Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Bush Administration Gets Slapped Down in Court….Again

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This all seems to have happened in the past 6 months or so. I’m wondering if the judiciary has just gotten sick of them, or if lame duck syndrome changes the thinking of judges.

In this case, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided that the Bush EPA was full of it when they tried to prevent state and local governments from monitoring power plant pollution.

Seriously, it seems that the courts are finally getting around to reversing blatantly illegal crap that has been going on for years…Do the wheels of justice just grind this slow, or some members of the Judiciary realizing that this is not a boat that they want to hitch their anchor to?

Not Dick Cheney, Sargent Shriver

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It appears that there is a rumor that Caroline Kennedy’s name is being floated as a VP pick for Obama.

She is on the selection committee, and the author of the article, Alexander Mooney, draws a comparison to Dick Cheney, who was on the selection committee.

The problem is that she ain’t Dick Cheney. It would be another Kennedy affirmative action hire, like Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in Maryland, or Sargent Shriver for McGovern’s running mate after Tom Eagleton bowed out.

Please, God no.

John Sidney McCain III: Wrong on Everything

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I’m not sure what surprises me more, that someone in the press said this, that it came from the Startlegram (Fort Worth Star-Telegram my paper when I lived in Arlington, TX), or that the people who wrote this are senior members of the conservative CATO institute, which is heavily funded by the usual suspects, including Richard Mellon Scaife, but Ted Galen Carpenter and Malou Innocent get it completely when they say that , “Indeed, the record indicates that McCain’s own judgment is alarmingly bad.

They describe him as a, “Clear and present danger in the Oval Office.”

I’m wondering if conservatives are starting to tiptoe for the exits regarding the sick old man.

Economics Update

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As it always is in times of crisis, we are seeing a flight to government bonds. Everything else appears too dicey, with mortgage applications at a nearly 8 year low, estimated food inflation for this year may be at a 28 year high, and home prices in high priced areas falling like a stone, even if volume is up a bit.

In energy and currency, the dollar is up a bit, as is oil, though neither are up significantly, and gasoline is down for the 34th straight day, and it’s now down about 10% from the peak.

The Final Word on Drinking Age

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Care of Atrios:

Perhaps they should consider my cunning plan to let 18 year olds have a drinking license or a driver’s license but not both, which would have the added benefit of helping my plot to make everyone move to Manhattan increasing the appeal of less car dependent locations.

(emphasis mine)

I’m Matthew Saroff, and I approve of this message.

The Georgia Pullout

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I stand by my earlier assessment, that the Russians are pulling out, but doing so with all deliberate slowness.

In any case, it does appear that the Russians are determined to humiliate the Georgians, and their state security apparatus, as much as possible on the way out.

They still seem to be messing around in the main Georgian port of Poti, and they are maintaining that, “A 1999 document written up by the Joint Control Commission, an international body that monitored tensions in South Ossetia, gives peacekeepers access to a long piece of land that extends about nine miles into Georgian territory.”

This is about showing who is boss, which is immature, but at least no shots are being fired right now.

That being said, the Russians are suffering some diplomatic blow-back, with Ukraine offering NATO access to a former Soviet missile early warning station, and Poland signing a deal on installing the US ABM system.

Certainly these will be more noticed by the Russians than what will be a temporary downgrade of NATO-Russian relations, which is not going to last long, if just because cooperation with them on Iran is essential.

We have an interesting quote in this article about the US capitulating on NATO membership for Georgia:

“Russia has successfully burned Georgia’s NATO card,” said Sarah E. Mendelson, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Whatever the outcome, Russia has all but obliterated Georgia’s possibility of joining NATO, as it cannot belong to this alliance if it has unresolved border disputes.”

Let’s be clear. The Russians won.

Pakistan Coalition Fails to Agree on Restoring Judges

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Well, now that Musharraf is gone, we have Nawaz Sharif threatening to pull out of the coalition government, (see also here) because the phenomenally corrupt (even by Pakistani standards!!!) Asif “Mr 10%” Ali Zedari is trying to renege on the deal he had with Sharif to restore all the judges, particularly chief justice of the supreme court Muhammad Chaudhry:

The basis of Zardari’s opposition to Chaudhry rests with a fear that he might undo an amnesty agreement that absolved Mr. Zardari of corruption charges, lawyers said. The amnesty, which applies to bureaucrats and politicians who faced corruption charges, was part of a package arranged by Musharraf when Zardari returned to Pakistan after his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December.

Chaudhry is viewed as a danger because he appears to be a serious and non-corrupt jurist, and an independent and clean judiciary is something essential right now in Pakistan, whether or not that Zedari ends up in jail as a result or not.

Economics Update

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the producer price index rose 1.2% in July, that comes to about 15% inflation, and the year over year rate was 9.8%.

Inflation is back….Truth be told, it was never gone, it’s just that the government statistics concealed it, and we are now running into the limits of such accounting artistry.

We also are seeing housing starts at a 17 year low, so it looks like stagflation to me.

I just hope that it isn’t an Argentina/USSR style collapse.

I would note that a lot of this inflation is commodities, and they are down.

Both oil and gasoline (33rd straight day) fell again.

That being said, the dollar was down again today. Those inflation numbers probably scared traders.

Finally it looks like Lehman may be forced to sell its money management division in order to raise capital to offset its losses.

Normally, I Boycott the AP, But In This Case….

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But sometimes, someone there screws up, and reports the truth:

Obama veep announcement expected in coming days

By NEDRA PICKLER

…..

His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

Too true.

It hasn’t been corrected yet, and I need a screen cleaner.

Details on the AP boycott here.

Draft Beer Not People

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I began my drinking college career before the universal 21-year-old drinking age, it was 20 in Massachusetts, and it did not interfere with my drinking at all, so I approve of the efforts by over 100 college presidents to lower the drinking age to 18 (the Amethyst Initiative).

They believe that the current regime leads to unsafe habits and binge drinking, and I agree.

My observation, and I was at college through the transition, is that the change in the law did not make for safer drinking, or a reduction in drinking and driving.