Category: Politics

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted….

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The fact that the Iraqi Parliament is going on vacation indicates that they know something that our morally bankrupt intelligentsia do not, that regardless of what they do, GW Bush will not pull out of Iraq.

If Lichtenstein were to conquer Texas, and claim it as their own right now, George Bush would not pull a single soldier out of Iraq to stop them and to take it back.

For Shrub, it’s all about him, and Iraq, for various oedipal and addictive personality driven reasons is what he thinks he is.

Please, Someone Lock These People Up With Leona Helmsley

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It appears that Blackstone partners may avoid taxes on their IPO profits completely.

Here is the short form:

...
The paper says that of the $4.75 billion raised by the Blackstone IPO, the firm attributed $3.7 billion to good will, an accounting term that estimates the value of the intangible assets rather than tangible assets such as buildings and equipment owned by the firm.

That $3.7 billion is taxed at a 15 percent tax rate used for capital gains, meaning that the firms’ partners had to pay taxes of $553 million on their gain.

But by transferring that good will to a new corporate structure, the firm is able to deduct that $3.7 billion as a business expense at a 35 percent tax rate, reducing taxes by $1.3 billion over a 15-year period, according to the report.

The Times reports that under terms of the IPO, the Blackstone partners are entitled to 85 percent of those tax savings, or $1.1 billion. They are also able to account for those savings as a lump sum, when adjusting for the current value of those savings over the next 15 years. That brings current tax savings to $751 million, or $198 more than they had been required to pay in taxes on the $3.7 billion gain seen from the IPO.
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Damn!!! It’s enough to make one a Marxist.

Truth is, I am, but Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo, not Karl.

Bush is Planning to Bomb Iran

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Bush just quietly announced that he willVeto any measure that limits his ability to bomb Iran.

From the White House Statement of Administration Policy(pdf):

Amendments on Iran: The Administration strongly opposes amendments to the bill to restrict the ability of the United States to deal effectively with the threats to regional security posed by the conduct of Iran, including Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Administration also notes that provisions of law that purport to direct or prohibit international negotiations, covert action, or use of the armed forces are inconsistent with the Constitution’s commitment exclusively to the presidency of the executive power, the function of Commander-in-Chief, and the authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign policy. If the bill were presented to the President with provisions that would prevent the President from protecting America and allied and cooperating nations from threats posed by Iran, the President’ senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

I’m feeling much better now.

Schadenfreude Overload

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Seriously. I’m going to need to set up a house of prostitution at the next Republican convention. I’ll make enough money to never have to work again.

McCain’s co-chairman of his Florida campaign, Florida State Rep. Bob Allen, was arrested for soliciting a prostitute who turned out to be a vice cop.

Other Republicans:

  • David “Family Values” Vitter: hooked up with prostitutes (It’s rumored to be something involving him dressing in diapers)
  • Guiliani’s: SC Campaign chair was busted for dealing coke, New SC chair is a racist, has a pedophile priest as a campaign adviser, and Ted F#$@ing Olsen is his legal adviser
  • Romney: Tortures dogs, Director of Operations impersonated an officer, head of Utah finance committee ran schools for trouble youngsters where they were abused and raped.

Please pass the popcorn.

Bush Hates the Disabled

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It turns out that the Bush administration forbade the Surgeon General from going to the special Olympics.

The reason given?

Why couldn’t he attend? Because of the games’ association with a certain “prominent family.”

Carmona: “I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?'” (Let’s be charitable and assume that by “those people,” the official meant the family and not the disabled children.) When asked after the hearing whether that “prominent family” was the Kennedys, Carmona replied, “You said it. I didn’t.”

Take a breath and contemplate this. The nation’s top health officer wanted to go to a completely non-political event and pin a few medals on the proud chests of disabled kids. And he was barred from doing so because showing up would have constituted lending aid and comfort to the Kennedys.

Bush and his evil minions™ politicized the bloody Special Olympics.

How small, how petty, and how evil do you have to be to do this.

Internet Radio to Go Dark in 3 Days

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I know, mixed metaphor, but this is important. Contact your congresscritter about this.

Court denies stay of Internet radio execution
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Thursday 12th July 2007 18:50 GMT

The Internet radio death watch continues. Late yesterday, a federal appeals court denied an emergency stay petition from webcasters, refusing to delay the arrival of massive royalty hikes that threaten to bring down online radio as we know it. The new royalty rates – which could mean a 300 per cent payment increase for large stations, 1200 per cent for smaller broadcasters – are due to kick in this Sunday.

The stay was rejected with a single sentence from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent standards required for a stay pending court review,” the order read.

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In March, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board set down new royalty rates that would require webcasters to pay 8 hundredths of a cent each time they broadcast a song to an individual listener. That’s $0.0008 per song per listener – and it’s retroactive to the beginning of 2006. According to Ward, this amounts to a 300 per cent rake hike for the even the largest Internet radio stations, 1,200 per cent for the smallest webcasters. Most, he says, could not afford to stay in business. By 2010, rates are scheduled to hit $0.0019 per song per listener.

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And then there is the whole issue of retroactivity? By making it retroactive, will any new works be created?

No, they will not.

We have copyright to “encourage the useful arts and sciences”, to quote the constitution.

IP law is public interest law in the US. That’s how the constitution defines it, and why it allows it.

Under the current IP regime, Moby Dick would never have been reprinted after its initial publication, and there would be no Shakespeare at all. Both were rediscovered after the author’s deaths.

Schadenfreude: 20 More Perps Edition

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According to Raw Story, Hustler magazine is involved in more than 20 sex scandal investigations.

Flynt is saying that about the hypocrisy, not the sex….Whatever.

Referring to his past court battles over indecency charges, the hardcore magazine publisher said the government “did everything it could for 15 years” to put him behind bars.

“This is payback time,” he said. “And payback’s a bitch.”

Sallie Mae Takeover Threatened by Law Changes

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Sallie May (SLM Corp) is the 800 pound gorilla in the student loan market. They are also one of the worst offenders in the current spate of student loan scandals.
Well now, a planned private equity deal involving Sallie Mae is at risk because of legislative changes.

Basically, the law will slash the subsidies to student loan providers, and reduce the interest that they can charge, so SLM is a much less attractive takeover target.

This is a good thing. The private players in the student loan market suck. They shaft the students, and they cost the taxpayers money. The direct federal program saves money for the taxpayer.

Ten Schoolgirls Murdered for Bush’s Oedipal Issues

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This is what George W. Bush’s Oedipal obsession with Iraq has bought us: the Taliban taking over Afghanistan again.

As War Enters Classrooms, Fear Grips Afghans
By BARRY BEARAK

QALAI SAYEDAN, Afghanistan, July 9 — With their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road.

The staccato of machine-gun fire pelted through the stillness. A 13-year-old named Shukria was hit in the arm and the back, and then teetered into the soft brown of an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl’s precious breath and trying to help her stand.

But Shukria was too heavy to lift, and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, sped closer.

As Zarmina scurried away, the men took a more studied aim at those they already had shot, killing Shukria with bullets to her stomach and heart. Then the attackers seemed to succumb to the frenzy they had begun, forsaking the motorbike and fleeing on foot in a panic, two bobbing heads — one tucked into a helmet, the other swaddled by a handkerchief — vanishing amid the earthen color of the wheat.

Six students were shot here on the afternoon of June 12, two of them fatally. The Qalai Sayedan School — considered among the very best in the central Afghan province of Logar — reopened only last weekend, but even with Kalashnikov-toting guards at the gate, only a quarter of the 1,600 students have dared to return.

Shootings, beheadings, burnings and bombings: these are all tools of intimidation used by the Taliban and others to shut down hundreds of Afghanistan’s public schools. To take aim at education is to make war on the government.

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Gonzalez Lied to Congress

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Gonzalez should be under indictment.

Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations
After Bureau Sent Reports, Attorney General Said He Knew of No Wrongdoing

By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; Page A01

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. “There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse,” Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

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Joe Lieberman is the Wanker of EVERY Day

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Seriously, I’m embarrassed to share a religion with this bloke. He is a Shanda before the Goyim.

He’s been full of himself since he ran for president in 2004 (I know what you are saying, it was VP, but in 2000, he was running for Prez in 2004), and now all that is left is bitterness and spite.

He needs a splenectomy, as evidenced by his attack on Harry Reid.

You know, Harry Reid said a while ago that the war in Iraq is lost. It’s wrong. It’s not lost. In fact, I would say we’re beginning to win it. We’ve turned the tide with the new strategy. And in fact, I cannot conceive of a circumstance in which American forces would lose the war in Iraq, on the ground in Iraq. If we lose it, it’s gonna be lost here at home, in a different kind of war for public opinion and political support.

This was without any prompting from radio host Bill “Slot Machine” Bennett.

‘Chicago Sun-Times’ Looks to Redefine Itself as ‘Liberal, Working-Class’ Paper

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I don’t know what this means, but I pray that this means that liberal will be the new black.

‘Chicago Sun-Times’ Looks to Redefine Itself as ‘Liberal, Working-Class’ Paper

By Mark Fitzgerald

Published: July 10, 2007 12:29 PM ET

CHICAGO The Chicago Sun-Times is turning left.

The tabloid that shifted toward political conservatism under the brief ownership of Rupert Murdoch more than two decades ago now says that it is ‘rethinking our stance on several issues, including the most pressing issue facing Americans today: Bush’s war in Iraq.’

Under marching orders from Publisher John Cruickshank and Editor in Chief Michael Cooke, new Editorial Page Editor Cheryl L. Reed introduced a new Commentary section Tuesday with a promise to turn the tabloid back into the liberal-leaning paper it was for decades before the Reagan administration.

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Guilty or No, This Trial is F%$%ed Up

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Kind of like Mumia. I think that Mumia did it, and I think that Mumiw was railroaded.

The trial of Former Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) is seriously screwed up.

You have Republicans testifying that it was politically driven. You have a judge who is a long time political enemy of Siegelman, and you have the judge imposing a fine for an offense for which he had been acquitted.

Originally, Siegelman had been ordered to pay the money to reimburse the state for losses based on a warehouse scandal. A jury acquitted Siegelman of charges relating to that scandal, but the prosecution pressed for punishment during the sentencing portion of the trial. The judge changed his mind yesterday, siding with Siegelman’s lawyers.

Judge decided that he had crossed a line in his vengance, I guess.

Still, the fact that HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushyis going to jail too gives me mixed emotions.

Given the politicization of Justice under Bush and Abu Gonzalez (who ever thought that I would miss John f%$#ing Ashcroft) politics almost certainly played an important roll though.