.
Damn good writing, and you should read the rest right now.
In conclusion, the philosophical foundation driving our current system is that the “entrepreneurial class” should be able to operate without any external limits on their behavior, and that they should operate without conscience or empathy, and this is a psychotic world view.
As to the riddle at the beginning of the page? The answer, of course, is “A Good Start.”
Krugman Calls Paulson a Liar
Flat out, and he uses the “L” word, he quotes David Davies, and notes that “Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.”:
So, this morning Hank Paulson told a whopper:
We gave you a simple, three-page legislative outline and I thought it would have been presumptuous for us on that outline to come up with an oversight mechanism. That’s the role of Congress, that’s something we’re going to work on together. So if any of you felt that I didn’t believe that we needed oversight: I believe we need oversight. We need oversight.
What the proposal actually did, of course, was explicitly rule out any oversight, plus grant immunity from future review:
Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
He’s right too. Paulson wants no oversight as he bails out his buddies.