Author: Matthew G. Saroff

The Senator from the State of Oil Wants to Overturn EPA Regs on CO2

No Comments

It appears that Lisa Murkowski is trying to overturn the EPA’s notice of proposed rule making on carbon emissions:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Tuesday left open the possibility that she would seek a vote next week on stopping the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from going forward with regulations to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.

“I do not believe and I don’t believe that most of my colleagues in the Senate believe that the EPA is the entity that is the best suited to develop climate-change policy for this country,” Ms. Murkowski (R., Alaska) told reporters. “I’m trying to get a time-out. I’m trying to allow the legislative process to proceed. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to have a vote that will allow for that discussion.”

You know, somehow I think that the folks who don’t come from oil (and coal) producing states might be a wee bit receptive, and there’s also the whole veto thing to deal with.

Bush-Cheney Were Even Crazier Than We Imagined

No Comments

During the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, Bush and His Evil Minions™ considered military strikes against Russia:

As Russian tanks rumbled into Georgia in 2008, a post-Cold War turning point was at hand.

George W. Bush’s national security team considered launching air strikes to halt the invasion. …………

…………

Thus we learn that “several senior White House staffers” urged “at least some consideration of limited military options,” such as bombing the mountain tunnel that served as Russia’s main supply line.

What part of the phrase, “Russia has around 10,000 nuclear warheads in its arsenal,” didn’t these guys get?

Great googly moogly!

Heard on the Innerwebs

No Comments

H/t Jollyreaper at at the by-invitation-only Stellar Parthenon BBS.

The economy is so bad that:

  • I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
  • I ordered a burger at McDonald’s and the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”
  • CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.
  • If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
  • Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
  • McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
  • Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
  • A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .
  • Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
  • Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.
  • The Mafia is laying off judges.
  • Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen..
  • Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

And, finally…

  • I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Pat Robertson is a Pathetic Excuse for a Human Being

No Comments

What a sorry excuse for a human being

He can always be counted on to say something hurtful and stupid, and this time, it’s the earthquake in Haiti.

He’s saying that the Haitians made a pact with the devil to drive out the French, and so they are cursed, which is why their country is poor, wracked with violence and instability, and struck by natural disasters.

What he is really saying, and I need to credit Juan Cole for this insight is that the Blacks of Haiti, much like the Blacks of New Orleans that he also attacked, are defying god because they are revolting against God’s will by refusing to be slaves.

It’s the Curse of Ham, a and comes from the story of Noah in Beresheit (Genesis) and was used by evil men who took up the role of clergy to justify slavery and the slave trade in pre Civil War days, because one of Ham’s sons Canaan, was cursed to be a slave.

It’s clear that in his heart of hearts Robertson believes this story: He thinks that black people in general are cursed because they have rejected the role that God has given them, that of a slave.

A transcript of what he says: “

And you know Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, uh you know Napoleon the third and whatever. [Actually, you moron, it was Napoleon the first] And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. [No, local priests who practiced african religions issued a blessing] They said we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True Story, and so the Devil said OK it’s a deal. And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they’ve been cursed by one thing after the other desperately poor. That island is Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc.. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.

(H/t Username4242 at Daily Kos for the transcript)

He also studiously ignores the history there, where both the US and France conspired to keep their respective boots on their neck, starting with Thomas Jefferson, because as a slave holder, he was terrified at the prospect of a successful slave revolt.

To quote Christopher Hitchens, as much as it pains me, “If you gave him an enema you could bury him in a matchbox.”

Economics Update

No Comments
Click for full size

H/t Calculated Risk

The Federal Reserve has released its “Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions”, better known as the “Beige Book”, and there has been a small improvement.

I’m not sure where the improvement is, since transportation indices continue to disappoint, with the American Association of Railroads’ report on carload traffic showing the lowest level since 1988, and if goods aren’t moving, then people aren’t buying.

Meanwhile the trend in mortgages, with refinancing increasing and mortgages for purchases falling, continued this week.

Overseas, the GDPs of Britain and Germany both suffered the largest drop since before the 2nd World War, -4.8% and -5.0% respectively, while in Japan, machinery orders fell sharply in November.

In the world of US government finance, the US budget deficit doubled year over year in December, which probably had something to do with bond prices being mixed, with the 10-year bond falling slightly, and the 30-year bond rising slightly. (Yields move in the opposite direction of prices)

In energy, oil fell below $80/bbl, on reports of increasing US fuel inventories.

In currency, the dollar was mixed, down slightly versus the Pound and Euro, but up slightly versus the Yen.

This is Just Such a Good Idea

No Comments

A company called SarcMark has developed a proprietary punctaion mark to denote sarcasm.

That is like such a good idea.

Yes, that is the symbol, and it’s looks like, but isn’t a bit of Hebrew cursive.

This is clearly an essential part of any repertoire, and well worth the $1.99 the maker wants to charge for its use.

Sorry, but if you need to mark it as sarcasm, something is lacking in either the writer or the reader of the phrase.

Youtube Pr0n Day: The Dog that Didn’t Bark

No Comments

The folks at 4Chan declared last Friday to be Pr0n Friday at Youtube, because they objected to the termination of the account of a user.

Only, Friday rolled around, and nothing happened, not even a falsified death notice involving gay prostitution and meth.

So, what happened? Well, nothing happened. Friday was just like any other day.

So, what did geniuses at Google, Youtube’s parent, do to address this?

Did they come up with a technical method to kill all of this? Was there some sort of highly sophisticated algorithm developed to spot nipples, penises, vaginas, and pubic hair?

Well, no, they didn’t, what they did was far more basic and more effective: They had some of their employees log into 4chan, and when people bragged about the pr0n posts, they took them down.

No link yet, just online chatter.

Proof that the British Banker “Supertax” is the Right Thing

No Comments

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and perhaps the stupidest man in England, has come out against the proposal:

Boris Johnson threw down the gauntlet to shadow chancellor George Osborne today, urging him to rule out extending the supertax on bonuses.

The Mayor is seeking reassurances that Gordon Brown’s tax would not be imposed by a Tory government. The showdown comes after Mr Johnson claimed that up to 9,000 bankers could leave London to escape paying.

Mr Osborne has said he does not oppose the tax, and the Conservatives have not ruled out imposing it again if they win the general election.

If the Tories come out against the tax, they may very well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

On a more utilitarian note, when a rich banker leaves for Switzerland (only Switzerland does not want them either) it means that that 2500 square foot penthouse flat in London becomes 4, or 5 more modest flats, increasing the supplies of housing, and drives down rents, making London a better place for the Londoners.

The rich bankers, and the expat tax dodgers who live in London in very large numbers, don’t make London better, they make it worse: They push out the middle class, and productive industry.

Rupert Murdochology

No Comments

One of the things that was interesting in the New York Times profile of Roger Ailes, at least it is if one tries to follow the comings and goings of Rupert Murdoch, his family, and News Corp, is the fact that a member of the Murdoch family, Matthew Freud.

Well, one Murdochologist, Michael Wolff, says that this is the beginning of a process that will have Ailes out in the next 12 months or so:

When Tim Arango, the New York Times reporter who got the statement from Freud, called and said he was doing a story on Ailes’ rising power, Freud would have consulted with the rest of the family. James Murdoch would have said to his father something along the lines of, “this is untenable, this idea that Roger is the center of the company.”

Murdoch, who protects nothing so much as his own primacy at News Corp., and who always likes somebody else to do his dirty work, would likely have said, in his particular patois, “umm…goddamn…grump…son-of-a-bitch…they’re gonna say that? Who put ‘em up to it? Okay, okay, do what you want to do.” By which he would have meant: “Blow a rocket up his ass.”

The process of losing your job at News Corp. takes about a year. They talk about you, and isolate you, and then you understand that you’ve been exiled from the tribe.

I’m hoping that it is true, Ailes is an evil man who has hurt the country more than most, but I’m inclined to believe that it’s not: Particularly during this downturn, Fox News is Murdoch’s money cow, and he can’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Google Mans Up On China

No Comments

Google set up a Chinese search page, Google.cn, in 2006 to accommodate the censorship demands of the Chinese government.

At the time, it said that it would, “carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services.,” and thatif it determined that it was, “unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

Well, it’s reconsidered its approach, and it is telling the government of China to go Cheney itself.

The proximate cause appears to be sophisticated, and repeated efforts by the Chinese government to hack the Gmail accounts of Chinese democracy activists, as well as similar, and pervasive attempts to hack other businesses with similar goals.

The money phrase is this:

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

They just gave the Chinese government 3 weeks to shut them down.

It is possible that this may be a game of chicken, as is the case with Google news and AP stories, but I am inclined to doubt this.

If they have any understanding of China at all, they must understand that this public statement, and the associated loss of face for the Chinese authorities should they accede to Google’s demands, will result in the shuttering of their site, and their operations, in China.

Full statement after the break:

A new approach to China
1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM
Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

The Culture at the Fed is Broken

No Comments

Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, is now on record saying that the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates before there is any meaningful recovery in employment:

Federal Reserve policy makers must raise the benchmark interest rate “well before” unemployment falls to an acceptable level in order to keep inflation in check, Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said.

Plosser forecast the economy will expand 3 percent to 3.5 percent this year and next, faster than the 2.75 percent that he sees as the underlying potential pace. As growth pushes up market interest rates, the Fed’s target for overnight lending among banks should also rise “as long as inflation is near its desired level and inflation expectations are well-anchored,” he said today in a speech in Philadelphia.

I would note that Ben Bernanke has made statements in the same vein: that notwithstanding the charge to the central bank to both control inflation and maintain full employment, the second part means nothing.

Note that Plosser is not a regular voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), though he will get his turn to vote next year.

I lay a lot of this at the feet of Paul Volker (I bet you expected me to say, “Alan ‘Bubbles’ Greenspan”) because he is the modern standard carrier for a Fed chairman: He created the worst recession in 40 years in 1979-81 in order to wring inflation out of the economy.

He was probably right then, though I think that a lot of the inflation was caused by increases in commodity (oil) prices, but now we have Federal Reserve staff who see this, and want to repeat the disastrous tightening of money that caused the 1937 recession.

This is non-sensical, and this, along with the Fed’s repeated role as protector of large investment firms (that one is Alan ‘Bubbles’ Greenspan’s fault) are why reform, and significant turnover, in the management of the Federal Reserve is essential.

Economics Update

No Comments
Click for full size

Decline in job openings since 2007
h/t Zero Hedge

The US trade deficit grew by 9.7% in November, largely on the recent run up in oil prices.

The National Federation of Independent Business’s small business optimism index fell for the 2nd straight month in December, indicating that the small business segment is still not ready to start hiring.

In central bank land, the yield on 30-year treasuries fell again, indicating an expectation that rates would remain low, while in China, the central bank raised the reserve requirement for banks by 50 basis points.

In energy, oil continues to fall on the promise of warmer weather.

In currency, the dollar rose, both on investor jitters, and on the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President being a complete moron and talking up rate hikes. (more on this later)

When I Watch Late Night TV, It’s Stewart and Colbert

No Comments

So I really have no strong opinion on what is going on with NBC, with Jay Leno’s 10:00 pm show, an idea that never made sense to me in the first place, being canceled, and NBC now having to juggle Leno and Conan O’Brien.

NBC tried to “split the baby”, by giving Leno the 11:35-12:04 slot, with O’Brien getting the rest of the show, but Conan said no, and so the Jeff Zucker (the head of NBC) clusterf%$# continues.

My reader(s) can debate the relative merits of Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno, I just don’t know.

Conan’s statement is after the break, and it takes the high road:

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

It’s Official: New York Fed Subpoenaed By House

No Comments

Following revelations that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York instructed AIG not to do full disclosure of its swap deals with the big banks, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Edolphus Towns, has formally subpoenaed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for information relating to the AIG bailout. (Town’s statement is here.)

What is rather surprising is the level of arrogance involved in the bank’s response, where they say that, “We will work with the committee to provide relevant information as appropriate.”

No, that’s not how it works: When you get a subpoena, you don’t provide information that you deem “relevant” or appropriate, you turn over what they are demanding. That’s the definition of a subpoena, and so you turn over what is demanded.

The folks at Zero hedge have the full text of the subpoena:

All documents in the possession, custody, or control of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, relating to AIG credit default swap counterparty payments, the decision to compensate AIGs credit default swap counterparties at par, and public disclosure of the counterparty payments, including:

  • Emails, phone logs, and meeting notes of the following people: Timothy Geithner, Stephen Friedman, Thomas Baxter, and Sarah Dahlgren;
  • Term sheets, including drafts, relating to AIG’s payments to its CDS counterparties; and
  • Emails, phone logs, and meeting notes relating to public disclosure of AIG’s payments to its CDS counterparties, including disclosure to the SEC.

(emphasis mine)

I think (hope) that Geithner is screwed. This specifically includes Geithner’s emails and phone logs as well.

If they disclose, he gets shown to be hip deep in a possibly illegal bailout, or completely incompetent, and if they stonewall, he has no credibility.

Unfortunately, I see Geithner’s trajectory mirroring that of Rumsfeld: He only gets fired only after a disastrous mid-term election.

Kansas Judge Declares Open Season on Gynecologists

No Comments

Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert has ruled that Scott Roeder may present to the jury a defense that his actions were “justifiable homicide”, which carries a 5 year sentence:

”This judge has basically announced a death sentence for all of us who help women,” said Dr. Warren Hern of Boulder, Colo., a longtime friend of Tiller who also performs late-term abortions. ”That is the effect of the ruling.”

Dr. Hern is 100% correct

The facts of the case are not in dispute: On a balmy Sunday morning, Roeder got up from a pew at Wichita’s Reformation Lutheran Church at the start of services and walked to the foyer, where Tiller and a fellow usher were chatting around a table. Wordlessly, he pressed the barrel of a .22-caliber handgun to Tiller’s forehead and pulled the trigger.

Prosecutors charged Roeder with first-degree murder, and the 51-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., later admitted to reporters and in a court filing that he killed Tiller. The prosecution stands ready with more than 250 prospective witnesses to prove it.

But what had been expected to be a simple trial was altered Friday when Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert decided he would allow Roeder to build a defense case calling for a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter because he sincerely believed the May 31 slaying would save unborn children.

This is bullsh#@, and my guess is that this is an artifact of one of two things:

  • The anti-abortion terrorists have one of their own on the bench in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
  • This judge thinks that he’s going to be able to clarify things properly to a jury, which would make them understand the Kansas statute’s concept of, “”an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.”

In either case this is not a clusterf%$#, but we won’t see the Obama DoJ getting involved in the Civil Rights area, they have already, “declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.”

Obama has always been lukewarm on abortion rights, and now we get to see just how lukewarm he is.

The underoos bomber was not being soft on terrorists, but if the DoJ stays out of this, it’s giving aid and comfort to terrorists.

A Good Start

No Comments
He’ll have to pay a fee.


He won’t

The proposal recently mooted by the Obama Administration, to levy a fee on financial institutions in order to recover TARP funds (see also here) seems like a good start.

But between Mssrs. Summers and Geithner, along with the DINO back-bencher pukes on the House Banking Committee, you can be sure that it will be so full of loopholes that the only banks that might have to pay anything will be the mom-and-pop banks who’ve done all the right thing.

Note also that this makes no mention of recouping the facilities that the Federal Reserve has offered, which have gone largely to the very large banks, and banks that have former Federal Reserve board members working for them.

The problem is that people are either:

  1. Bought and paid for, or
  2. Deluded enough to think that the big bankers are essential to the functioning of the American economy.

What really needs to be done is:

  1. These folks, and the industry needs to be convinced to leave the country.
  2. Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles are used to take them out like other terrorists.

Now there’s a recruiting slogan for the USAF: Join up and blow up a banker.