Author: Matthew G. Saroff
Webb bout as VP
So says James Webb, “Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for vice president.
The GSE’s Just Tanked
Freddie Mac fell 18 percent and Fannie Mae 16 percent after a Lehman Brothers analysts said that they would have to raise more than $75 billion.
They are both down more than 60% so far this year.
Normally, I don’t follow stock, but if they do indeed need to raise capital to stay solvent, then they will have…you got it…sell stock for said capital.
The rule, FAS 140, is intended to make sure that companies don’t keep “under performing assets “(translation: worthless crap) in “off-balance sheet entities” (translation: embezzlement and fraud).
Republicans Will Cave on Medicare Funding
The Republicans are holding up a Medicare funding plan which reduces subsidies to private insurers offering “Medicare Advantage” in order to raise doctors fees in the stand, and the AMA is taking out ads targeting the Republicans opposing this.
You see the Republicans believe that they only way to bring efficiency to the medical market is to bring in private enterprise, but private enterprise is much less efficient than basic Medicare, so they need subsidies to compete.
The reality is that the Medicare advantage program is about two things:
- Ideology trumping reality.
- Republithugs getting donations from insurance companies.
Bush is promising a veto, and doctors are already shutting down practices or no longer accepting new Medicare patients, so this will get ugly quickly.
If the Dems have any brains, they will fold their arms, and say, “this is the deal”, and let the Republicans founder.
Well, It Looks Like Texas Has Pulled Ahead in the Backwards State Derby
Yep, Texas is heading for a new monkey trial.
Chris Comer, former science director of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) was fired because he forwarded an announcement about an evolution event, and she has now sued for illegal termination on the basis that:
- That creationism is illegal religious dogma in public schools.
- The TeA’s “neutrality” on evolution/creationism is in fact an endorsement of the latter.
- That her firing is an illegal establishment of religion.
The think is that this is fairly settled law, see Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, so I imagine that Comer will win this.
It’s why I left Texas in 2001. I did not want my children to grow up in the backward political and social environment there.
Zimbabwe
Well, it’s not getting any better.the government is “embracing and extending” the idea of using food aid as a weapon, even after the election.
The Guardian now has hidden camera video of voter intimidation, if you want to check it out.
Of course, Mbeki is still trying to be the mediator, even when it is unbelievably clear that he is no where near impartial in this matter.
Meanwhile, the US is pushing for sanctions against the government of Zimbabwe and its leaders, including an arms embargo and Freezing foreign assets of Zimbzbwean leaders.
We do have a potential promising development, a proposal in which Mugabe would remain president, but retain essentially no power, but this appears to be confused, with Mugabe apparently insisting that negotiations occur at the presidential offices, which would appear to cede that to Mugabe before the first words were said.
Little Ice Age Gave Us Stradivarius Violins
They just put some Strads through a CT scanner, and they discovered that the wood is oddly uniform.
Specifically, the wood was exceptionally uniform in its density, and very dense, and this was because the wood was grown in the little Ice age, when the wood grew very slowly in all seasons.
Well, we now have yet another theory.
Bin Laden Just Won a Battle
Ten years ago, bin Laden demanded barrel of oil should cost $144.bbl.
Thanks George….and by the way, thanks Ralph too.
Crap. John McCain is Telling the Truth
OK, now we have Obama “Puzzled” by blip flop charges, because he has completely reversed himself on FISA, and now he’s saying that in order for “mental distress” to be used to justify a late term abortion, it must be a formal psychiatric disorder out of the DSM IV.*
So, he’s selling the constitution out privacy, he’s reversed himself on free trade agreements, and now he is suggesting a heightened standard for late term abortion (while using the right wing’s language of “Partial Birth Abortion”).
John McCain can call him a flip flopper on the issues because Barack Obama is a flip flopper on the issues.
His only saving grace is the John Sidney McCain is a bigger flip flopper.
I guess that we’ll get the president we deserve.
*The 4th and most recent release of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Suppressed World Bank Report Says 75% of Food Price Spike from Biofuels
Here:
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
“It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House,” said one yesterday.
Is there anything he touches that does not collapse into a morass of failure, corruption, and self dealing?
Bush’s Determination to Screw Over Everyone on the Way Out Hits Montana
In this case, a sweetheart deal negotiated in secret to allow a developer to set up subdivisions of McMansions, because the US Forest Service will redefine logging in the national forests roads as residential ones, and pave them.
Crooks and Liars » Congressional Races: Things Are Looking Up For Democratic Candidates
Here is a rundown of where the Congressional elections are sitting, note that the races in red are moving toward Repuplicans, the other ones are moving toward Democrats.
Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic: PA-11, FL-08
Likely Republican to Lean Republican: FL-21, PA-03, WV-02
Solid Republican to Likely Republican: AL-03, CA-46, FL-09, FL-18, IA-04, ID-01, IN-03, KY-02, MN-02, NC-10, NE-02, NJ-05, NV-02, OH-07, PA-05, PA-15, TX-07, TX-10, VA-05, VA-10, WY-AL
Toss Up to Lean Democratic: NY-13, NY-25
Happy dance.
Pervez Musharraf Arranged Nuclear Tech Transfer to North Korea
Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist and dealer AQ Khan is now waying that the Paklistani military, then headed by Pervez Musharraf, signed off on the shipment of uranium enrichment equipment to the DPRK.
Musharraf is done. In fact, Khan may have signed his death warrant.
Fed Loses $1B…..So Far on Bear Bailout
The $ 30 billion in assets that the Federal Reserve took ownership of as a result of the Bear Stearns bailout now have a fair market value of only $28.9 billion as of June 26.
That’s about 3% of value in about 3 months. Anybody wonder why I call it crap for cash?
How Democrats Should Act
Dan Froomkin notes that when Democrats push back, Bush’s signing statements get withdrawn:
Robert Brodsky writes for Government Executive: ‘The White House and congressional leaders have announced most of the appointees to the long-awaited Commission on Wartime Contracting. The bipartisan team is charged with investigating virtually all war-related contracts, including funds devoted to reconstruction, logistical support for coalition forces, and security and intelligence functions.
‘The commission is the brainchild of Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. The freshmen senators co-wrote the provision creating the panel, which was included in the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act and signed into law in January. . . .
‘The White House’s cooperation with the panel is an about-face from its earlier public stance.
‘Shortly after signing the defense authorization, Bush issued a signing statement that said he did not have to abide by four provisions in the legislation, including the one creating the commission. At the time, Bush said the provisions could inhibit his ‘ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and execute his authority as commander in chief.’
“Webb immediately pushed back, criticizing the statement as an ‘impingement on the rights’ of Congress and said the Senate would ‘march forward in an expeditious manner’ to create the panel. Webb’s office said the White House seems to have dropped its objections and plans to cooperate with the panel. . . .
“The commission is modeled after the Truman committee, which conducted hundreds of hearings and investigations into government waste during and after World War II.”
For more about that signing statement, see my Jan. 30 column, Bush Thumbs Nose at Congress.
I’m not a big fan of Webb. I think that he’s too conservative.
That being said, he has a spine.
Because Lead Paint and Children’s Toys Go Together Like Republican Donors and Evil
The commission itself has only 2/3 of its seats filled, and his staff has been cut by ½, so it’s no wonder that we are seeing increasing numbers of severe problems with products from toys to shower curtains.
Another Private Equity Deal Blows UP
The deal to take Penn National private just foundered on the shoals of the credit crunch.
India Goes for Embraer Airframe W/ Swedish Radar for Smaller AEW&c
It will use the EMB-145 airframe with a SAAB Erieye phased array radar (see below), and will supplement the larger AEW Il-76s with the Israel with Elta Phalcon phased-array radar (bottom).
This should amount to signifiant improvement in their airborne command and control capabilities.
5 Face Manslaughter Charges in Concorde Crash
5 Face trial in Concorde crash that killed 113 in France
A prosecutor said Thursday that Continental Airlines and two of its employees had been ordered to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges related to the crash of a Concorde supersonic airliner in 2000 near Paris in which 113 people died.In addition to Continental, the prosecutor also filed involuntary manslaughter charges against two employees of the Concorde program and an employee of the French civil aviation authority.
….
Truth be told, I’m conflicted on the filing of charges. There is an argument to be made that when the criminal justice system is involved,it makes investigations by the safety authorities that much more difficult.
Additionally, I don’t think that the errors here show a callous disregard for human life, which is the standard in the US for manslaughter.
GE Patents Pulse Detonation Core for Turbofan
While this is a good idea, it seems to me that this is also a pretty obvious idea, using a PDE, or more than one to smooth out the pulses, as a substitute for the HP compressor, HP turbine, and combustors.
After the PDE works as its own compressor and combuster, though a PDE, a constant volume combustion, is theoretically more efficient than a combustor, which is constant pressure combustion.
Hmmm…After a quick examination of the patent, it appears that some of the PDEs actually rotate, which is not obvious, at least not to me.
