Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Democrats Move to Prevent Bush From Encumbering Next President on Iraq

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Honestly, I don’t see these going anywhere, because of the gutless leadership in the House and Senate, but Representative Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have introduced bills prohibiting the Bush administration from entering into a binding security arrangement with Iraq. They require the President to follow Article II of the constitution, and get the “advice and consent” of the Senate.

You can see the House version here.

FWIW, it should be introduced once a month leading up to election day, just to make Republicans vote for the war, over, and over, and over again.

For the life of me, with a substantial majority of Republicans wanting a pullout, and a president who is less popular than the idea of Britney Spears* as a baby sitter, that the Republican delegation continues to back this failed war of a failed president.

They are drowning, and they are throwing themselves an anvil, and calling it water wings.

*Yes, I know that I have promised not to mention They Who Must Not Be Named, but this is not a discussion of her, rather an invocation.

Bob Gates: Moron

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I guess that Robert Gates is just Don Rumsfeld without the charisma.

He’s criticising NATO forces for not doing a proper job in Afghanistan.

Of course, he would be a bit more convincing if:

  • The US had not allowed Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar get away because they were too timid about potential US casualties.
  • Bush and His Evil Minions™ hadn’t simply dropped a not-yet pacified south to go after Saddam, who had nothing to do with 911.
  • If US tactics in the south weren’t so violent and indiscriminate (particularly the bomb happy USAF), that the British weren’t asking US special forces to get the hell out.
  • If US aid policies in Afghanistan weren’t primarily for the benefit of US contractors who were Republican donors.
  • If the US wasn’t juxtaposing this incompetence in delivering aid with an aggressive anti-opium program that leaves Afghan farmers with a choice between aiding the Taliban or starving.
  • The US wasn’t currently limiting its operations in the east, where Taliban activity is minimal.
  • If the US were not committing a smaller proportion of its military to Afghanistan than the NATO allies.

Is there a single competent Republican party Apparatchik in this entire nation?

Further Indian Problems With Russian Arms Deals

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While the Indian military has had a long history of using Soviet, and later Russian weapons systems, on the naval side things have been strained lately, with delays, under-performance, and cost overruns being the rule rather than the exception, with the Admiral Gorshokov/Vikramaditya fiasco being most prominent.

Now the Indian Navy has
rejected the recently upgraded Kilo class submarines.

This appears to have been driven by integration issues with the Klub-S 3M-54E1 (SS-N-27 Sizzler) anti-ship/land attack missiles, which failed to strike the targets in tests.

I’m not sure if this will effect the massive medium fighter buy planned by the Indian AF, as the problems at this point seem to be limited to naval equipment.

Danny Glover Endorses Donna Edwards

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Danny Glover has endorsed Donna Edwards for Congress in the 4th district, against corrupt DINO Al Wynn.

Last primary, despite assaults on Edwards staffers by Wynn staffers, she came within a few thousand votes of winning, despite running a campaign on a shoestring.

To contribute, go here.

Note that the 4th district is very reliably Democratic, it covers most of PG county, so the real election is in the primary, held Feb 12.

My Thoughts on the Debate

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I came away with one conclusion, that listening to the inane and hacktackular questions of Brian Williams and Tim Russert was on par with being waterboarded. I thought that Natalie Morales was a bit better, but I have less experience with here, and in the case of TV Newsies, familiarity breeds contempt.

I thought that it was a wash, though Clinton nailing Obaba on his vote for the Bush/Cheney energy bill (WTF!) was a good zinger.

John Edwards seemed a bit more energetic. Obama and Clinton seemed a bit tired.

The best questions were asked by the candidates by each other, but that was a very low bar.

Why the hell does Russert have a job?

Pigs Fly: William F. Buckley Jr. Calls for Regulation

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This is true, he is calling for regulation in the mortgage markets. Of course, his prescriptions are disastrously wrong, but he’s new at this regulation thing.

The short form for any solution: Do what FDR did. This problem has grown as we have rolled back depression era regulations.

His points, and my rebuttals:

  • He calls it, “terrible subprime-mortgage phenomenon”.
    • It’s not. It’s bigger than that. It’s not even a mortgage phenomenon, it’s bigger than that. There is a general rot at the core of our financial system.
  • The mortgage crisis came on because our free society did not think to intervene at a juncture where it could have limited the effects of cosmic thoughtlessness and insouciant greed.
    • Actually, I would argue that, given Alan “Bubbles” Greenspan’s close ties to Ayn Rand, it was because he supported, “cosmic thoughtlessness and insouciant greed”.
  • Mortgage brokers not caring about credit worthiness, because they immediately resell the loans.
    • Dead nuts right here.
  • The federal government being the only agent that can possibly intervene, it needs to do so, by forbidding the liquidation of mortgages until the disparity between true value and hypothetical value is pounded away by time and inflation — and a revitalization of the functions of the marketplace.
    • This is wrong. It is unbelievably and catestrophically wrong. He is proposing no foreclosures for the duration of the downturn. Local downturns, ones from much shallower peaks, have typically lasted 5 years. This one may last a lot longer. If you have no foreclosure, you have no incentive to pay the mortgage, and so you have NO LENDERS WILLING TO LEND. We would have a totalli illiquid market.

For what it’s worth, a good first step would be to allow bankruptcy judges to redefine the terms (not the principal) of the loans, as they can for vacation homes and rental properties.

If someone has that option, then a lender is likely to be more willing to deal with them responsibly about loan restructuring.

At this time, the people servicing the loans frequently do not own the loans, and as such, they are unable to renegotiate the terms. Allowing bankruptcy to do so would save a lot of homes, and save the market, and it would penalize the most egregiously abusive lenders.

This Is One of the Most Heroic Things I’ve Ever Heard

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Mercy is sometimes a very difficult thing. It is sometimes a mark of a sort of strength that I can’t even imagine where it comes from.

Here we have the parents of a toddler asking prosecutors to show leniency toward the twelve year old perpetrator.

He beat their baby to death with a baseball bat, and they are asking for the prosecutors not to prosecute, and if they do, to prosecute as a minor.

I don’t know where they find the strength.

Cthulhu on a Cracker!!!! This is What a Legislator Thinks is Improtant

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We have unemployment rising, homes being foreclosed, Iraq and Afghanistan collapsing, and what does Delegate Lionell Spruill think is important? Truck nuts.

Yep, this man, to my great shame a Democrat, is proposing a bill to ban truck nuts, saying, “It comes to a point where there are certain things you just can’t do. And putting testicles on the back of a truck is just too much. So I am trying to stop it.”

About the only person that this benefits is David Letterman.

Citicorp Melt Down

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The New York Times and Forbes have reported that it has over $18 billion in write-offs, resulting in $9.83 billion in losses.

The job cuts, looking to be as high as 10% of the workforce, are normal during a problem, but they have cut the dividend on their stock, which indicates far deeper problems*.

Citibank is in real trouble, and I think that foreign investors will snap up an even bigger portion of the company, assuming that they can be found.

*Of course, the fact that in business cutting jobs and putting people out on the street is normal, and cutting dividends is outrageous and extreme indicates just how f%$#ed up the values are of American business.

Gas Tax Increase Recommended by National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission

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They have recommended a 40¢ a gallon to meet the infrastructure maintenance for roads and bridges.

Obviously, I think that we need to maintain our infrastructure, but I would add a couple of caveats to any gas tax:

  • Over the road truckers are heavily subsidized relative to railroads, which would generally be more energy efficient and economical, and they should pay their own way, which would imply additional taxes and fees for long haul truckers.
  • If taxes are raised, at least half of the revenues should go to mass transit.

Obviously, our infrastructure is falling apart, and needs to be fixed, but it should not be another subsidy.

Richard Cohen: I’d Call Him a Schmuck, but a Schmuck Has a Head

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Let me make this clear, Richard Cohen’s proposed “Farrahkan Test” is stupid and racist.

The idea that Obama some signs off on an editorial decision made by the daughter of his pastor is insane.

Henry at Crooked Timber, in his post, Six degrees of Louis Farrakhan, makes the following point:

There’s something else going on here. I strongly suspect that Barack Obama is being asked to condemn Louis Farrakhan not because there’s some bogus two-degrees-of-separation thing going on, but because Barack Obama is black, and because black politicians are supposed to condemn Louis Farrakhan before they can be trusted. This isn’t racism, but it’s an implicit double standard, under which black politicians have a higher hurdle to jump before they deserve public trust than white ones. More generally, this is a bad, wrongheaded, and even dangerous article. Richard Cohen shouldn’t have written it, and the Washington Post shouldn’t have printed it.

I will go further. This is explicitly, and intentionally racist.

BTW, Obama’s response, as given to Talking Points Memo is as follows:

I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.

Richard Cohen is a shanda before the goyim, and a miserable excuse for a human being.

This explains why he works writing openions for the Washington Post.