The Jerusalem Post is reportingIranian “sabotage” delayed the launch of the TecSar Satellite.
Sabotage is the JPost’s term, not mine.
It appears that Iran was using its contacts with India’s Marxist and Muslim parties to apply pressure against the government launching Israel’s satellite.
Israel has its own organic launch capabilities, but they have to do a retrograde launch over the Med to avoid Diplomatic issues.
According to “reliable sources”, Ben Bernanke thinks that the downturn will be very severe, and that’s why there was the very large, unscheduled rate cuts.
Additionally, as reported by Calculated risk the market is expecting another 50 basis point rate cut at the regular meeting next week.
This would leave the Fed at a 3% discount rate, and I think that beyond that point, they are pushing on a string. Monetary controls of the economy are pretty much at their limits now.
In the real estate world, Merrill Lynch is saying that nationwide U.S. home prices could decline 25% to 30% over the next three years.
I think that they are optimistic.
Then we have student loan giant Sallie Mae reporting a $1.6 billion quarterly loss, which raises the obvious question, “How the hell do you lose money on GSLs?” These are government guaranteed loans, and the fact that borrowing costs have shot up so much that they cannot profit on them is …ominous.
There are indications that Bank of America’s deal to buy Countrywide may be getting into trouble. At least that what the market is saying, literally. BoA is offering the equivalent of $7.1058, but Countrywide is trading at $5.54.
This spread is a measure of the market’s opinion that the deal won’t actually be consummated, this spread implies that “there is roughly a 77.9 percent consensus among Wall Street’s risk arb desks and their hedge fund brethren that the deal goes through at the agreed upon terms. That also means that more than 22 percent of risk arbitrageurs don’t think the deal will go through”.
You also have Capital One taking a major earnings hit, both from the closing of its GreenPoint Mortgage arm, and from higher credit card losses.
Finally, you have talks between New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo and major US banks about a bailout of bond insurers. There is an implication that there will be some sort of government involvement, if not outright government sponsorship of such a bailout.
Gee, next thing you know, the House of Saud will stop funding terrorists and Jihadi schools.
Naaahhhh.
Many years ago, when Allegheny Airlines, aka Agony Airlines, announced it’s name change to USAir, the name “Useless Air” was coined at the press conference announcing the new name.
Well, Apple just announced a new iPod in pink, and journalist John Paczkowski in a flash of genius, has named it iPod Pepto.
Bummer of a birth mark, Hal.
Her name was Lynn Hunter, but I knew her though our mutual activities in the SCA as, “Baroness Roana di Laci”, but usually, she was just Ro, as she she did not put on airs.
She had cancer, and she was about 3 months younger than me.
She is one of the few friends of mine with whom I never talked politics.
When I first met her, the subject of her employment came up, and it turned out that she had been fired by her previous employer, the Heritage Foundation, for having cancer.
I blurted out that I could probably find a lawyer willing to represent her pro bono, but she demurred.
I may be clueless, but even I figured out that we had differing views.
She was fun, and accessible, and welcomed my wife and I when we came to the area, and I’ll miss her.
Good journey, Ro.
While I appreciate their Edwards endorsmennt, I still cannot figure out why the press has their tongue so far up the rectum of John McCain.
Interestingly enough, they are endorsing McCain because of his populist message, when the mainstream press is ridiculing him because of it.
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke calling for Rick Majerus, the St. Louis University basketball coach, to be disciplined for making a campaign appearance for Hillary Clinton and expressing support for Roe v. Wade.
This is not a priest, this is not a professor in the divinity department, this is a freaking BASKETBALL COACH.
I understand that St. Louis University is a Catholic school, but demanding that employees who have absolutely nothing to do with the religious mission of the school have to toe their political is outrageous, particularly given this:
Last year, St. Louis U. celebrated a legal victory that affirmed it is not controlled by the Catholic church or by its Catholic beliefs.
The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the school in handing down a decision that the city of St. Louis did not violate state and federal constitutions by granting the university $8 million in tax increment financing for its new arena.
Opponents of the $80 million arena sued the school in 2004, halting construction.
The Missouri Constitution prohibits public funding to support any “… college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever.”
The debate came down to two words: “control” and “creed.” Does the guiding mission of a Catholic university align with the specific system of religious faith espoused by the Catholic church? And if so, does that system of faith control the actions of the university?
In a 6-1 decision, the court said SLU “is not controlled by a religious creed.”
As I recall*, Rush Limbaugh’s cousin, Stephn N. Limbaugh, Jr. serves on this court, and had been nominated by Bush to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Hmmm….I guess that Rush is the smart one of his family…Scary thought.
*And by, “As I recall”, I mean checking the Wiki.
I guess the Democrats are waiting until after the statutes of limitations have expired, because they’ve yet again delayed a contempt vote. It appears that they don’t want to, “Step on their message” regarding economic stimulus.
The reality is that they are reinforcing their message that they are a group of people who cannot be trusted to stand up for the right thing.
Yes, it appears that the new de-Baathification law that the Iraqi parliament passed, the one that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have been crowing about, isn’t a de-Baathification law, it’s actually an even more aggressive purge of Baath party members, and Sunnis, than the previous law.
And it gets even better, because everyone’s favorite double crossing thief, Achmed Chalabi, is heading the de-Baathification commission.
AT&T sells you bandwidth, and now they want to charge the people from whom you download a second time for the privilidge of using the wires that you have already paid for.
They are claiming that they want to help crack down on copyright infringement, but let’s be clear, this is a lie.
They want the RIAA and MPAA to support their efforts, so that later, they can charge the RIAA’s and MPAA’s clients for selling AT&T customers online music and movies.
We don’t care. We don’t have to. (snort) We’re the Phone Company!”
Bush and His Evil Minions™ are lying sacks of sh$@!
Lying about the Iraq, here, and here.
NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE LIES
Bush comes in number two on the lie parade, but number two is a bit of a surprise:
The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein’s possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda.
…
The study, released Tuesday, says Powell had the second-highest number of false statements, with 244 about weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.
Yep, the most overrated man in America lied to us more than anyone except for Bush himself.
Can we please stop calling “respected”.
Really. I’m serious.
Here is Harry Reid, getting ready to completely capitulate on civil rights protection and telco immunity in the FISA update.
I should note that once again, Chris Dodd is excluded from my approbiation, as he is still threatening a filibuster on telco immunity.
Here we have a perfect expression of the most self-destructive Democratic disease which they seem unable to cure. More than anything, they fear looking ‘weak.’ To avoid this, they ‘cave’ and surrender and capitulate and stand for nothing. As a result, they are, as here, endlessly described in the media as ‘caving’ and surrendering. As a result, they look (and are) weak. It’s a self-destructive cycle that has no end.
I want my party back.
How about we try voodoo to raise Harry S Truman and Lyndon Baines Johnson from the grave, and send them to Congress to bitch slap Reid and Pelosi.
It’s like throwing away an impeachment investigation, even as just a technique to extract documents, because it trumps executive privilege.
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
The decision by right wing Missouri Matt Blunt, son of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt not to run for another term has come as a surprise, as he had already raised millions of dollars for his campaign.
The Fired Up! Missouri blog suggests a scandal and lists about a dozen potential ones, and mentions that he spent $100k in legal fees.
If baby Blunt is in legal trouble, his dad is too, as Blunt won’t take a crap without his dad’s permission.
Harry Reidwants a one mongh extension to the disgraceful “Protect America Act”, so that they can have time to work on the bill.
Once again, the Republicans are going with an all or nothing approch, with Kit Bond and Mitch McConnell blocking the extension in an attempt to give Bush and His Evil Minions™ everything that they want.
Um….Guys, this is a clue….In 11½ months Hillary and Her Evil Minions™, or Barack and His Evil Minions™ may have the reins of the state security apparatus, and one of the things that I like about her is that, unlike Bill, she appears to have an inclination for vengeance.
You don’t want to go there.
FWIW, the case for the changes provided by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has proven to be completely fraudulent.
The prosecution asked for life, and for the U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to ignore the fact that he was tortured for 3½ years, but the judge disagreed, and further disagreed about the severity of the offense
“There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere,” Cooke said. “There was never a plot to overthrow the United States government.”
…
In arriving at Padilla’s sentence, Cooke said she took into account the harsh, isolated conditions he faced during his time in a brig as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest. Defense lawyers claim he was tortured by the military, but U.S. officials denied that and Cooke never used the word torture.
Sentencing guidelines had suggested a range of between 30 years and life for all three, but Cooke used her discretion to go below even the minimum. Besides Padilla’s sentence, Hassoun got 15 years and eight months and Jayyousi 12 years and eight months.
It’s nice to see the prosecutors getting slapped down, at least a little over torture.
A number of former defense officials from NATO Countries, including former JCS Chairman, and son of a Waffen SS member, John Shalikashvili, have recommended that NATO should reorganize to allow it to incorporate nuclear first strikes into it’s tactics.
Calling for a major change to Nato’s approach to defending its members and their interests, the authors of the report, which has been handed to Nato and Pentagon chiefs, said the first-strike use of nuclear weapons was a “indispensable instrument”.
I’m sorry, but anyone who says, “The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction,” is simply, and deeply nuts.
The fact that this is not just laughed out of NATO and Pentagon HQ is an indication that something is truly broken about the way we think.
Ed Fallon is challenging Leonard Boswell in the Iowa primary. (I guess that they only do the caucus for presidential stuff, could someone confirm?
It’s a good idea to take
FWIW, Gore barely won in 2000, and Bush barely won in 2004, so it’s a competitive district, but if this isn’t a year for Democrats, particularly given the economy, it I’ll eat my hat.)
You can contribute via Act Blue, Fallon’s web site is not yet up.
Fallon is popular in the district, he carried it in the gubernatorial primary that he lost state wide, and Boswell has never connected well with the district, he moved following redistricting in 2000, and he’s voted for the war without condition and the Patriot act.
The primary is on June 3.
From Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz:
On Bush’s ideas for tax cuts, he says:
The Bush administration has long taken the view that tax cuts (especially permanent tax cuts for the rich) are the solution to every problem. This is wrong. Tax cuts in general perpetuate the excessive consumption that has marked the American economy. But middle- and lower-income Americans have been suffering for the last seven years — median family income is lower today than it was in 2000. A tax rebate aimed at lower- and middle-income households makes sense, especially since it would be fast-acting.
Yep, this is the result of 6 years of failed Bush policies, he goes to the House of Saud to beg for help.
This must be some sort of definition of “returning honor and dignity to the White House” that I was unaware of:
……These days, President George W. Bush needs the world’s biggest exporter of crude more than it needs him.
With oil at about $90 a barrel, the U.S. economy at risk of sliding into recession and American banks trying to raise cash to ride out the subprime-mortgage crisis, Bush has become a supplicant for Saudi financial help.
….
Senator Hillary Clinton tried to turn it into an object of derision by describing Bush as “begging the Saudis” to cut the price of oil. “How pathetic,” she said.
I got your back on this statement, Hill.
Pathetic.
First, of course, the Fed cut it’s Federal Funds Rate by 75 basis points, the biggest cut since 1984, and it did so a week before its regular meeting, which it hasn’t done since 911.
The US markets recovered after the rate cut, but still they were down by over 1% for the day.
I think that Paul Krugman’s analysis of this is accurate, Bernanke used to be the head of his department at Princeton, so I would assume that he knows him pretty well.
Basically, Bernanke is concerned about the Japanese slow down of the 1990s, when monetary tools simply stopped working:
What was so disturbing about Japan was the way monetary policy became ineffective; by the later 1990s the short-term interest rate was up against the ZLB — the “zero lower bound.” This is alternatively known as the “liquidity trap.” And once you’re there, conventional monetary policy can do no more, because interest rates can’t go below zero.
There was a lot of discussion of various unconventional monetary things you could do. But the best answer was not to get there in the first place. A 2004 paper co-authored by Bernanke argued that the ZLB could and should be avoided by “maintaining a sufficient inflation buffer and easing preemptively as necessary”.
In terms of corporate profits, Bank of America took a major hit, with profits dropping 95% as a result of $5 billion dollar writedown, and its, “tier 1 capital ratio – a key measure of its ability to absorb losses – stood at 6.87 percent at the end of the year, down from 8.22 percent in the previous quarter, due to its purchase of LaSalle Bank and lower net income during the second half of last year.”
Wachovia took an 89% hit on profits, “due to a $1.7 billion reduction in the value of certain portfolios and $1.5 billion set aside to cover bad loans”.
More real estate and derivatives.
And while we are on the topic of real estate and derivatives, bond insurer Ambac is looking for a buyer. If they take monopoly money, I’m game, but only if it’s less than one whole game.
Otherwise, the deal just does not make financial sense.
Of course, the one thing that we can be sure of is that if George W. Bush speaks, the market will tank, so, of course, they are talking again, and saying that they are looking at increasing the stimulus package beyond the $150 billion originally proposed.
My guess is that there is a “Bush Ranger” out there who wants a special tax break just for him.
Of course, we are already beginning to see the allocation of blame, aka “blamestorming”, with EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia saying that this problem is a result of excessive US trade deficit…..Ummmm…Well Duh!!!!…Though that whole deregulation of markets thing isn’t working either.
And on the housing front, California loan defaults reach have reached a 15-year high in Q4 2007, up 114% from the same time in 2006. Foreclosures are up 421.2% from 2006.