Author: Matthew G. Saroff

China Blasts US for Stupid Comment.

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Someone needs to tell the Bush admin that this kind of false macho bullsh$# does not fly in the real world.

Better yet, someone should show them.

Oh…I forgot. Muqtada al Sadr already has

China says U.S. remarks on its military irresponsible

Reuters
Thursday, June 14, 2007; 5:31 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) – China denounced U.S. comments on its defense spending as “irresponsible” on Thursday and defended its military budget, saying it was open and transparent.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang also called on the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China considers its own, and to refrain from “sending any wrong signals to Taiwan secessionist forces.”

“China sticks to the role of peaceful development,” Qin told a news conference.

“On the military expenditure of China, we are transparent and open. The U.S. official’s remarks disregard the facts and spread the China threat theory,” Qin said.

On Wednesday, Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy undersecretary for defense for Asia, was reported to have accused China of concealing its spending on its weapons programs.

“What we see is a deliberate effort on the part of China’s leaders to mask the nature of Chinese military capabilities,” Lawless told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.

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2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals – New York Times

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Phony offer.

2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: June 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 13 — The Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas on Wednesday to Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara M. Taylor, the former political director, ratcheting up the pressure on the White House to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry into last year’s firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House has rejected previous Congressional requests to interview presidential aides, offering to let them be interviewed in private if no transcript is kept.

The judiciary panels, acting two days after Republicans blocked an effort to hold a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, also sought White House documents about its involvement in the dismissals and efforts to respond to Congressional inquiries into whether as many as nine United States attorneys were removed for political reasons.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said in a statement that “committees can easily obtain the facts they want without this confrontational approach by simply accepting our offer.” The committees’ Democratic leaders “are more interested in creating media drama than getting the facts,” Mr. Fratto said.

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The offer is no transcript, in secret, and not sworn in.

This means:

  • No Ability to Investigate Conflicting Testimony

  • No Ability To Document Lies

  • No Ability to Prosecute Lies

  • No Public Disclosure of Illegality

Translation, “I’m gonna make you squeal like a pig.”

More Signs that We are in for a Bumpy Economic Ride

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These “financial instruments” are not hedges, they are a highly speculative instruments to boost profits to satisfy share holders.

Between their core business tanking with problems with sub prime and Alt-A loans, and speculative derivatives, this will get ugly.

Freddie Mac falls into loss

Jun 14, 2007 08:17 AM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac, the nation’s second largest buyer and guarantor of home mortgages, reported a first-quarter loss of $211 million (U.S.), mainly from erosion in the value of financial instruments it uses to hedge against interest rate swings.

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It’s Gonna be, I Believe — The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!! The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!! The Bigots Lose the Pennant!!!!!

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The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!
The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!
The Bigots Lose the pennant!!!!!

Legislators vote to defeat same-sex marriage ban

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was defeated today by a joint session of the Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. The measure needed at least 50 votes to advance.

The vote came after House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, Senate President Therese Murray, and Governor Deval Patrick conferred this morning and concluded that they have the votes to kill the proposal. Cheers echoed in the State House when the vote was tallied.

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” Patrick told reporters after the results were official.

The three leaders – along with gay rights activists – spent the last several days intensely lobbying a dozen or more state representatives and state senators who had previously supported the amendment but signaled that they were open to changing their positions.

Because fewer than 50 of the state’s 200 lawmakers supported the amendment, it will not appear on the 2008 ballot, giving gay marriage advocates a major victory in their battle with social conservatives to keep same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts.

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Scooter Is Going To Gaol.

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As tempting as it is to make politically incorrect jokes, I will simply leave it at:

Scooter is a Really Bad Name in Prison

Judge won’t delay Libby prison term

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON – A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a ruling that could send the former White House aide to prison within weeks.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton’s decision will send Libby’s attorneys rushing to an appeals court to block the sentence and could force
President Bush to consider calls from Libby’s supporters to pardon the former aide.

Mortgage Bond Funds Running Screaming for the Door

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This is an attempt to sell at fire sale prices, so they can get out before everyone is heading for the exits.

It is the start of a panic.

Bear Stearns fund scrambles to sell bonds

Hedge fund faces losses as it tries to sell about $4 million in mortgage-backed bonds to raise cash for redemptions, according to a report.
June 14 2007: 8:03 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) — A hedge fund managed by Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. is trying to sell large amounts of mortgage-backed bonds in a potentially troubling sign for the broader mortgage-backed bond market, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

Bear Stearns’ (Charts, Fortune 500) High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund is facing losses and, together with a sister fund, is trying to sell about $4 billion in bonds to raise cash for redemptions and to prepare for likely margin calls, according to the report, which cited people close to the fund.

North Korean Money Released

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This problem was not created by the DPRK. It was created by the Bush administration, which DAYS after having a preliminary agreement, froze North Korean assets.

My guess is that some of Dick Cheney’s protégés made the call to freeze these assets.

They have been sabotaging negotiations for years.

Hopes rise for end to North Korea impasse

TOKYO – The transfer of blacklisted North Korean assets from a Macau bank was set to begin Thursday, a report said, raising hopes of resolving the drawn-out dispute which has held up a nuclear disarmament deal.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency, quoting unnamed authorities in the Chinese territory, said procedures to transfer the funds out of the Banco Delta Asia were scheduled to begin Thursday.

The communist North, which sparked international outrage when it tested an atom bomb for the first time last year, agreed in February to shut down its nuclear reactor in return for badly needed fuel aid and diplomatic benefits.

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George Bush’s watch Hits eBay

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I have been told that a different camera angle disproves the theft story, but the fact that someone is hawking a phony watch on eBay is funny.

George Bush’s watch clocked on eBay

George Bush’s watch clocked on eBay
On its way to Oz via Kazakhstan
By Lester Haines → More by this author
Published Wednesday 13th June 2007 15:43 GMT
Mobile computing: Opportunities and risk – Free whitepaper

It didn’t take long for George Bush’s wristwatch – allegedly swiped on Sunday by Albanian former godless Commies – to pop up on eBay.

Sadly, there’s no photo at present to back up the sale, but the vendor does give a very good reason:

I bought this watch from an Albanian friend, he claims to have “borrowed” it from George Bush.
Click here to find out more!

I can’t prove it’s an Authentic Dubya timepiece, (It has a Mickey Mouse face, as opposed to the Presidential Seal) but it’s certainly a nice watch.

Obviously the watch is second hand, however it’s in mint condition.

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Bush Administration Endangers Air Travelers Over Petty Snit

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Yep, bullsh&% at the expense of safety, because petty score settling.

One wonders what other self destructive stupidity might be occurring because of, say, oedipal conflicts, *COUGH* IRAQ *COUGH*.

U.S. delays exporting licenses to Syrian Air

The U.S. government is dragging its feet on exporting licenses for aviation security items to Syrian Air – and the airline thinks there is an ulterior motive. Fortune’s
Marc Perelman reports.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Marc Perelman, Fortune
June 14 2007: 5:42 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) — Is the Bush administration toying with aviation safety to pursue its political goals in the Middle East?

That’s what the chairman of Syria’s national airline and other experts say is the effect of extensive delays by Washington in issuing export licenses to Syrian Air for U.S.-manufactured aviation-security items – even though those items are exempt from a three-year-old export ban.

“Since the export ban has been in place, the U.S. has begun to delay the export-license process,” Syrian Air chairman Nachaat Numir told Fortune in a recent interview in Damascus. “In the past the normal export-license application process took one month, maximum. Now it takes several months, even a year.”

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Av Week Editorial Slams “U.S. Footdragging” On Global Warming

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As I have said before, AW&ST has a fairly right wing editorial page, and this an indication that the scientific whores trying to cast doubt on global warming have lost.

U.S. Global Warming Initiative Is A Step Backward (Subscription Required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/11/2007, page 66

Open a good book on global warming and in its index you will find references to a wealth of data and analysis from NASA Earth sciences flight programs and scientists, as well as to their contribution to the growing awareness and understanding of risks our planet faces from greenhouse gases.

Thus it is a mystery how NASA’s administrator, Michael Griffin, could have become so entangled during a National Public Radio interview on May 31, and how President Bush could have come up with so passive a greenhouse-gas proposal for last week’s Group of 8 meeting in Germany.

Griffin is a very smart man who sometimes says not-so-smart things. He did it again on NPR, commenting that he couldn’t say whether global warming is “a long-term concern.” When a dumbstruck interviewer followed up, asking whether Griffin had “any doubt that this is a problem that mankind has to wrestle with,” the administrator waded in up to his waist. “To assume that [warming] is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate . . . and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change.”

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Don Herbert, ‘Mr. Wizard’ to Science Buffs, Dies at 89 – New York Times

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He was before my time, but he will be missed.

Don Herbert, ‘Mr. Wizard’ to Science Buffs, Dies at 89

RICHARD GOLDSTEINPublished: June 13, 2007

Don Herbert, who unlocked the wonders of science for youngsters of the 1950s and ’60s as television’s Mr. Wizard, died yesterday at his home in the Bell Canyon section of Los Angeles. He was 89.

Don Herbert, around 1955.

The cause was bone cancer, his son-in-law Tom Nikosey told The Associated Press in confirming the death.

Mr. Herbert held no advanced degree in science, he used household items in his TV lab, and his assistants were boys and girls. But he became an influential showman-science teacher on his half-hour “Watch Mr. Wizard” programs, which ran on NBC from 1951 to 1965.

Millions of youngsters may have been captivated by Howdy Doody and the Lone Ranger, but many were also conducting science experiments at home, emulating Mr. Wizard.

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Space station oxygen, water computers fail – CNN.com

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NASA’s boondoggle is having trouble.

I worked on equipment for the space shuttle while at Lockheed Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie, TX, on the radiators, and I saw the specifications.

There were Minimum sizes for components.

The only reason for this was to ensure that only the shuttle could carry them into orbit.

So, to paraphrase a The Daily Show correspondent, we need to have the shuttle to service the space station, and we need the space station to give the shuttle a mission.

What a clusterf%$#.

Space station oxygen, water computers fail

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) — Russian computers that control the international space station’s orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle’s mission — or cutting it short.

Russian engineers aren’t sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station.

The station is operated primarily by the Russian and U.S. space agencies, with contributions from the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies.

“We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA manager of the space station program.

But the computer failure could extend space shuttle Atlantis’ mission by at least a day and, in a worst-case scenario, force the space station’s three crew members to return to Earth early if the computers aren’t fixed.

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Vladimir Putin Just Owned Bush and Rice

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There is no mistake about this. Putin just convinced people that he is the adult in this situation, and that Bush and his TOADIE Secretary of State are loose cannons who can destabilize the region.

These folks screw up everything they touch.

Russian missile offer is ‘a major shift’ says Czech PM

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Russia’s offer to set up a joint anti-missile base with the United States to end a stand-off between the two countries is a significant move, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said.

‘I think that the Russian offer represents a major shift in (President Vladimir) Putin’s view of the problem,’ he told a joint news conference after a short meeting with his British counterpart Tony Blair in Downing Street.

The Czech Republic and neighbouring Poland have been at the centre of a row between the United States and Russia over the former’s proposed anti-missile defence shield in central and eastern Europe.

Washington, which says the shield is aimed at rogue states and not Russia, asked Prague earlier this year to host a radar tracking station and Warsaw to site 10 interceptor missiles to shoot hostile missiles from the sky.

Amid escalating Cold War-style language and threats, Putin sought to defuse the row at last week’s G8 summit by suggesting a joint Russian-US anti-missile base in Azerbaijan.

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Boeing supplier Vought Outlines 787 Challenges (Schedule Slippage)

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Two notes on this:

  • For most of the time that I was at United Defense (later BAE Systems), Elmer Doty was Vice President & General Manager, Ground. Systems Division

  • Boeing has VERY aggressively spread technally “bleeding edge” portions of 787 manufacture to outside vendors, where potential delays are largely invisible. I would expect the 787 deliveries to be delayed, though perhaps not as much as the Airbus a380.

Boeing supplier Vought outlines 787 challenges

Key Boeing 787 supplier Vought Aircraft Industries has disclosed it is facing “ongoing schedule slippage” in obtaining parts it is supposed to install before shipping fuselage sections to Boeing, a company memo obtained by the Seattle press reveals.

Shortly after it was reported the head of 787 operations at Vought, Ted Perdue, had left the company, Vought CEO Elmer Doty sent a memo to employees setting clear the firm faced challenges but noting it was acting quickly to address the issues.”

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Freddie Mac Ranks No. 50 on the 2007 Fortune 500 – Jun. 13, 2007

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I would not be surprised if they are completely off the Fortune 500 in a couple of years because of bad loans.

Freddie Mac Ranks No. 50 on the 2007 Fortune 500

June 13 2007: 10:51 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Freddie Mac (FRE (Charts, Fortune 500)) ranks no. 50 on FORTUNE’s list of America’s largest corporations.

The McLean, VA-based company was ranked No. [omitted in article] on the 2006 list. Its 2006 revenues were up 20.5 percent from the previous year; profits were up 3.8 percent from the previous year.

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May import prices rise 0.9 percent, higher than expected – Jun. 13, 2007

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The dollar is falling, pushing up import prices, and interest rates.

This is going to get worse, hitting housing, and the stock market.

May import prices rise 0.9 percent, higher than expected

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Import prices rose 0.9 percent, the fourth straight monthly gain, on higher petroleum costs, according to a Labor Department report issued Wednesday.

Wall Street economists were expecting to see a 0.3 percent gain in import prices following an upwardly revised 1.4 percent increase in April.

U.S. government bond prices fell Wednesday after higher-than-expected retail sales and import prices exacerbated bond investors concerns that the Federal Reserve might have to raise interest rates next year.

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Another Patent Troll Whines

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They make nothing. They sell nothing. They can be made right with money.

And the patent is f&^%ing obvious, and probably does not stand up to the new standard that SCOTUS set a few weeks ago.

These people are paracites, and they are destroying innovation in our society.

There has been a “price before auction” for a hundred years.

Company calls for end to eBay’s `Buy It Now’

PATENT LAWS DEBATED BEFORE FEDERAL JUDGE
By Sonja Barisic
Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/13/2007 01:37:55 AM PDT

NORFOLK, Va. – A small Virginia company in a patent fight with eBay asked a federal judge Tuesday to stop the online auction powerhouse from using its “Buy It Now” feature, which allows shoppers to buy items at a fixed price.

A federal jury found in 2003 that eBay had infringed Great Falls, Va.-based MercExchange’s patent. But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to patent-reform advocates when it ruled that MercExchange was not automatically entitled to a court order blocking the offending service.

Now, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman must decide whether MercExchange is entitled to a permanent injunction. The judge did not say when he would rule.

Friedman also did not immediately rule on eBay’s request to stay the proceedings until the federal patent office has completed a re-examination of the patent – a process MercExchange’s lawyers said could take 10 years.

Lawyers for San Jose-based eBay told the judge the company has designed a work-around so it no longer infringes on the patent, and thus an injunction is unnecessary.

Attorney Jeff Randall said MercExchange has not suffered irreparable harm and that the company is better off now than it was before the trial, citing an investment by a hedge fund.

MercExchange’s attorneys, however, argued that the potential for future infringement is at stake.

Thoughts On The Fighting in Gaza

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My first thought is to paraphrase Henry Kissinger’s comment on the Iran-Iraq war, “Too bad they can’t both lose.”

I would add to that the thought that it would be nice if they broth could do it someplace where innocent women and children don’t get caught in the crossfire.

My second thought is about the consistent inability of the PLO and its successors and constituent parts to maintain military effectiveness against any sort of armed opponent.

Hamas has basically taken control of the Gaza strip in just a couple of days.

When one considers that Fatah has been in a position to arm and train its forces for 10 years more than Hamas, this boggles the mind.

Or rather, it boggles the mind until one considers the history of the PLO, Fatah, the PFLP, and the PLA (Palestinian Liberation Army).

The PLO has been consistently over marched by anything this side of a mean little kid with a pea shooter.

The performance of the PLO/Fatah in combat against any even vaguely organized military force makes the “speed bumps” of Europe, Belgium (WWI, WWII, Waterloo, and any other fight were people didn’t not want to break their own stuff) and Poland (A bunch of starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto held out longer against the Wehrmacht than the Polish army did) look like Georgy Zhukov’s armies marching on Berlin.

Hamas Seizing Control of Gaza Strip
By SARAH EL DEEB

Hamas fighters launched a fierce offensive on Gaza City Wednesday, firing mortars and rockets at Fatah’s main security bases and the president’s compound as the Islamic group appeared close to taking control of the entire Gaza Strip.

With fighting raging on rooftops and streets in nearly all corners of Gaza, residents huddled in fear in their homes.

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Hamas gunmen neutralized the main strongholds of the Fatah-linked security forces, ruling the streets and taking control of large parts of Gaza in the process.

Abbas’ forces – desperately trying to cling to their besieged bases in Gaza – lashed out at the president, saying he left them with no directions and no support in the fight.

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The mark of poor soldiers. They can’t do anything without orders.

Hamas, already in control of much of northern Gaza, seized the southern town of Khan Younis and began a coordinated assault on the town of Rafah, also in the south, security officials said.

The rout of the security forces was so bad that 40 Palestinian security officers broke through the border fence in Rafah and fled into Egypt seeking safety, Egyptian police said.

“What can I say? This is a fall, a collapse,” said Col. Nasser Khaldi, a senior police official in Rafah.

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Why I Dumped AT&T, and Why You Should Too

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I had them as my long distance provider for nearly 20 years.

When I heard about them breaking the law to turn over records to the NSA. I dumped them, and switched to QWest.

The only good that AT&T ever did was Bell Labs, and that is part of Lucent now.

AT&T willing to spy for NSA, MPAA, and RIAA

By Nate Anderson | Published: June 13, 2007 – 10:13AM CT

In a move that has executives from movie studios and record labels grinning from ear to ear, AT&T has announced that it will develop and deploy technology that will attempt to keep pirated content off its network. The move is spurred in part by the company’s decision to offer IPTV television service as part of its U-Verse package, AT&T senior VP James W. Cicconi told the Los Angeles Times.

The first step for AT&T is coming up with a technological solution that works: something that can effectively filter out illicit traffic while protecting its users’ privacy. That’s a tall—if not impossible—order. YouTube hasn’t managed to do it even for video yet, and that’s when customers are sending them entire files which they can scan at their leisure. Monitoring all the files sent through BitTorrent—which splits them into tiny pieces—could be even more difficult; doing it in real-time sounds both expensive and impossible.

Without human intervention, it’s also tough to tell if copyrighted content is even “piracy.” Fair use carves out exceptions for news reporting, criticism, and commentary (among other things) which is nearly impossible for a machine to understand in context.

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