Category: Corruption

The Death of Christianity?

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Orcinus had an interesting analysis of a new study by the Barna group, an Evangelical research group.

The picture is stark:

Basically, it shows that Christians in general, and Evangelicals in particular, are losing the youth in a very profound way.

Here, I think is the money quote:

Roughly a quarter of both the Christians and non-Christians in the under-30 group also mentioned — without being prompted — that “Christianity has changed from what it used to be,” and that it “no longer looks like Jesus.” Their sheer frustration level over how far the modern Christianity had deviated from its roots took Kinnaman by surprise:

In our interviews, we kept encountering young people – both those inside the church and outside of it – who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians.”

(emphasis mine)
Basically, the public face of Christianity, and by that I mean the Fallwells, Robertsons, etc. who have the shows and get the face time with politicians, have alienated the youth with their hate.

I don’t understand the finer points of Christianity, but I do understand how the pursuit of secular power corrupts religion. One only has to look at Iran to see that.

To the Christians reading this, you need to figure a way to convince people that the current public face of Christianity are not the preachers of hate that seem to appear on every talk show, and who dominate the religious air waves.

Illegal NSA Wiretapping Began Before September 11

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I missed the bigger story on my last post on this, because I did not pay enough attention to the time line, but this is BIG. The NSA illegal wiretapping was not a part of “post 911 thinking”, because it was not post 911!!!!

Simply put, this program was being put in place in February of 2001, this was about a month after Bush entered office, and when by all available evidence, Bush and His Evil Minions™
had no concern with, nor even an inkling about the nature of the terrorist threat.

They were looking at Saddam, or at a resurgent Russia (Cheney-Rumsfeld the former, Condi the latter). As such, they had no reason for expanded wiretap powers.

[former Qwest CEO Joe] Nacchio’s account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts.

There are only two possible reasons for this:

  • A mindless pro-surveillance mindset in the administration combined with an opportunistic bureaucracy in the state security apparatus.
  • A desire to engage in surveillance on political opponents.

My guess would be that it was a little bit of both. These are seriously bad people.

John Edwards Proposals for Changes

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Today In New Hampshire Edwards Outlines Agenda To Return The Power In Washington To Regular People

First indent is the Edwards bullet point, following are my assessments of pros and cons of the specifics

  • Reforming Campaign Finance to Strengthen Small Donors
    • Reduces maximum contribution from $2300 to $1000, and does matching only on the first $100, at an 8 to one ratio, so a $100 contribution nets $900 in funds, and a $1000 contribution nets $1900 in funds.
      • Pros: Reduces the effect of big donations and bundling of donations.
      • Cons: The Supreme court may find the $1000 limit excessive. Additionally, the problem of money in politics is driven by costs, specifically one cost, the cost of advertising on over the air television. Seeing how we, the public, own the airwaves, it makes a lot of sense to add airtime for candidates to the mix for broadcast licenses.
  • Ending the Unique Power of Lobbyists
    • Would prevent lobbyists from making campaign donations, and from bundling donations. Would extend the ban on lobbying after leaving government positions to 5 years. Add a “constitutional” line item veto. Increasing disclosure requirements for lobbyists.
      • Pros: Disclosure is good, as is an extended period between government and lobbying jobs.
      • Cons: Prohibiting lobbyists from making political donations is flat out wrong. It’s more restrictive than the limitations on active duty military. Definition of lobbyists is a difficult thing. A “constitutional” line item veto would likely require amending the constitution, which is unlikely, at best.
  • Strengthening the Voice of Ordinary Citizens
    • Requires a voter verifiable paper ballot. Allow election day registration. Eliminate felon disenfranchisement. Give DC residents a congressional representative. Fight voter suppression. Have a biennial national town hall of over 1 million people working together to solve problems.
      • Pros: The voting proposals are good. Getting DC a representative is good.
      • Cons: DC really should be a full state. It has twice as many people in it as Alaska or Wyoming. The biennial national town hall is just silly. It sounds like a Grateful Dead concert.
  • Promote Open and Democratic Media
    • Require that real public interest obligations be a part of all broadcast licenses. Require net neutrality. Universal broadband by 2010. Make media ownership more difficult.
      • Pros: All good ideas.
      • Cons: Getting this done will be tough. In terms of universal broadband, I believe that this will require some level of government ownership of the “last mile” of wire to the house, which is how it happened in Japan and Korea, but this will be nearly impossible to accomplish in the current political/social environment in the United States.

The only one I truly disagree on is the ban on lobbyist contributions, which I think is just plain wrong. Everyone should be able to contribute, but it is rather blue sky.

CIA Director Hayden on Jihad Against CIA Inspector General

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General Haden has ordered an inquiry into the work of the CIA’s Inspector General, John L. Helgerson.

Any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would be unusual, if not unprecedented, and would threaten to undermine the independence of the office, some current and former officials say.

Frederick P. Hitz, who served as C.I.A. inspector general from 1990 to 1998, said he had no first-hand information about current conflicts inside the agency. But Mr. Hitz said any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would “not be proper.”

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Mr. Hitz, who now teaches at the University of Virginia. “Under the statute, the inspector general has the right to investigate the director. How can you do that and have the director turn around and investigate the I.G.?”

This is clearly an attempt to intimidate or remove the inspector general. It’s pretty much unprecedented, and it is profoundly antithetical to the most basic sort of principals of bureaucratic accountability, so it’s pretty certain that Bush and His Evil Minions™ have knowledge of and approved this.

Jena 6 Defendant Ordered Back to Slammer

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The prosecutor (yes, the racist cracker who trumped this all up in the first place), and fellow traveller Judge J.P. Mauffrey that this entire mess is a parole violation.

I believe that the charge is “being an uppity n*****”. This is disgraceful, and Al Sharpton is right when he calls this “revenge”.

Disgraceful.

Unfortunately, under the Bush administration, there is no realistic chance of any of these folks being taken down for civil rights violations.

Bogus Patent Suit Instigated by Microsoft Against Linux Vendors

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A company by the name of IP Innovation LLC, a subsidiary of subsidiary of a company called Acacia (a well known patent troll) has filed suit against Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell.

The patent is for a “User interface with multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects”, something that existed in prior art and is obvious.

FWIW, Acacia also holds a patent on the “desktop”, no kidding, they just got Apple to pay money.

The recent supreme court cases which restricted patent remedies should make this interesting. Because Acacia is a patent troll, there is no damage that cannot be made right, and so there is no cause for an injunction, and here is a big surprise:

And Acacia has taken on a couple of former Microsoft employees in recent months, including Brad Brunell, who was general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft until he joined IP Innovation on 1 October — just eight days before the suit was filed

So much like SCO, Microsoft’s FUD hands are all over this.

Prosecutor of Anti-Terror Trial to Go on Trial Himself for Obstruction of Justice, Making False Declarations, and Conspiracy Charges

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The involves the trial of four people accused of being a terrorist “cell” in Detroit. Richard Convertino suppressed documents that would help the defense during discovery, and then lied about it.

It was so egregious that he was outed by his staff, and the convictions were overturned at the request of the Justice Department.

According to the prosecution, Convertino was looking at converting a high profile conviction into a leg up in a run for Congress.

It’s good that he, and former State Department investigator Harry Smith III, are being put on trial.

As much as the Bush Administration thinks that the law is not worth the trouble, it’s the only thing protectinb us against corrupt overzealous members of the state security apparatus.

SEC Is Looking Into Insider Abuse of Stock Plans

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A stock plan is an automatic stock trading scheme. It is frequently used by senior corporate officers, because (theoretically) it provides insulation from the temptations or accusations of insider trading.

The SEC is now looking into whether these plans are being manipulated by insiders.

Introduced in 2000 as part of a broader securities reform, these plans enable executives to buy and sell company stock virtually year-round, regardless of insider knowledge or trading “blackouts.” Financial planners and brokers tout the plans as a smart way for executives to take money off the table and diversify their portfolios.

The main stipulation is that executives must set up a written, systematic trading plan when they have no inside information, then hand off the actual trading to a broker or other third party.

But experts say the rules are so flexible that they have led to a wide spectrum of practices and disclosures. Some executives trade in consistent batches at recurring intervals, sometimes on a daily basis. Others trade stock based on undisclosed formulas that can be pegged to daily stock prices, moving averages or other variables.

Once again we are seeing that market deregulation frees the market to be corrupt to a far larger degree than it frees the market to be efficient. We need toi bring back all those FDR era laws that have been repealed starting in the mid 1970s.

This repeal has created nothing but corruption and pain for the little guy.

Democrats to Cave to Bush on Illegal Wiretaps

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It looks like Bush will be getting what he wants on the wiretap bill. All reports are that the Democrats are caving.

It looks like telco indemnification is in, as is broad warrants that allow the state security apparatus to listen in to American conversations as long as the Americans are not specifically targeted.

The biggest knock that Republicans have on Democrats is that they have no guts, and now, the reports that “Many members continue to fear that if they don’t support whatever the president asks for, they’ll be perceived as soft on terrorism,” from a national security expert won’t help that.

The Democrats were elected to stop Bush, and they should realize that, particularly in this case, it’s the right thing to stop Bush, and it is to their political advantage.

The can do the right thing, and benefit politically. All they need is some guts.

Cowards.

Democrats Sell Out on Fund Manager Tax Loophole.

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Harry Reid has assured the brokerage people that their commissions will continue to be treated as capital gains, reality be damned.

Reid is apparently arguing that he cannot get it past the Republicans, but making the ‘Phants vote for a ludicrous tax break for people percieved as hyper-rich cheats is a winning political strategy.

Stupid.

One wonders when how long it’s going to take until the voting public demands real reform from the Democrats.

My, guess is that it will be a while, as nary a week passes without some Republicans getting caught soliciting sex, taking bribes, molesting children, etc.

Medieval Cities Returning

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Paul Krugman has an an interesting commentary on what he calls the return the rentier city, on his blog.

Basically, from a few hundred years ago (yes, I know not technically medieval) and before, the very rich in a city did not make their money there. They had some sort of holdings that generated their money elsewhere, typically hereditary lands, but they lived in the city.

More recently, the rich in the city have made their money in and around that city, through manufacturing, shipping, publishing, etc. Cities have been centers of business, but the rentier city is returning:

But these days, everything old is new again. Today’s Wall Street Journal (sub. Req.) has a story about the sources of London’s current boom: an influx of very wealthy foreigners, whose income comes from elsewhere. Middle Eastern sheiks, Russian beeznessmen, Indian industrialists, have become the backbone of London’s economy. It’s all helped a lot by British tax law, which gives big breaks to people who live in Britain but are “domiciled” elsewhere (don’t ask.)

Local town authorities are, of course, falling all over themselves, on the theory that it benefits the economy.

Personally, I’m of the belief that they are more of a burden than a benefit, as they push the middle class out of the cities, and raise the cost of housing and other services for everyone.

One comment on his post was very interesting, “But it doesn’t amaze me how 21st century America is starting to look like an accelerated rise and fall version of the Roman Empire: outsourcing civil functions, mercenaries, the Patriot Act, and now rentier cities.”

Petraeus a Liar

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The Public Editor of the New York Times*, Clark Hoyt, just called General David H. Petraeus a liar. He was circumspect, but here is the money quote:

Stephen Biddle, a scholar at the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, said Petraeus’s December number was “very high” but was likely the result of “statistical noise” — the tendency of Iraq numbers to jump all over the place. Biddle was an adviser to Petraeus last spring but believes the general’s testimony was “potentially misleading” because it didn’t discuss all the reasons why the numbers might have improved.

He said the best way to analyze statistics from Iraq is to gather all the numbers from all sources and look for broad trends instead of picking isolated points, as Petraeus did. Biddle examined data from nine sources on Iraqi civilian deaths, including the U.S. military, independent organizations like Brookings and Iraq Body Count and four news organizations. Although the specific monthly numbers varied widely, he said they all showed declines since late 2006.

Let’s be clear. The general is not a politician, or a pundit, and his testimony is given under the authority of his rank, and he purposely misled congress. The man is a liar, and a suck-up, at least that is what his boss thinks.

Petraeus used numbers that his numbers guy said were unreliable, because he’s a lying sack of excrement REMF.

*In less pretentious papers, they are called an Ombudsman.

Larry Craig, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

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Let’s see, first, we have Senator “Wide Stance” being inducted into the Idaho hall of fame, and then we have the male prostitute who outed Ted Haggard says that he met Larry Craig, and finally, Bob “The Traitor” Novak says that the Senate republicans knew about his behavior:

I have talked to several of my sources in the Senate, and this came as a surprise to me…They knew about it. They knew that he had this problem, and it was in the closet. And it was not just a homosexual relationship. It was this weird conduct. They didn’t do anything about it.

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