Category: Breaking News

A Failing State With Nuclear Weapons

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No, I don’t mean Pakistan, I mean India, where they have just carved up the province of Andhra Pradesh.

It appears to be political pandering to a coalition partner, but it also sounds a lot like a nation that will soon be joining Pakistan in having issues with its territorial integrity:

The Indian government agreed to carve a separate state out of the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh, which includes the information-technology capital of Hyderabad, following days of violent protests.

The government’s unexpected decision, which could spur social unrest and separatist demands in other regions, faces legislative hurdles — and prompted 83 of Andhra Pradesh’s 295 legislators to say they would resign in protest.

Hyderabad has been hit by protests from supporters of K. Chandrashekar Rao, who heads the Telangana Rashtra Samithi political party dedicated to establishing a separate state for the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, which includes Hyderabad.

This is not the sort of thing that a cohesive nation state does.

Hopefully, this is not the beginning of a downward trajectory for India as a nation-state.

House Votes to Tighten Regulation of Financial System – NYTimes.com

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House Votes to Tighten Regulation of Financial System – NYTimes.com thankfully, the CFPA survives, but they voted down cramdown on mortgages in bankruptcy, and voted for the contemptible Melissa Bean’s contemptible preemption language, which allows the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to strike down state consumer protections.

USA Today, of all people was right hen it said that, “The Comptroller of the Currency, for example, behaved much like a banking lobby embedded in the Treasury Department,” so this is simply repulsive.

Bullet points:

  • The Creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) is created.
  • A Financial Stability Council is created.
  • Dissolution Authority, though the way that it is structured, it may be considered a “perpetual TARP”.
  • Shareholders get a non-binding “say on pay”, which means nothing.
  • Increases the SEC’s powers.
  • Regulation of Derivatives, but it’s full of loopholes.
  • Mortgage Reform.
  • Reform of Credit Rating Agencies:a biggie if the reforms mean anything, but they seem to be weak tea.
  • Registration of hedge funds, though it seems weak.
  • Creates an Office of Insurance, which is a big thing, since insurers are likely the to be in the meltdown shortly.

In the least surprising news of the day, it appears that no Republican voted for the bill.

A long list of the amendments is here.

It’s better than nothing, but not by much, and you know that the bad parts will be kept, and the good parts thrown overboard, in conference committee.

Why is He Acting Like Bush?

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So the Grauniad* is covering Obama’s picking up his Nobel Peace Prize, and their title says it all, Nobel peace prize: Norwegians incensed over Barack Obama’s snubs:

Barack Obama’s trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel peace award is in danger of being overshadowed by a row over the cancellation of a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner.

Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit.

The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children’s event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre.

He has also turned down a lunch invitation from the King of Norway.

(emphasis mine)

Let’s be clear: He’s president of the United States of the America, and he’s a busy guy, so some of the stuff should fall by the wayside, but ditching a lunch with the King of Norway?

I’m not sure what’s behind this, but it seems to be nothing more than an outbreak or gratuitousl rudeness because they can.

Sounds like Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, and how they treated “old Europe”.

*According to the Wiki, The Guardian, formerly the Manchester Guardian in the UK. It’s nicknamed the Grauniad because of its penchant for typographical errors, “The nickname The Grauniad for the paper originated with the satirical magazine Private Eye. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as The Gaurdian, though many recall the more inventive The Grauniad.”

Martha Coakley’s Wins Bay State Senate Primary

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This is no surprise, she ran a good campaign, and her main opponent was rather incoherent in his campaign, and allowed her to paint him as being against abortion rights.

She will be running against Republican state Senator Scott Brown in the general, but she is pretty much in a dead girl/live boy* situation.

*Edwin Edwards, when discovering that he would be facing David Duke in the Louisiana governor’s race, said that the the only way that he would lose were if he were, “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy”.

DOJ Number 2 to Quit

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Deputy Attorney General David Ogden has resigned, effective February 5.

This is odd, but the only sign of drama is this bit:

Unlike some of his predecessors, Ogden did not have deep experience with criminal law issues, and he sometimes crossed swords with aides to Holder, who has become the department’s public face on national security and public corruption issues.

Full official statement after the break.

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 3, 2009

Deputy Attorney General David Ogden to Leave Department of Justice

Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden announced today that he will leave the Department on February 5, 2010 to return to private practice. Prior to joining the Department as Deputy Attorney General in March, Ogden chaired the Obama Administration’s transition team for the Department of Justice.

“David Ogden has been an invaluable leader for the Department of Justice and for this Administration,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “From leading the transition team that established early goals for the Department to spearheading major initiatives such as our effort to fight health care fraud, he has been an effective and diligent advocate for the American people. Through his work here, he has helped reinvigorate the Department’s traditional missions, restore its reputation for independence, and make the country safer and more secure. I am sorry to see him go, and I thank him for his service to the Department and to the nation.”

Prior to his confirmation, Deputy Attorney General Ogden was a partner at the law firm of WilmerHale, which he joined in 2001. He previously served in senior positions at the Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration.

Deputy Attorney General Ogden made the following statement:

“I took a leave from my practice of law thirteen months ago on Election Day to lead the Department of Justice transition for President Obama. My hope then was to identify the goals for a successful transition at a critical time for the Department, when its credibility was under attack and when its traditional law enforcement missions had suffered. During the transition, President-elect Obama and Attorney General-designate Holder asked me to serve as the Deputy Attorney General, which gave me the opportunity to complete the transition process and see the Department solidly on a path to achieving those goals. I accepted that challenge, with the intention of returning to my practice as soon as I felt the Department was firmly on that path.

“I believe the objectives established over a year ago have been accomplished. In order to afford the President and the Attorney General sufficient time to identify my successor and to ensure a smooth transition, I have agreed to continue to serve until February 5, 2010, when I will step down to return to private practice.

“The Department today is on the path we first set out over a year ago. First, we have reinvigorated the Department’s traditional law enforcement mission with new resources and new initiatives. I am proud of the work we have done in establishing a Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to fight financial crime, leading a Health Care Prevention Task Force that has already pursued major prosecutions, establishing a Border Working Group to combat Mexican cartels, and attacking international organized crime through increased intelligence sharing with our partners. We have implemented new policies to stem the terrible tide of violence against women and children in Indian Country, crafted budgets that will provide critical new funding for law enforcement, civil rights and our nation’s prison system, and we will soon make key recommendations for reforms of sentencing and corrections policy. I appreciate the Attorney General’s having asked me to lead these initiatives and am proud of the progress we have made.

“Second, we have taken significant steps to ensure that we vigorously protect our national security consistent with the rule of law, including working closely with the FBI and the Intelligence Community on major counter-terrorism investigations, working on closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and bringing perpetrators to justice in federal courts or military commissions, and developing a new policy for effective and lawful interrogations.

“Third, we have substantially restored the Department’s historically strong relationship with state, local, and tribal law enforcement through outreach and inclusion on the Department’s major initiatives including the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and HEAT.

“And finally, we have put in place a terrific senior management team that under the Attorney General’s leadership will build on this foundation. Through our work in each of these areas, the goals I hoped to achieve when I accepted this position either have been or soon will be fulfilled. The Department is in good hands, and I feel I can now return to the private practice I have missed these thirteen months.

“It has been a singular privilege to work alongside the Department’s dedicated career professionals, whose commitment to the national interest and the cause of justice is an inspiration to me. I am very grateful to President Obama and Attorney General Holder for the opportunity to serve my country and the Department of Justice in this Administration, and I will continue to assist them in any way possible.”

Rom Houben Is In a Persistent Vegitative State

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You’ve doubtless heard about the miracle in Belgium, where a man has been determined to have functioning intellect.

I’m with Michael Shermer on this, this is Ouija board style “facilitated communication type hoax:

It’s a hoax, folks. Sorry to be the spoiler of a feel good story—that of Rom Houben, the Belgian man who allegedly “woke up” from a 23-year long coma—but the hard truth must win out over hopeful emotions. Houben’s “communications,” his “statements” about how he’s been aware all along of his condition, his “talking” to reporters (all descriptive terms used by hardened journalists softened into bleeding heart jelly) is nothing more than the “ideomotor” effect, where the brain subtly and subconsciously guides the hands and fingers over a keyboard, or a Ouija board, or directs the movements of dowsing rods in search of underground water……

…. Houben is just sitting there in a chair looking like he’s in a coma, with the facilitator standing next to him, his hand firmly gripped by hers, guiding his hand over the keyboard. ….

A simple test to prove my claim: show a picture of an object (say, a cat) to the facilitator and show a different picture of an object (say, a dog) to Huben. Don’t let either one see the other photographs. Then see what gets typed: cat or dog? As a control, show them both the same picture and see what gets typed. Prediction: Whatever the facilitator sees is what will get typed. Would someone there please run this simple test?

Such a test was already done in the 1990s when something called “Facilitated Communication” (FC) was all the rage with autistic children who, just like the Coma Man, “suddenly awoke” from their long sleep and began talking up a storm and sounding all the world like perfectly normal bright children, some even returning to school to take classes. Only they weren’t. Normal. Or talking. A facilitator stood next to a child, held his or her hand firmly in a grip with the index finger pointing down over a keyboard, then typed. In controlled tests by experimental psychologists, a photograph of an object was shown to the facilitator and a photograph of an object was shown to the child. Neither one saw what the other one saw. Sometimes the pictures were of the same objects, sometimes they were different. Result: whatever the facilitator saw is what got typed, 100% of the time, and never (0%) did what the child see get typed unless it was also what the facilitator saw. ….

Prediction: if the Coma Man story is not thoroughly debunked now, within a short time the families of people in comas will be snapping up these plastic keyboards and facilitating the communication of their loved ones locked up in a broken brain. Only they will be doing no such thing. They will be wasting their time, money, energy, and worst of all their emotions, setting themselves up for being crushed when awareness dawns on them that FC doesn’t work. Please, would someone in the Houben family put an end to this charade before it spreads through the coma community and wreaks emotional havoc.

(emphasis mine)

No happy endings here. We are merely seeing the ability of human beings to delude themselves, nothing more, nothing less.

Did Dobbs Walk Away, or Was He Pushed

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The real problem here for CNN was that Lou Dobbs has gone completely around the bend, but crazy motherf$#@ers bring in ratings, (see O’Reilly, Bill), but it also means a hit to his credibility.

His exit was certainly abrupt, he announced today that this was his last show, and the reason that he gave, “some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day,” implies to me that he was pushed.

It sounds a lot like, “Spending more time with his family.”

He’ll probably end up on Fox.

Breaking: Bear Stearn Fund Managers Not Guilty

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Graphic h/t Calculated Risk

It was clear that they were putting lipstick on a pig, but under the law at the time, it was not outrageous enough to justify a conviction, it appears that hawking their funds while dissing it privately, along with also, in one case, selling those said funds like a maniac, ain’t enough to prove guilt.

You see, the standard at the time was, “suitable,” which means that they cannot put a client in a clearly improper investment, but they can consider things like their sales commissions and bonuses as a part of the decision, as opposed to the “fiduciary” standard, which requires the agent to act solely in the best interest of the client:

“Buried in President Obama’s proposed regulatory overhaul is a change that could upend Wall Street: Brokers would be held to a higher “fiduciary” standard that would compel them to place their client’s interests ahead of their own.

Currently, brokers are only required to offer investments that are “suitable,” which means they can’t put clients in inappropriate investments, such as a highly risky stock for an 80-year-old grandmother. The move could change the way products are sold and marketed and even how brokers are compensated.”

…

But requiring brokers to operate under a fiduciary standard could force them to offer products that are less costly and more tax-efficient. They will have to disclose any potential conflicts of interest, such as any fees they may get for favoring one product over another. That could mean clients will be offered fewer proprietary products if the broker can find a lower-cost option elsewhere.

Unfortunately, at this point this:

  • Has not been implemented
  • Applies to a retail broker only
  • The proposal appears to continue to allow a firm to penalize a broker who acts in the best interest of their client: see Penalty Box.

In any case, I think that proving wrongdoing under a fiduciary standard will be much easier, as it should be.

These guys dicked with their clients mercilessly for their own personal benefit, they just didn’t quite, they just did not cross the line to illegal.

Under a fiduciary standard, it probably would.

Breaking: Bernard Kerik Pleads Guilty

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So, the man who Rudy Giuliani mentored to the position of New York City Police Commissioner has copped a plea deal, and pled guilty to on 8 counts, “two counts of tax fraud, one count of making a false statement on a loan application — the most serious — and five separate counts of making false statements to the federal government,” and is likely to be sentenced to 27 to 33 months.

The false statements are in connection to his statements to federal agents when he was being vetted to be head of DHS by Bush and His Evil Minions™.

Basically, he got a $¼ million in renovations for his apartment from a mob tied contractor that he later recommended for city business.

Basically, Giuliani’s right hand man was mobbed up.

This guy was pretty low level until Giuliani decided to smile on him, and it says something about Rudy’s judgment, and could, and should be an issue if he chooses to run for governor.

Except for that Whole Parachute Failure Thing…..

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So, the delayed launch of the Ares I launcher was deemed a success, except, of course, for the whole recovery parachutes failing and damaging the nominally reusable shuttle solid rocket booster derived first stage.

The first stage suffered some significant damage as a result of the failure, though, for now, at least, the rest of the flight is considered to be “nominal.”

I’ll wait for the full report.

Breaking: House Dems Announce Their Bill

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Listening on CSPAN.

Pelosi is giving her House leadership is giving their press conference on the steps of the Capitol.

Pelosi:
10: 38 am — Will close “Doughnut Hole” on prescription drugs.

10: 39 am — Will have public option and end preexisting condition exclusion.

Hoyer:
10: 39 am — No specifics

Other folks:
10: 46 am — Carole Shea Porter brings out the “Petting Zoo”: a medicare recipient from New Hampshire to talk about Doughnut hole.

10: 49 am — Doughnut hole will be phased out between 2010 through 2019.

10: 52 am — More “petting zoo” with a small business owner.

James Clyburn:
10: 56 am — Just introduces Mary Joe Kilroy, who has MS.

10: 52 am — Changes on caps, pre-existing conditions, etc.

11:03 am — More petting zoo.

11:11 am — We’re just into soundbites now, bye.

You Mean They Were Still Playing

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So, it appears that the band A-Ha is splitting up after 25 years.

I was never much on their big hit as a song, Take Me On, but the video was great:

I listened to the album Hunting High and Low, which is where the song came from when I was borrowing a car. The rest of the songs seemed a lot better, and had more substance

Go figure.

One other note, the actress in this is the quintessential big hair 1980s chick.

I Guess That it’s Now the “Not George W. Bush” Prize, not the Nobel

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I’m not saying that Barack Obama won’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize some day, but he certainly does not deserve his award of the prize today.

I dunno, maybe people like Morgan Tsvangirai, who accomplished something like reforms in Zimbabwe at significant personal risk and cost, were just busy flying that day, like Gary Kildall was with IBM.

BTW, I think that there should be a “Not George W. Bush” prize, and there is a better than even chance that Barack Obama deserves this, excluding the who Habeas, prosecuting torture, too big to fail stuff.

You know, this does remind me a lot of Ronald Reagan, in a good way, in that it appears that Obama could fall into a cesspool, and come out smelling like a lilac.

The only thing that I can figure is that the Nobel committee decided that this would be the best way for them to pressure Obama to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.