Do the people who write about the need to cut ‘entitlements’ really not know that the problem is the unique inefficiency of the U.S. health care system (per capita health care costs in other wealthy countries average half as much) or are they lying?
They are lying.
This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.
Businessweek has as damning article on the arbitration industry:
But internal NAF documents and interviews with people familiar with the firm reveal a different reality. Behind closed doors, NAF sells itself to lenders as an effective tool for collecting debts. The point of these pitches is to persuade the companies to use the firm to resolve clashes over delinquent accounts. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) are among the large institutions that do so. A September, 2007, NAF PowerPoint presentation aimed at creditors and labeled “confidential” promises “marked increase in recovery rates over existing collection methods.” At times, NAF does this kind of marketing with the aid of law firms representing the very creditors it’s trying to sign up as clients.
The laws that allow for this need to be changed.
The arbitration system is corrupt to the core.
They didn’t get two thirds to suspend the rules, but they did get exactly two thirds this time around, 274 to 137.
They peeled off 49 ‘Phant legislators. Good.
It appears that there is a memo going around suggesting that the problems are more involved than just water in the air data sensors.
Specifically, there is a wheel speed sensor, and you should get a warning at about 60 kts if the wheel and air speed data does not match. Additionally, it appears that you can’t turn on the pitot heat too early to dry out the water, because it would warp the skin in that area, which would compromise the plane’s stealth characteristics.
Well, retail sales increased by 1% last month, about twice as much as expected. When gas if figured out, it drops to 0.8%, and then there is the question of how much food contributed.
Additionally, we have businesses expanding their inventories, though one has to wonder if this because they are hedging against inflation, or if they are expecting an uptick in business?
I tend to go with a bearish, and it appears that the outgoing head of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) thinks so too.
He sees the economy slipping into recession, and possibly stagflation.
Certainly, inflation concerns are rising world wide, with the South African central bank raising rates, ½% to 12%. (Ouch)
Employment is not looking good either, with initial jobless claims rising to 384,000 last week, though one always the caveat that week to week changes can just be noise, as opposed to signal.
Then again, with mortgage rates rising, they are now at an 8 month high, I don’t see construction leading any recovery.
In energy, we had oil down as the dollar strengthened, though retail gasoline hit a new high…again.
And once again, it’s the folks at McClatchy who call him on it, and no one else seems to notice.
This time, he’s claiming that the Chinese are drilling off the Cuban coast, and using that as a justification for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Well, not true, and not just the Chinese:
Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba’s shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is “akin to urban legend,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.
“China is not drilling in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, period,” said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon’s research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.
It’s not just Cheney. It’s also John Boehner, and George Radanovich.
If a Republican says that the sky is blue, bring a damn unbrella.
I guess that people figured that with gas past $4/bbl, this would not be a good thing to vote against.
The Supreme Court, with a 5-4 vote, along the anticipated lines, ruled that Guantanamo detainees have a right to contest their detention in court.
I don’t know whether to be elated at the decision, or scared that it was so close.
It looks to me like the increased chatter about a possible strike is being driven by three things, Bush’s petulant arrogance, the idea that the Republican party might gain political advantage from this, and the idea that Ehud Olmert might gain political advantage from this.
Busy day.
We have former Congressman Curt Weldon tied into a Russian influence buying scheme, all laundered through a shady non-profit.
Curt Weldon was, of course one of those guys who saw agents of hostile governments everywhere…who knew he was one?
The fine folks at TPM note that former Rep. Sweeney’s (now ex-) wife, the one that he beat when he wasn’t driving drunk, was being paid for work she never did at a “fundraising firm” that she ran.
In the small fry category, we have Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) neglection to mention $286,278 in expenditures and $102,044 in contributions in her 2002 campaign. It could just be a clerical error, but seeing as how they neglected to mention a donation from “Friends of Duke Cunningham”, and over a hundred grand spent on her Daughter and Son-in-law’s “political consulting firm”, I’m thinking that we have some self dealing going on.
See?
…
I guess I need to clarify. I am not talking abuout putting Michelle Makin on TB. Look at the scroll.
“Obama’s Baby Mama”?
So, the back door draft continues.
We are breaking our military.
Faiz at Think Progress notes the following troubling detail in the proposed agreement, which a Dawa MP has objected to:
The Americans insist so far that is they who define what is an aggression on Iraq and what is democracy inside Iraq…if we come under aggression we should define it and ask for help.
This means that the US could use the status of forces agreement to justify an attack on Iran.
As Faiz puts it, “Since the administration is unlikely to get an Iran war authorized through Congress, it’s instead trying to sneak it through the Iraqi parliament.”
Same old same old, behind schedule and over budget.
Taking tests out of the schedule though is not a good way to handle that problem. Insufficient testing means that we might field a system that does not work…Then again, maybe Bush and His Evil Minions™ don’t care if it works, and they just want a system fielded.
It would go along with the Republicans’ general policy of “faith based missile defense”
261 tons of Hashish in Afgan drug Bust.
That’s one serious case of the munchies.
Rising gas prices are leading more people to get out of their cars and use mass transit.
Shocking, huh?
HR 4279 is a very bad piece of legislation. Among other things, it:
Luckily, it’s unlikely to make it through the Senate in an election year, but this legislation is evil.
What too many people do not understand, including over 400 members of Congress, it passed 410 to 10, is that Patent and Copyright Law is at its Core Public Interest Law. It is not a property right, but rather a societal contract in which we all give up our rights in order to encourage artistic and scientific development through the granting of a temporary exclusive license.
It appears that Thain really wants continued access to the Federal reserve discount window, what I have called the sh%$pile for cash program, to continue in perpetuity, but is aghast at the thought that continued access might be predicated on greater regulation of investment banking as an industry.
You want the taxpayers on the hook for your mistakes, but you want the government out of your hair so that you can make those mistakes.
You sound an awful lot like those farmers who want the government off their back, and in the next breath ask for their subsidy check.
It makes one wonder how much a Harvard MBA is really worth.
The Economist is wringing its hands because the Democratic controlled Senate is refusing to confirm two Bush nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. They think that it strikes a blow against the independence of the body.
They have it wrong. This is a good thing.
If the Democrats should have any goal in the next few months, it should be to absolutely prevent any permanent or long term personnel changes to the courts, the Fed, or similar bodies from Bush and His Evil Minions&trade.
They have an obligation to protect the American people from Bush.
They had to vote, “under a procedure that required a two-thirds vote for approval”, but they fell 3 votes short, so they will reconsider it in the next few days.
Seeing as how they got about 50 Republicans to flip, and that constituents will doubtless be calling those who did not flip, I think that this will pass with a veto proof majority.