Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Update on Cohen-Tinker Primary, Anti-Semitism, and EMILY’s List

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I guess that the first thing to say is that when EMILY’s List endorsed Tinker, it was already very clear that Nikki Tinker was aggressively using anti-semitism, racism, and homophobia as her core campaign talking points. Look at the dates on the two links.

Now that her repulsive strategy has been revealed for all to see, and made embarrassingly public by KO’s “Worst Person” comment, EMILY’s List has condemned the ad, but has not, at least not yet, withdrawn the endorsement.

I understand the dynamic, EMILY’s list, they are frequently accused of ignoring the minority community and that their supported candidates are too white, but this endorsment, when the bigotry was on full display for months is stupid.

Barack Obama’s campaign has condemned the ads too but in kind of mealy mouthed way. They mention no names.

Finally, the Skeptical Brotha has a rundown on what Nikki Tinker does when she is not running for office: She is Vice President for Labor Relations and General Counsel for Pinnacle Airlines, which means that, “She specializes in destroying employee rights to collectively bargain and be free from workplace racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.“

I would also note that she is one of Harold Ford’s protégés, who is now the chair of the DLC, and has yet to find a Republican talking point that he does not like, she was his campaign managers in one of his largely uncontested campaigns.

Hopefully, she loses big, and hopefully, EMILY’s list catches enough flak to improve their vetting process.

Russia Looking to Move Bombers to Belarus

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They are looking at basing missiles and bombers in Belarus the anti-missile installation in Poland.

It’s not surprising. As I’ve said before, the location is better at shooting down Russian missiles, than it is for shooting down Iranian missiles, which is the stated purpose.

It appears to me that there is a policy by Bush and His Evil Minions™ to antagonize Russia in the hopes of recreating a cold war, which might favor Republicans electorally.

So, How Did He Weaponize the Spores

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Well, looking this description of the document dump made by the FBI, the most important question has not been answered: how did he weaponize the spores.

Drying the spores with the lyophilizer is certainly possible, but this stuff was weaponized in a sophisticated way. It was reduced to tiny particles with a coating to prevent them from clumping, and it also gave them a static charge to help create an aerosol.

This is a non trivial operation, and the equipment, and expertise, was simply not available at Fort Detrick.

If he was acting alone, then we do not have the means made public yet.

I’m about 51% on this guy being the mailer, but more information needs to be released.

Empty Condo Complexes Face Condemnation

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Mish relates the tale of a condo complex that cannot maintain its common spaces, because it is 1/3 empty, and as a result, it was nearly condemned.

It is in, no surprise, in Dade county, and the quote from City of Miami Commissioner Angel Gonzalez is the scary part, “This is going to be happening all over Dade County pretty soon, with the foreclosures and people not being able to pay for their mortgages.”

Actually, that’s not the scariest quote. Mich also quotes Dave, who asks:

I wonder how many of these people will be forced to walk away from their mortgage even though they can afford to pay, but can’t make up for all the other condo owners not paying monthly dues because of foreclosure. I wonder if anyone has calculated this out in their models?

I have a friend at another condo whose monthly association fee just went up 35% due to non payers and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

This phenomenon is becoming increasingly common.

Homeland Security Suspends Trusted Traveler Program

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Verified Identity Pass, Inc., which operates the “Clear” program lost 33,000 customers’ records when an unencrypted laptop was stolen.

While it was recovered a week later, what happened to the data is unclear.

Among the data was:

  • Names
  • Addresses
  • Birth dates
  • Driver’s license, passport and green card data

Which one could describe as an “identity theft kit” for 33,000 people, and since the program also collects the following:

  • Credit card information
  • Digital photo
  • Digital images of all of the applicant’s fingerprints and his or her irises
  • Previous home addresses for the past five years
  • Digital images of passports and driver’s licenses.

It could have been much worse.

Security expert Bruce Schneier analyzes this sort of “trusted traveler” program, and finds it wanting from a security standpoint:

I think of Clear as a $100 service that tells terrorists if the F.B.I. is on to them or not. Why in the world would we provide terrorists with this ability?

NYC Hospitals Cut Deal With Grenada Med School

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To be honest, the only reason that I’m covering this is that in the 1970s, I went to Grenada with my family a number of times.

I don’t recall ever being in St. George’s medical school, though I believe I drove by it once.

These folks were the med students that Reagan used as an excuse to invade.

In any case, that’s why I read the article about the exclusive contract between the school and the New York City Health and Hospital Corp. to provide clerkships to medical students.

The deal may not be dishonest, but it certainly has a funny smell.

Tanker RFP Re-Released

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Well, the Air Force has released a new RFP, and already a Congressman from Boeing is whining, “Not Fair.”

You can look at the proposals (warning big PDFs) here and here

The good folks at Flight International have read it, and they note 3 major changes:

  1. Official credit for having fuel offload capacity in excess of the RFP minimums.
  2. Separating maintenance and fuel costs from acquisition, and giving more import to acquisition costs in the evaluation process.
  3. Extending the lifecycle period from 25 years to 40 years.

The first should favor Airbus, the second should too, because it pretty much locks out the Boeing 777, because it would require yet more development and have a higher acquisition cost.

The third might favor Boeing, because being a smaller plane, the 767 consumes less fuel, though it would likely be a wash on a per pound of fuel offloaded basis.

I still think that the Airbus offering brings a lot more to the table, but I thought that before the first award, and did not expect them to get it, because of Boeing’s political pull.

Break out the popcorn.

Bin Laden’s Driver Convicted of Being…A Driver

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He was convicted of “offering material support” by being a driver.

The Judge seems to be remarkably fair, which surprises me:

As the subsequent sentencing hearing began, the judge called Hamdan “a small player” and refused to let the government call an FBI agent to testify about retrieving bodies from the World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks.

The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said the testimony was irrelevant since Hamdan had been cleared of conspiring with al Qaeda to carry out any attacks.

While Hamdan was convicted on five counts of providing material support for terrorism, the judge said the charges duplicated each other and ordered that he be sentenced only for one count, which he summarized as “driving Mr. bin Laden around Afghanistan.”

Matt Bors put it best.

Link to cartoonist.

Michael Hirsh notes that this verdict is a loss for Bush. Among other things, it’s likely to be overturned on appeal, because the tribunals were only given authority to prosecute war crimes, and “material support” is not a war crime.

What’s more, the Judge pretty much said with his instructions, and his sentencing actions, that the Bush administration’s definition of terrorist is a 6 pounds of manure in a 5 pound bag.

T. Boone Pickens and Windmills

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Endorsing wind sounds nice, but why is he saying, “use wind for electricity, and use natural gas for cars”?

It’s pretty simple. Mr. “I funded the swift boaters in 2004” has extensive holding in natural gas, including, “Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a natural gas fueling station company”.

Additionally, if he gets to put up his wind farm, he will undoubtedly get lent to send the power to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and he can also run a water pipeline, using the water rights that he purchased.

Getting eminent domain for water is tough. Getting for clean, safe, renewable wind power? Not so hard.

To paraphrase Abe Vigoda, “It was just business.”

Well, This Anti-Semitic Corporate Sellout Made Keith’s Worst Persons

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I’m beginning to think that the Ford machine is a cancer on the Tennessee, and the US Democratic party.

It appears that Harold Ford, who refused to endorse the incumbent, Steve Cohen (yes, he’s Jewish and white) in the general in 2006, has now decided that it needs to be brought back into the purview of the Ford machine.

In this case, one of his proteges, one Nikki Tinker is apparently losing, because she’s going hard on race on religion, with her proxies putting out this flier, which Ms. Tinker hasn’t even bothered to make a perfunctory denunciation of.

But, as the Ronco announcer says, wait, there’s more!!!!

She’s now run an ad, which she has now pulled off of Youtube,

While he’s in our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet … he’s the only senator who thought our kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school

It’s a clear, and enthusiastic appeal to anti-semitism, and as Olberman says, “It has no place from a Democratic candidate, or a Republican Candidate, or a white candidate, or a black candidate. It is Shameful.“

I would note a clip of Keith is below.

I would also note that Emily’s List apparently threw in some big bucks for her campaign, which one should consider if they hit you up for donations.

In all fairness, Emily’s List condemned the ads, but they should have know who and what she was. She ran in 2006 too.

A Formal Announcement on the Olympics

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I won’t be watching. Over the past few decades, I’ve become increasingly put off by the nationalistic and jingoistic coverage from the networks, and quite honestly, they the sports that I follow anyway.

Obviously if some news crops up, most likely athletes having problems breathing, or protests, or something worse, then I will discuss this, but as to the sport itself, I am simply not interested.

Well, It Appears that these Colors Do Run

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Let’s be clear: the air in Beijing is a miasma of pathological chemistry, and members of the US Olympic Bicycle team were completely justified in wearing filter masks when they flew in.

It looks like as a result of some arm twisting from Steve Roush, the chief of sport performance for the U.S. Olympic Committee, they all signed a letter that he drafted apologizing for wearing a mask, though bicyclist Mike Friedman said, “I’m not sorry for wearing the masks at all.”

This is a health issue. Athletes are delaying going to Beijing to minimize their exposure to the air. The bicyclists are completely justified in their actions.

Oil Companies May `Panic’ on Tanker-Rate Outlook: Chart of Day

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It appears that oil tanker companies may direct their captains to slow down to save fuel, which would cause a shortage in the supply of tankers, and higher rental rates.

They are looking at a slowdown to 12 knots from 15 knots, which would save about 20 grand a day in fuel costs.

I would imagine that we would see a similar process unfolding with container ships, and this may contribute to increased costs for non-petroleum imports too.

Zimbabwe Update

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It appears that there has been positive movement on power sharing.

I’m wondering if that might have anything to do with the announcement by the MDC that they have no intention of returning land seized from white farmers, though they will, “ask the international community and multilateral lenders to help compensate farmers whose farms were confiscated by Mugabe’s government since 2000”.

It might also just be the fact that the only thing less popular in Zimbabwe than Mugabe is returning the land to white farmers.

In any case, even with the New Zimbabwean dollar having 10 zeros dropped, it appears that the gasoline coupon is the most trusted currency in the nation.

McCain’s Fundraising Corruption

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Hmmmm….It appears that one of McCain’s major campaign bundlers, Harry Sargeant III, is using straw donors to funnel money to the campaign from non-US citizens in the Middle East, which is a felony.

Actually it’s two, straw donors and foreign campaign donations.

Read the article. Many of the donors don’t make much money, and many of them are not even registered to vote.

And all the contributors in the story have Arab names, which when juxtaposed with Sargeant’s statement that, “I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of friends,” does lead one to wonder what’s going on here.