Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Economics Update

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The Consumer Price Index CPI, just
jumped 1.1% in June. For the past 12 months, it’s been 5.5%.

Considering how bogus the CPI stats have become, I’d be inclined to at at least 3% to both numbers, but but I’m an engineer, not an economist, dammit!*

On the other hand, oil is now down about $11 over two days, which would explain why the dollar is holding steady for now, though we are not seeing any good news at the pump, as we hit a new record again.

Industrial production in June was up by 0.05%, which beat expectations, though part of that number was a rebound from the strike at American Axle in May.

Mortgage applications were up 1.7% last week, though I’m not sure how much of this is low rates, and worry about rising rates, and noise.

Let me finish that I will have a separate post on the GSE’s and how their possible reduction/elimination of dividends may have led to the SEC’s restrictions on naked shorting.

*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

U.S. Troops Retreat from Attacked Afghan Outpost

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This is what happens when you divert resources to Iraq:

U.S. troops pulled out of a remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan, three days after Taliban militants briefly breached the defences and killed nine U.S. soldiers, the biggest single loss of life for American forces in Afghanistan since 2005.

This is not winning, and it wasn’t the military men who took their eye off the ball to go after Saddam Hussein.

Court: “Because I Said So” Not Due Process

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Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri a legal US resident who was arrested for credit card fraud, and then declared an “enemy combatant” will now have his day in court, after more than 5 years in solitary confinement.

The court ruled that he could be detained, but that the basis of the detention, the statement of a defense department official without supporting evidence, was insufficient to justify his classification.

Note that as a legal resident, he has the same rights to due process as a US citizen, and so the Bush administration’s position was thus that they were free to detain anyone at any time forever without any supporting facts.

Personally, I think that if they have evidence, it should be addressed in a real trial, though I would be not at all surprised if this hearing reveals that the emperor has no clothes.

50 Days of Sleep Deprivation

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Guantanamo records show that Salim Hamdan was subjected to sleep deprivation for 50 days (see also here).

After 72 hours of sleep deprivation, people start to hallucinate. They literally become psychotic and desperate.

It’s a great technique to get false confessions, because you tell them what they want, and they are inclined to give it to you, but to get accurate information, not really, because after a few days, much less 50 days (!), they no longer have a grasp on reality.

There are a few thousand people, both in the active duty military and in government civilian service, who need to spend the rest of their lives in jail over this.

All Your Uterus Are Belong to Us

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It appears that with only 6 months to go, Bush and His Evil Minions™ are doing their level best to make birth control unavailable a significannt portion of the US population.

First, they have now defined abortion as “anything that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

This would be many birth control pills, emergency contraception following a rape, and the IUD, in addition to a number of medications not normally used for contraception, but for which are likely to cause a failure to implant, or a spontaneous abortion.

What’s more, any medical provider receiving money for a Health and Human Services Department program would have to, “sign written certifications”, certifying that the would not, “will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.” (see also here)

What’s amazing is that Mr. “I don’t listen to polls” HHS is using a poll, as opposed to the American Medical Association’s definition of “abortion”.

If you think that you can compromise with abortion-criminalization terrorists, you are wrong.

Their ultimate goal is to make all forms of birth control illegal in the United States of America.

Image courtesy of Feministing.

Obama Pushing McCain On Afghanistan

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Well, Barack Obama just gave a speech on Iraq and Afghanistan. His basic thesis is that the real war we need to fight is in Afghanistan, and that the war in Iraq is a distraction.

Interestingly, we are now seeing McCain flip-flopping on Afghanistan. He has previously been adamant that it was an obligation of our NATO allies, and of Pakistan, and the US resources would go elsewhere, but now is calling for, “at least three additional brigades” to Afghanistan.

The only way to do that is to pull out of Iraq, because we have no troops available. That is what the chairman of the JCS said not so long ago.

Let’s hope that Obama’s staff picks up on this, and hammers him with it.

It’s All of Them

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Glenn Greenwald believes that the motivation for the Democrats caving on FISA is that leading Democrats are themselves legally liable for their complicity.

He then cites Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side. Her book documents some of the torture and knowledge of the illegality of senior Bush administration officials, and she has a fascinating response in an online chat on the Washington Post:

New York, N.Y.: In your interview with Harper’s yesterday, you said that this about why war crimes prosecutions are unlikely: “An additional complicating factor is that key members of Congress sanctioned this program, so many of those who might ordinarily be counted on to lead the charge are themselves compromised.”

What did you mean by that? Who specifically is compromised ” who might ordinarily be counted on to lead the charge are themselves compromised” — Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Jay Rockefeller? — and how are they “compromised”?

Jane Mayer: The ranking members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees were briefed dozens of times about the CIA’s interrogation and detention program over the past seven years – so any member who has held one of those posts has arguably been complicit. Some say they tried to object, internally. But either because of the threat of violating national security, or, because of the fear of the political price of dissent, these figures in both parties would find it very hard at this point to point the finger at the White House, without also implicating themselves.

So it’s not just Bush and His Evil Minions&trade who are war criminals. It’s also Jane Harmon, Jay Rockefeller, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and who knows who else amongst just the Democrats.

Massachusetts Senate Passes Repeal of 1918 Backdoor Anti-Miscegenation Law

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In 1913, Massachusetts passed a law making it illegal for people to marry their if it was not legal in their home state. It was intended to prevent blacks and whites from other states from conducting an interracial marriage there.

No one paid too much attention to it, until Mitt Romney dusted it off to hinder gay marriage in Massachusetts to further his efforts to appeal to bigots in the ‘Phant base in his race for president.

Well, the Mass. Senate just voted to repeal it, and passage looks likely in the Mass House, and governor Patrick says that he will sign it.

Woot!

Micheal O’Hanlon Can Go Cheney Himself

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So, the Washington Post conducted a poll on the war, and talked to some so-called experts.

One of them was the wanktacular Michael O’Hanlon:

To say you’re going to get out on a certain schedule — regardless of what the Iraqis do, regardless of what our enemies do, regardless of what is happening on the ground — is the height of absurdity,’ said O’Hanlon, who described himself as ‘livid.’ ‘I’m not going to go to the next level of invective and say he shouldn’t be president. I’ll leave that to someone else.’

(emphasis mine)

  • This guy is not a Middle East expert.
  • He’s not a terrorism expert.
  • He does not speak Arabic.

His “expertise” is in military budgeting, and he has gotten a lot of face time on the air because he’s from the so called “center left” think tank, the Brookings Institution, and he loves the war in Iraq.

I understand that when the war in Iraq is over, he won’t be quoted 2-4 times a month by the national press, but that is no reason for him want Americans and Iraqis to keep dying.

Not also that the poll is wanktacular too, it says it’s about the candidates positions, but the question is, “Obama has proposed a timetable to withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq within 16 months of his taking office. McCain has opposed a specific timetable and said events should dictate when troops are withdrawn. Which approach do you prefer – a timetable or no timetable?“

That is a question designed to get a higher number (it’s 50%-49% in favor of the time table) than any other question, but it allows the Post to claim that people are evenly split, when “not worth fighting” wins 63% to 36%, and that success in the war is not necessary to win the war on terror (60% to 34%).

Bush Vetoes Fair Doctor Pay to Protect HMO Executives

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Bush objects to the fact that subsidies for private insurers to participate in Medicare, more accurately a license to skim and further bankrupt the fund, have been reduced to avoid a doctor pay cut, and so he has vetoed the bill.

Well, it looks like its time for an override vote, and the text for the attack ad writes itself, so I would say that it’s better than 50/50 that the veto will be overridden.

If it isn’t, watch as doctors, facing already low fees being cut by 10.6%, reduce services, and patients scream….at Republicans.

Sarkozy is an Asshole

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And his new wife is not hot enough to make up for that.

As proof of this, he is now demanding that the Irish rerun their referendum on the new EU treaty.

I hate to tell you this dude, but you are not Irish, and right now, a lot of Frenchmen wish you weren’t French either.

I will tell you that part of the reason for this is that after repeated rejections of an update to the EU governance structures in a number of countries, including France, the response, which is to game the system to ensure passage, makes people distrust you.

I do know that if you attempt to keep passing a document that is hundreds of pages long, and too complex for anyone to understand as a whole, you will keep being rejected.

The supporters of EU reform have been opaque in their behavior and tactics, so it’s no surprise that people think that they have something to hide.