Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Panglossian Bulls%$#

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Notwithstanding the Senate pickup, Tueaday was a loss, but we see the crap like this suggesting that it wasn’t that bad.

No, it was that bad.

There are some lessons to learn, the first is that you need to fight something with something, and Tom Barrett wasn’t something.

He is, by all accounts, a nice guy but that’s all he was.

We waffled on repealing the union busting bill, etc.

Any wonder that he lost?

In any case, if you don’t acknowledge that you have failed, you cannot learn from your failures.

Troof

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Writer Jamie Malanowski gets to the heart of the matter when he says that if Obama loses, his refusal to prosecute the criminals at the big banks will be a major cause of this:

This much is clear: if President Obama loses this election, the failure to hold financial titans legally, financially and morally responsible for this financial meltdown will be the factor that will have cost him re-election.

I would argue that this was is also much of the reason for the 2010 debacle.

Malanowski talks about bravery, and how Obama has the courage to take down bin Laden, but not the courage to face the banksters.

I don’t think that this is a a matter of courage, but a matter of tribalism.

I am not making a Kenyan Muslim reference here, but rather an Ivy League reference.

I think that Barack Obama (Columbia and then Harvard Law) is simply unwilling to confront the old boy network which he joined when he went to college.

How to Write a Sincere Apology

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I’m not sure that I’m particularly good at this sort of thing, but actor Jason Alexander is, and he shows himself to be a mensch in the process:

So, I would like to say – I now get it. And to the extent that these jokes made anyone feel even more isolated or misunderstood or just plain hurt – please know that was not my intention, at all or ever. I hope we will someday live in a society where we are so accepting of each other that we can all laugh at jokes like these and know that there is no malice or diminishment intended.

But we are not there yet.

So, I can only apologize and I do. In comedy, timing is everything. And when a group of people are still fighting so hard for understanding, acceptance, dignity and essential rights – the time for some kinds of laughs has not yet come. I hope my realization brings some comfort.

Go read the rest.

Saroff’s Rule Again

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Click for full size


How they shuffled around funds to create the appearance of liquidity


And this is how they covered up their exposure

Yves Smith is all over the report by the bankruptcy trustee for MF Global.

I suggest that you read it, so I will show you to two graphics from the report, and remind you of “Saroff’s Rule”, “If a financial transaction is complex enough to require that a news organization use a cartoon to explain it, its purpose is to deceive.”

It appears that this applies to bankruptcy trustees as well as news orgs.

Go read, and wonder why John Corzine isn’t being frog marched out of his mansion in hand cuffs.

Mikel Kinzly disseze Ezruh Kleyn Haz It

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Michael Kinsley has made a career of intellectually bankrupt and mindless contrarianism.

Basically, you come up with an indefensible and silly argument, and through rhetorical tricks, you make it sound reasonable. Stupid people read it, and think that you are wise.

Well, Ezra Klein at the Washington Post has signed on to this bit of professional hypocrisy. (No link, he is clearly click whoring, and I won’t reward it)   He is now arguing that the Mitt Romney winning the election might be better for the economy because Republicans won’t try to block everything:

Even if you disagree with every one of Mitt Romney’s policies, there’s a chance he’s still the best candidate to lift the economy in 2013.

That’s not because he has business experience. For all his bluster about the lessons taught by the private sector, his agenda is indistinguishable from that of career politician Paul Ryan. Nor is it because he’s demonstrated some special knowledge of what it takes to create jobs. Job growth in Massachusetts was notably slow under Romney’s tenure. It’s because if Romney is elected, Republicans won’t choose to crash the economy in 2013.

This ignores the recent history, which is that Republicans crashed the economy through their attempts to implement their ideology from 2001-2007.

Note that the above argument ignores the fact that he is essentially advocating giving into terrorists.

This is pathetic.

H/t Unfogged.

Decisions, Decisions

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You see, there are two events happening right now that are both rare and could be described as being of astronomical importance (albeit in two completely different uses of the word “astronomical), the Venus transit, and the Scott Walker recall.

Seeing as how my son is supposed to be downtown at the Maryland Science Center right now, and he’s planning to record and Youtube the event, I’ll just post his video when he finishes with it.

In either case, safety first: Do not stare at the sun, or at Scott Walker without wearing appropriate eye protection.

They Will Be Back

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Small farmers in Mexico have managed to block a law to legalize Monsanto’s seed monopolies:

Progressive small farmer organizations in Mexico scored a victory over transnational corporations that seek to monopolize seed and food patents. When the corporations pushed their bill to modify the Federal Law on Plant Varieties through the Committee on Agriculture and Livestock of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies on March 14, organizations of farmers from across the country sounded the alarm. By organizing quickly, they joined together to pressure legislators and achieved an agreement with the legislative committee to remove the bill from the floor.

What’s at stake is free and open access to plant biodiversity in agriculture. The proposed modifications promote a privatizing model that uses patents and “Plant Breeders’ Rights” (PBR) to deprive farmers of the labor of centuries in developing seed. The small farmers who worked to create this foundation of modern agriculture never charged royalties for its use.

Although the current law, in effect since 1996, pays little heed to the rights of small farmers, the new law would be far worse. Present law tends to benefit private-sector plant breeders, allowing monopolies to obtain exclusive profits from the sale of seeds and other plant material for up to 15 years, or 18 in the case of perennial ornamental, forest, or orchard plants–even when the plants they used to develop the new varieties are in the public domain.

The legislative reform would extend exclusive rights from the sale of reproductive material to 25 years. Further, it seeks to restrict the rights of farmers to store or use for their own consumption any part of the harvest obtained from seeds or breeding material purchased from holders of PBRs.

The bill wasn’t defeated, it just didn’t pass, so this is a temporary victory.

Monsanto and its ilk will come back again … and again … and again until they get their bill.

And the Republican Establishment is Now Resorting to Beatdowns of Paulites

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As a result of good organization and a thorough knowledge of the rules, Ron Paul’s supporters have won significant numbers of delegates.

In Louisiana, they wan an outright majority, and response of the Republican establishment was ignore them and call in the police to administer a beat down on their elected leaders:

“I’m handicapped! I need a doctor!” “Sir, this is the chairman!” The Louisiana State Republican Convention descended into chaos Saturday morning, with several delegates being arrested and the convention chairman being thrown to the ground by police. Sources report that state party officials panicked when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates commanded a decisive majority of the delegates on the floor – at least 111 of 180 (62%).

The convention began peacefully with a prayer and invocation. Roger Villere, Chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, then attempted to recognize the former Chair of the Convention’s Rules Committee who had been ousted from his position last night. When Alex Helwig, the newly elected Rules Committee chair, rose to address the delegation, Mr. Villere ordered him removed from the floor. Video footage shows Shreveport police dragging Mr. Helwig out of the room despite his protests that he was a duly elected delegate.

Here’s hoping that the national convention Tampa will be bat-sh%$ insane as well.

h/t Vonners at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

A Yankees Fan Throws Out the First Pitch at the Detroit Game

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Star Wars villain Darth Vader throws out the ceremonial first pitch to the Detroit Tigers’ Duane Below before the game between the Tigers and New York Yankees at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan (Julian H. Gonzalez / Detroit Free Press/MCT)

There are two reasons to be a Yankees fan.

The first is, as my mother did, is to live a few blocks from the stadium.

You could look down into the stadium and catch parts of the game from the roof of her parent’s apartment.

The second reason is to be deeply evil.

To have turned to the dark side, as it were.

In memory of Steve Gilliard, let me say, F%$# the F%$#ing Yankees.

BTW, naming stadia after corporations is even more evil than the New York Yankees.

And I, For One, Welcome Our New Zombie Overlords

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Over the past few weeks, there has been an outbreak of zombie apocalypse sort of behaviors, we had the (all allegedly):

No wonder the CDC has issued a denial of the existence of any disease that causes zombiesim.

I don’t believe in the undead, but something weird is going one here. 

H/t CD at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

This Smells Like Karl Rove Punking Dan Rather

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We have a story that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker fathered a child out of wedlock, and was rather a cad about it, by noted brain injury specialist Dr. Bernadette Gillick, who said that it was her roommate.

There has since been a denial from the woman in question. (Actually, within hours of the publication of the story)

It smells to me a lot like the punking that Rove gave Dan Rather over George W. Bush’s Texas National Guard service (or lack thereof).

In the case of W, the stories were probably true, and the false story was likely floated in order to defuse the issue.

In the case of Scott Walker, I’m not sure if there is an actually baby that he abandoned, or this is an attempt to distract attention from the John Doe investigation which has already snared his closest political advisers, but it smells like a ‘Phant false flag operation.

In related news, the DoJ will be sending observers to monitor the elections.

I hope they bring cuffs to Waukesha county, because with county clerk Kathy Nickolaus running elections there, despite having been forced to delegate her duties to her deputy, I expect it to be an orgy of irregularities there.

In Other News, the Sky is Blue

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Gee, after a long history of blatantly political censorship in its reviews, the CIA is finally investigating its publications review board:

The CIA has begun an internal investigation into whether a process designed to screen books by former employees and protect national security secrets is being used in part to censor agency critics, U.S. officials said.

The investigation coincides with the publication of a flurry of books from CIA veterans, and it is largely aimed at determining whether some redactions have been politically motivated.

Among the publications expected to get particular scrutiny is a memoir by the former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who used his book, “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,” to mount a vigorous defense of interrogation methods that were widely condemned but that he asserts provided critical intelligence about al-Qaeda.

The target of the probe is the agency’s Publications Review Board. The PRB evaluates hundreds of submissions each year and is supposed to focus exclusively on whether publication of material would threaten national security interests.

The CIA declined to comment on the internal investigation or to answer questions about the composition and practices of the PRB.

U.S. officials familiar with the inquiry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that it reflects growing concern in the intelligence community that the review process is biased toward agency loyalists, particularly those from the executive ranks.

Gee, you think?

This process has been corrupt and self serving for at least a decade.

Bummer of a Birthmark, George

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Bummer of a birth mark

George Zimmerman’s bail has been revoked because the judge has determined that he lied about his finances at the bail hearing:

A Florida judge on Friday revoked the bond of George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, after state prosecutors argued that Mr. Zimmerman, with the help of his wife, had misled the court about his finances.

During an afternoon hearing in Sanford, Fla., a Seminole County Circuit Court judge, Kenneth R. Lester Jr., ordered Mr. Zimmerman, 28, a former neighborhood watch volunteer who himself aspired to be a judge, to surrender to authorities within 48 hours.

Judge Lester made his ruling shortly after an assistant state attorney, Bernardo de la Rionda, asserted that Mr. Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, during a bail hearing on April 20, had “lied” and “were very deceptive” about assets available to them. That hearing cleared the way for Mr. Zimmerman’s release from jail on $150,000 bond. He had to put up 10 percent, or $15,000, to make bail.

The judge determined that Mr. Zimmerman, who has been in hiding because of concerns about his safety, had engaged in “material falsehoods.” At issue is the roughly $200,000 Mr. Zimmerman raised through a legal defense Web site, money that Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark M. O’Mara, said he learned of several days after the bond hearing.

So, now in addition to going back to jail, the judge has just called him a liar.

His defense team has to be throwing a fit right now.