Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Nuck Fow and Nuck FARAL

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Executives at NARAL and Now have said that they are incensed over the Obama executive order restricting abortion:

The president of the National Organization for Women said her group is “incensed” about the impasse-breaking deal between President Obama and a group of anti-abortion Catholic Democrats that seems likely to allow historic health-care reform legislation to pass the House later Sunday night, saying the planned presidential executive order “breaks faith with women.”

………

NARAL Pro-Choice America shared NOW’s objections. “On a day when Americans are expected to see passage of legislation that will make health care more affordable for more than 30 million citizens, it is deeply disappointing that Bart Stupak and other anti-choice politicians would demand the restatement of the Hyde amendment, a discriminatory law that blocks low-income women from receiving full reproductive-health care,” NARAL President Nancy Keenan said in a statement.

You know, it was clear during the primaries that Barack Obama’s commitment to reproductive rights was tepid at best based on his record in the Illinois State Senate, and senior executives at Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW ignored this, and never pressed him on his record.

Of course, once he was the nominee, tepid and ineffectual support was better than that reproductive rights horror-show that is the Republican party.

That being said, being thrown under the bus was predictable, and whining now is just lame.

Party Line Vote

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Dodd’s weak tea financial reform passes the Senate Banking Committee.

Here’s hoping that the Barny Frank – slightly less weak tea – bill prevails in conference committee, though if the Dems were smart, they would use finance reform as a way to get the Republicans to vote for the fat cat Wall Street bankers, and then use those votes as a cudgel in November.

But that would require that Democrats find their spines, which I think is unlikely.

They do not realize that having a backbone is something that voters place a huge value on, perhaps even more than philosophy and policy.

That’s why the leading candidate in the Republican primary in Alan Grayson’s district is Alan Grayson, because voters vote for politicians with guts.

Fire Timothy Geithner Now

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We have a couple new developments, first was that Merrill Lynch told both the SEC and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that Lehman was cooking the books:

Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve officials were warned by a leading Wall Street rival that Lehman Brothers was incorrectly calculating a key measure of its financial health months before its collapse in 2008, people familiar with the matter say.

Former Merrill Lynch officials said they contacted regulators about the way Lehman measured its liquidity position for competitive reasons.

…

he findings raise questions over what federal regulators knew about Lehman’s accounting and when they knew it. In the account given by the Merrill officials, the SEC, the lead regulator, and the New York Federal Reserve were given warnings about Lehman’s balance sheet calculations as far back as March 2008.

Former and current Fed officials say even in the competitive world of Wall Street, it is un­usual for rival bankers to relay such concerns to the Fed.

It takes an awful lot to get one investment bank to rat out another, the first rule of Wall Street is never tell the regulators, and and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, president Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner, as well as the SEC, which was largely deferring to the NY Fed, decided to ignore it.

Actually, it’s more. Not only did Geithner’s Bank ignore the reports, it bought junk grade debt from Lehman in violation of the law:

As Lehman Brothers careened toward bankruptcy in 2008, the New York Federal Reserve Bank came to its rescue, sopping up junk loans that the investment bank couldn’t sell in the market, according to a report from court-appointed examiner Anton R. Valukas.

The New York Fed, under the direction of now-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, knowingly allowed itself to be used as a “warehouse” for junk loans, the report says, even though Fed guidelines say it can only accept investment grade bonds.

Meanwhile, the Fed and Geithner both strongly oppose a congressional measure to authorize an independent audit of the central bank and its lending facilities. The provision passed the House but is under attack in the Senate, where Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) says he hopes to stop it.

Without an audit, the Fed is able to conceal the specifics of what it holds on its balance sheet. If the Lehman deal is any indication, the Fed is hiding billions of dollars in toxic loans on its books.

“The Fed legally is forbidden from taking such assets. There’s a legal requirement that the Fed’s assets be investment grade,” Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) told HuffPost. Grayson, who is the cosponsor of the Grayson-Paul Audit the Fed measure that passed the House, said the Lehman scandal shows precisely why such an audit is needed.

Seriously, he cheated on his taxes, he’s aided and abetted the pervasive accounting fraud at Lehman, and he’s still in the bank’s pocket.

I understand that his successor will face a filibuster, but please, fire him, and go with a recess appointment.

It doesn’t matter that he knows where the bodies are buried if he’s a part of the gang what murdered the economy, and he’s still working flashing gang symbols to Dimon and Blankfien.

An Unambiguous Good in the Healthcare Bill

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Assuming, of course, that it makes it past the preening narcissists in the US Senate, is the fact that it will finally stop paying banks to sell overpriced loans to students.

These loans are guaranteed by the US government, and now, only the US Government will make them:

Legislation hailed by supporters as the most significant change to college student lending in a generation passed the House on Sunday night.

The student aid initiative, which House Democrats attached to their final amendments to the health-care bill, would overhaul the student loan industry, eliminating a $60 billion program that supports private student loans with federal subsidies and replacing it with government lending to students. The House amendments will now go to the Senate.

By ending the subsidies and effectively eliminating the middleman, the student loan bill would generate $61 billion in savings over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Most of those savings, $36 billion, would go to Pell grants, funding an era of steady and predictable increases in the massive but underfunded federal aid program for needy students. Smaller portions would go toward reducing the deficit and to various Democratic priorities, including community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and caps on loan payments.

Of course, there is a more general problem with the student loan program, which is that student loans, and federal student aid programs, when juxtaposed with the collusion of the top schools on tuition and financial aid, have led to the costs of higher education significantly outpacing inflation.

But that’s another rant.

Thanks for Reading……

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Well, for the third time in about 33 months, I have broken $100 barrier in my Google™ Adsense™ account, which means that at some time in April, I will get a bank transfer for something in excess of $100.

As I have noted, it does not amount to much compared to how much Mickey Kaus is overpaid, but I try to consider it to be found money, and as such, I will spend it on something frivolous.

I’ll probably blow it on a nice dinner out with Sharon.*

Please note: once again, that I do not vet, nor do I endorse any ad that appears on my site, and I reserve the right to mock both the ads that appear on my site, as well as the advertisers.

Also, please note, this should be in no way construed as an inducement or a request for my reader(s) to click on any ad that they would not otherwise be inclined to investigate further. This would be a violation of the terms of service for Google™ Adsense™.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Eugene Robinson Is Wrong

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He takes the general case, and makes it too specific when he says, “Democrats discover the benefits of taking a stand on health reform.

The reality is that American voters favor audacity, even when the policies are things that they do not support, one need only look at Reagan and Bush, who achieved their popular support despite pushing policies that the American public generally opposed.

The route to electoral success is to tell the Republicans to go Cheney themselves, and then include things in the bill that jam them up with the voters when election time rolls around.

I Must Condemn Matthew Yglesias in the Strongest Possible Terms

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This is just evil

Simply put, while I understand and appreciate his desire tosay, “In your face,” to Republicans, who have now appeared to lose the vote, this over-steps the basic bounds of humanity.

Seriously man, you use the music of ABBA to chastise Republicans?

You do know that doing so is but one step away from napalming baby kittens!

Baby Kittens, do you hear me, Napalming Baby Kittens!!!!

You’ve done enough! Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you NO sense of DECENCY?

What I Did This Afternoon

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Click for full size


The Enola Gay


SR-71 Blackbird


A rear view of the Blackbird, illustrating how flat it is


The Boeing 707 prototype, the Dash 80, in the fugliest color scheme I’ve ever seen


Gemini capsule


Samuel Langley’s Aerodrome


Bell-Boeing XV-15 tilt rotor demonstrator


Concorde


Space shuttle prototype Enterprise


Spotted on the tail of an F-14, Felix the Cat from VFA-6

I went to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, located right next to Dulles Airport in Chantilly, VA.

Charlie’s Cub Scout Pack went there for an outing.

While is is a most impressive collection of aircraft, as a museum, it left me a bit cold.

Unlike the branch on the Mall in Washington, DC, this was basically just a shed full of aircraft, and the exhibits, such as they were, were basically just afterthoughts.

I enjoyed myself, but I would much rather go to the DC museum.

OK, The Weird Have Turned Pro: Tanker Tango Edition

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Yes, the Russkys are Proposing a 4 Engine Tanker

So, the Northrop-Grumman/EADS team has bowed out, and EADS CEO Louis Gallois has said that it is impossible for them to make a solo bid by the May 10 deadline.

This is not surprising, they would have to develop a plan to establish a manufacturing facility, reconfirm and/or create arrangements with suppliers, etc.

Well, the Pentagon understands that, and is willing to extend the deadline to allow for a bid from EADS:

The Department has received notification from EADS North America indicating possible interest in competing for the Air Force’s KC-X Tanker and we would welcome that. Consistent with our commitment to conduct a fair and open competition, the Department invites proposals from all qualified contractors and, if necessary, we would consider a reasonable extension to the RFP deadline. That is not unusual. In fact, a few recent examples include BAMS, VH-71, Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) II, LOGCAP IV, LCS, LPD-17 Repair Services, and FMTV.

So, it sounds to me like the USAF really wants to light a fire under Boeing with the prospect of some competition, because otherwise they know that the tanker will be both expensive and late without a the possibility of meaningful competition.

EADS has has not ruled out bidding if the deadline is extended (press release):

EADS will assess new situation on US Tanker Request for Proposal

Leiden, 19 March 2010

Yesterday the US Department of Defense (DoD) indicated it would welcome a proposal from EADS North America as prime contractor for the KC-X tanker competition. This is a significant development. EADS is assessing this new situation to determine if the company can feasibly submit a responsive proposal to the Department’s request for proposal (RFP).

And while this development is a positive sign that the DoD seeks competition, it does not address EADS’ underlying concerns that the RFP clearly favors a smaller, less capable aircraft, and that the additional combat capability offered by our system may not be fully valued.

An important prerequisite for our consideration of entry into this competition will be a significant extension to the period within which to prepare and submit a proposal. EADS welcomes the DoD’s recent statement which indicated a willingness to extend the timeframe. Though this is essential, it is only one factor in making a decision for EADS to compete. In the end, the company will only submit a proposal if there is a fair chance to win, after evaluating all relevant factors.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2009, the Group – comprising Airbus, Eurocopter, EADS Astrium and EADS Defence & Security – generated revenues of € 42.8 billion and employed a workforce of more than 119,000.

OK, I bet you have a question now, why did I say that this was weird?

After all, this appears pretty normal in the world of defense contractors angling for maximizing their chances at a Pentagon contract.

Well, the weird does not come from Boeing, nor does it come from EADS. Rather we are getting our dose of weird from the Russians, who are proposing that a modified version of their Ilyushin Il-98, called the Il-98, for the competition.

While I can see the aircraft being cheaper, low cost is what Russian aerospace has as its chief asset, I cannot see anyone going with a 4 engine aircraft, the operational costs would be higher.

Furthermore, were a Russian aircraft to get the contract, it would have the effect of reinforcing a world-wide spares and maintenance infrastructure for Russian civil aircraft generally, which would be bad for both EADS and Boeing, since this would make Russian aircraft far more competitive.

My guess is that this announcement involves a sick sense of humor and a bit of Vodka.

Or, perhaps they are trying to get a payment from Boeing not to bid.

(on edit)
My bad, the Russians will be offering a 2 engine based on the Il-96 to create the Il-98, so the economics might not be quite so bad, and given its Soviet origins, it may very well be able to operate off of less robust airfields, since Soviet designs typically have more/larger tires, and so lower ground pressure.

Still, this is just freaky.

This Time Google™ Adsense™ Serves Up Evil

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I saw this ad on my blog, and was not clear what it was about, so I clicked through (generally a no-no, but I’ve done it about 3 times simply because the ad made me wonder about what was behind it).

What is this an ad for? It’s an ad for ACTON Marketing LLC, of Lincoln Nebraska, and what they are selling is a method to get people to sign up for NSF (insufficient funds) overdraft protection.

Yes, those scummy fees on bank cards, and these scummy marketers have a program to try to browbeat people into explicitly opting into those programs, as is now required by law.

So, once again, I am getting advertisements from the dark side,

Please note: once again, that I do not vet, nor do I endorse any ad that appears on my site, and I reserve the right to mock both the ads that appear on my site, as well as the advertisers.

Also, please note, this should be in no way construed as an inducement or a request for my reader(s) to click on any ad that they would not otherwise be inclined to investigate further. This would be a violation of the terms of service for Google™ Adsense™.

The Face of the Opposition to Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

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Former NATO SACEUR, John Sheehan, has mad the claim that The Srebrenica massacre happened because the Dutch allow gays to serve openly to the Senate Armed Services Community:

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende attacked on Friday claims by a retired U.S. general that Dutch forces were overrun in Srebrenica in 1995 because of the presence of gay soldiers.

At a U.S. congressional hearing on Thursday on allowing gay soldiers to serve openly in the military, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander John Sheehan said there was a causal link between having homosexuals in the Dutch forces and the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian war.

“The remarks were outrageous, wrong and beneath contempt,” Balkenende told a news conference.

So is retired General John Sheehan.

He apparently cites the general who was fired for the deaths of civilians, something that does not happen in today’s US military.

It should be noted that there was a far simpler reason, that there were only 450 troops, armed with light weapons, deployed to protect the city, and the man he quotes denies every saying this:

Dutch television reported that when he was pressed to name a source in the Dutch military, General Sheehan said that he was basing his remarks on what someone named “Hankman Berman” had told him. The Dutch Defense Ministry guessed that this was a reference to Gen. Henk van den Breemen, the country’s former chief of defense staff. On Friday the ministry issued a statement saying that General van den Breemen, now retired, called this “absolute nonsense,” since he did not believe that the presence of gay troops had anything to do with what happened at Srebrenica and had never said any such thing.

The problem here is that, beginning with Bill Clinton’s capitulation to Colin Powell’s insubordination on gays in the military in 1992 and 1993, Democratic presidents have allowed insubordination, particularly on this issue, from the military, and so now we have an increasingly radicalized culture in the military.

In Case You Were Wondering About the Tea Baggers…

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The fact that they were screaming “f****t” at Representative Barney Frank, and screamed, “n***er” at Representative, and civil rights icon, John Lewis:

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Andre Carson (D-IN) related a particularly jarring encounter with a large crowd of protesters screaming “kill the bill”… and punctuating their chants with the word “nigger.”

………

And that wasn’t an isolated incident. Early this afternoon, standing outside a Democratic whip meeting in the Longworth House office building, I watched Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) make his way out the door, en route to the neighboring Rayburn building. As he rounded the corner toward the exit, wading through a huge crowd of tea partiers and other health care protesters, an elderly white man screamed “Barney, you faggot”–a line that caused dozens of his confederates to erupt in laughter.

They are doing this because they can, and they have wanted to for years, but feel that the level of social disapprobation involved in such an act in different contexts will be too great.

Post racial society my ass.

Noose Tightening on Ensign

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Part 1
Part 2

The scandal now has the department issuing subpoenas to, “have been issued to at least six Sas Vegas businesses,” as well as to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSCC).

As to the businesses, we are looking at what may be an actual bribery case:

One of those companies was eCommLink, formerly run by Jack Williams, a man who claimed to have invented the gift card.

Senator Ensign’s then-Chief of Staff John Lopez welcomed the opportunity to help a Nevada company. But sources say Ensign’s office quickly seized on the opportunity to get something in return.

Sources close to the situation say Ensign’s office warned eCommLink and others about pending prepaid card regulation and that donations and support could make those troublesome rules go away.

So, basically the story is as follows: John Ensign sleeps with the wife of a longtime friend and aide, he then gets his parents to pay his friend off, and throws illegal (there is supposed to be a waiting period) lobbying work to his ex-friend in order to keep things quiet, only it appears that there was some more run of the mill corruption, that Ensign, as head of the NRSCC, may have used his position to extort campaign donations.

The mainstream media has studiously avoided covering it, the Washington Post has yet to publish a stand alone story on the scandal yet, for example, but thankfully Rachael Maddow has been all over this, as the two videos (7:33 & 6:35) show.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!!

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And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far, and these are, of course, in addition to the rather unusual Thursday closing yesterday.

  1. American National Bank, Parma, Oh
  2. Century Security Bank, Duluth, GA
  3. Advanta Bank Corp., Draper, UT
  4. Appalachian Community Bank, Ellijay, GA
  5. Bank of Hiawassee, Hiawassee, GA
  6. First Lowndes Bank, Fort Deposit, AL
  7. State Bank of Aurora, Aurora, MN

Some notes:

  • 7 Banks? Woah….
  • It’s been a bad week for Georgia banks (well, duh, 3 got closed).
  • There is some sort of joke about the bank closing in Fort Deposit, I’m just saying.
  • Advanta is a big fish. It was a major player in small business credit cards, and the parent company had declared bankruptcy (see here and here) after its credit card debt write-offs exceeded 20%

Here is the Full FDIC list

And we also have some credit union closings.

My bad here, I had the wrong link bookmarked, so I missed a few after the 1st of the year:

  1. Friendship Community Federal Credit Union, Clarksdale, MS on 2/25/10
  2. Mutual Diversified Employees Federal Credit Union, Santa Ana, CA on 2/26/10
  3. Lawrence County School Employees Federal Credit Union, New Castle, PA on 3/5/10

Full NCUA list

So, here is the graph pr0n:

Meta

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I have made two minor tweaks to the blogg, I moved up my tip jar so that it is just below the RSS feeds, and I added a Digg button to my posts.

Any feedback, particularly on Digg, which does appear to take a half step off the front page loading time, is appreciated.

This is an open thread.