Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Read Bob Herbert

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Seriously, excerpts do not do justice to his essay on Mohammed Jawad, where he describes the US government torturing a 12-16 year old boy, and now is attempting to use his tortured confession to keep him confined, but here are the last 2 ‘graphs:

There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value.

[Jawad’s former prosecutor] Colonel Vandeveld is no longer on active duty and has joined the effort by military defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union to secure Jawad’s freedom. Six years of virtual solitary confinement, he said, is enough for someone who was not much older than a child when he was taken into custody.

(emphasis mine)

Barack Obama, tear down that wall.

But he won’t because it’s inconvenient.

Franken Wins, Coleman Concedes

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The Minnesota Supreme Court declared that Al Franken won, and Norm Coleman conceded:

Democrat Al Franken won Minnesota’s disputed U.S. Senate seat as a loss at the state Supreme Court prompted Republican Norm Coleman to concede.

“I congratulate Al Franken” on his victory, Coleman said at a news conference outside his home in St. Paul. “Sure I wanted to win,” the Republican said, though he said further litigation would damage the state’s unity.

The fact that Coleman conceded indicates that he’s going to run for governor, because it was clear that the RSCC would have continued funding challenges all the way to the Supreme Court.

He knew that if continued the challenge from here, that he would not be able to be elected dog catcher in Minnesota.

But really, it’s all about him, Al Franken.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Wal-Mart!?!

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Yes, Wal-Mart has come out in favor of an employer mandate on insurance.

This is real end of the world stuff, cats sleeping with dogs and the marshmallow guy appearing in city streets:

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, joined hands with a major labor union Tuesday to endorse the idea of requiring large companies to provide health insurance to their workers, a move that gives a boost to President Obama as he is pushing for health legislation on Capitol Hill.

“Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make some contribution,” Wal-Mart’s chief executive, Michael T. Duke, wrote in a letter to White House and Congressional officials, adding that he favored “an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage.”

There are, of course, caveats, there are always are, and Wal-Mart’s top lobbyist is saying that there have to be some sort of strict cost controls.

My guess is that the company has two goals here:

  • To make sure that it’s not required to offer better insurance than it does now, which is at relatively high cost to the employee and has relatively high deductibles.
  • An attempt to forestall unionization efforts at its stores, which are gaining steam.

But I’m a cynic.

Who Obama Is On “Free Trade”

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Cap and trade barely passes the house, and Barack Obama is wringing his hands about how the tariff against nations with weaker measures, “At a time when the economy world-wide is still deep in recession, and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there.”

Barack Obama is a smart guy. He knows that there are similar tariffs in countries that have a VAT, so that you cannot evade the tax by outsourcing production, and he knows that the economic consensus is that the absence of such measures distort free trade by subsidizing foreign manufacture of goods.

He also has to know that the WTO just signed off on these tariffs as legal, so long as they are not, “a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”.”

He expresses these “concerns” because he believes that any restriction on the flow of goods and services,* is dangerous and bad.

He is a free market mousketeer™ who believes that free trade will, inexorably spread democracy throughout the world, raise everyone’s standard of living, keep ants away from your picnic, and keep your daughter from dating the guy with the tattoos and piercings.

Do not expect meaningful labor or environmental measures as a part of his free trade deals. They won’t happen.

*Except for IP, where excessive US copyright and patent restrictions must be adopted world wide.

Financial Products Should be Precertified as Safe and Effective

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That’s what the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is saying about financial products:

Financial products should be treated like medicines and sold to consumers only when they are certified safe to prevent a repeat of last year’s financial meltdown, the world’s central bankers said on Monday.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which acts as a forum for central banks, said government efforts to revive the global economy might have only a temporary impact because banks are not being pushed hard enough to fix their underlying problems.

…

The BIS was alarmed by how a collapse in the value of opaque and complex securitized products propelled the world’s financial system into crisis. It said in its annual report all financial products should be registered like medicines.

The safest instruments would be available to everyone, a second tier only to people with authorization, like prescription drugs, and a third tier to a limited number of pre-screened individuals and institutions, like experimental drugs are.

It’s a very good idea, but it won’t happen, because it’s what the Masters of the Universe want, so the Masters of the Universe won’t let it happen.

If you require that products be safe and effective, you prevent them from churning money into fees, and reduce their base salaries and bonuses, so they say, and so says Summers and Geithner.

Fundamentally, until financial instruments are completely clear and transparent to regulators, and certified as such, they should be forbidden.

Coup in Honduras

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As near as I can figure out, the pity is that both sides cannot lose, see here, here, and here.

You have the corrupt land owning/political class in one corner, and a megalomaniac president in the other.

One waits to see what Obama will do beyond condemning this, because even if the President is a jerk, as it appears, this is a coup.

Home Schoolers Have Their One Football League

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A league has been founded in Georgia.

It’s nice to know that they are focused on acedemics and atheletics.

Perhaps the league, the Glory for Christ Football League should also invest in a spell check.

I think that New York Times photog Erik Lesser, was saying something here, when he snapped that shot.

I really hope that this sort of home schooling is not the future of our educational system, or we will be sharecropping to Hondurans in 50 years,

Siegelman Asking for New Trial

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On the basis of prosecutorial misconduct including witness tampering.

Richard Scrushy’s legal, who was convicted in the same case, is asking the U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, who originally heard the case, because, he participated in ex-parte discussions with the prosecution about juror misconduct, and so might be called as a witness.

I have little faith in anything here, except the Barak Obama and His Clueless Minions™, will do nothing to investigate the truth, because, hell, I don’t know why, but the misconduct here is far worse than what got Ted Stevens off.

Economics Update

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It’s a fairly slow day, with bond prices rising, and yields falling as the markets wait for the non-farm payroll (NFP) and unemployment rates later this week, so investors are concerned about risk, and moving into Treasurys.

This sentiment has also strengthened the dollar today.

Still, we are seeing decreased volatility in the markets, with the VIX volatility index falling to its lowest level since September.

Losses for insurers in the 1st quarter hit a new record, but that should surprise no one who has been watching.

There has actually been a fair amount of news about energy though, with natural gas declining on high stockpiles, and the IEA cutting its 5 year outlook on oil demand because of the economic downturn.

Oil was actually up today, on further violence in the Niger delta, though it appears that retail gasoline prices will hold steady for the July 4 holiday.

And a Penile Plethysmograph*

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On the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS, a bunch of us were discussing the fact that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s nookie run to Argentina was paid for by the taxpayers of the state, and Pickapeppa wrote, “I think it should be mandatory that all government officials be outfitted with GPS tracking chips.”

I think that the instrumentality suggested is not sufficient for the task envisioned.

*Seriously, just f@#$ing Google it.

If Only the Czar Knew

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This is an interesting article on how Larry Summers and Tim Geithner have successfully neutralized Paul Volcker’s attempts to create meaningful reform in the financial industry.

The subtext that the article misses is that this is that this is not Summers’ or Geithner’s doing, it is Barack Obama’s doing.

The fact that Paul Volker has been marginalized is obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together, and President Obama is not a stupid man.

The increases in regulation and the reform have been held to a minimum because that is what Obama wants.

Let There Be No Kings

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It appears that Barack Obama is moving forward with a system of non-judicial indefinite detention.

The reports are that he plans to implement this through an executive order.

We know that it’s a bad policy, because they are leading off with a lie:

One administration official suggested the White House was already trying to build support for an executive order.

“Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order,” the official said. Such an order can be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation, but civil liberties groups generally oppose long-term detention, arguing that detainees should either be prosecuted or released.

Every major civil liberties organization in the country denounced the plan. What’s more, the idea that civil liberties groups might think that would somehow be “better” if it were implemented through an executive order, which puts the power for the decision in the hands on one man, as opposed to legislation, which requires public debate and places the decision in the hands on 535 men, is simply a lie.

What’s more, the criteria for indefinite detention, at least on the basis of his speech ago at the National Archives, is whether or not a conviction can be guaranteed, which sets the precedent that the government will only accord the protections of a court to those for whom it is guaranteed to convict.

This is more than un-American, it is anti-American.

I will not vote for, or support in any way, a politician who supports this, even if the “Republicans are worse.”

Matt Taibbi is This Generation’s Hunter S. Thompson and Seymour Hersh

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Rolling Stone does not have it online, but you can find a copy of his latest, The Great American Bubble Machine in the Something Awful forums.

Basically, it’s a history of Goldman Sachs, and the intro says it all, “From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression – and they’re about to do it again.”

I don’t think that we will fix the banking system until we take those MoFo’s down.