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Sunday News Roundup

Posted on August 8, 2010 by DandyTiger

I had a small mishap with WordPress this morning. WordPress won. But you can’t keep a good (or bad) pirate down. Also I’m trying out a new way to create/edit WordPress posts. Anyway, let’s see what fun things we can find in the news this evening.

Anne Rice quit Christianity the other day, and apparently that’s news:

Novelist Anne Rice’s surprise post last week on Facebook — she announced she had quit Christianity “in the name of Christ” because she’d seen too much hypocrisy — brought cheers and smug smiles from critics of institutional faith, and criticism and soul-searching among believers.

But there’s something more at play here than one of America’s most famous Catholics — Rice re-embraced the faith of her youth in 1998 and published a memoir just two years ago, “Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession” — walking away from the church.

Rice is merely one of millions of Americans who have opted out of organized religion in recent years, making the unaffiliated category of faith the fastest-growing “religion” in America, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

I would make some vampire jokes, but it’s just too hot outside.

Tensions are high again with North Korea seizing a South Korean boat:

North Korea seized a South Korean fishing boat in waters near their eastern sea border, the South Korean Coast Guard said Sunday, straining already high tensions between the two Koreas.

The 41-ton squidding boat was believed to have been detained after entering the North’s exclusive economic zone, where foreign fishing boats are banned, the coast guard said in a statement.

Four South Koreans and three Chinese crew members were on board. South Korea’s national news agency, Yonhap, quoting an unnamed coast guard official, said that the ship was being towed to Songjin, a port on the eastern coast of North Korea, for interrogation of the crew.

“Our government hopes for the safe return of our ship and crew according to international laws,” the coast guard’s statement said.

Who knows where that is going to lead or what North Korea is up too. They seem to keep pushing. But to what end.

Obama had a boyz club weekend during his birthday:

While the first lady and daughters Malia and Sasha were away this weekend, President Barack Obama has been enjoying what some have jokingly referred to as a bachelor’s weekend with friends — golfing, playing basketball and grilling out on the South Lawn.

The festivities are all part of a belated birthday celebration of sorts for the president, who turned 49 on Wednesday.

First lady Michelle Obama and youngest daughter Sasha, 9, were on vacation in Spain, while 12-year-old Malia is attending camp.

Friends from Hawaii, Chicago, Illinois, and college joined the president on Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf.

The sports outings continued Sunday with a basketball game at Fort McNair where Obama — along with such NBA stars as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Grant Hill and Earvin “Magic” Johnson — played in front of an audience of wounded servicemen and participants in the White House mentoring program.

After we see marriage legalized for gays in California, we can’t see Obama out with the “girls” now can we.

WH officials are still sticking to their story that great magical wizards swooped down and waved their wands and magically took away 3/4′s of the oil from the BP gusher. But now they’re admitting that there is some oil still there and work still to be done. I guess until they get more wizards in:

A report from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration last week found three-quarters of the oil spilled between late April and mid-July has been collected, dispersed or evaporated. But Allen said, “We need to keep a steady hand at the tiller to keep the cleanup going.”

“It’s a catastrophe. It’s a catastrophe for the people of the Gulf, and it requires our attention until we get the job done,” he said.

And White House environmental adviser Carol Browner told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the “first phase” of the disaster was over — but it is “not the end by any means.”

The well erupted after an April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that left 11 men dead. A temporary cap contained the spill on July 15, and nearly 3,000 barrels of heavy drilling mud and cement drove the well back into the ocean floor last week.

The final step — the completion of a relief well that will permanently seal the blowout from below — is expected to be completed sometime between August 13 and 15, Jim Lestelle, a spokesman for the relief effort, reported Sunday. Lestelle said the rig drilling the relief well was within the final 100 feet of intercepting the blown-out bore.

Read further with nose firmly held.

A Huston paper has more on that:

BP has stopped skimming for oil in the open ocean because it’s having trouble finding crude on the surface, Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production, said. About 74 percent of the oil that flowed from Macondo evaporated, dissolved or biodegraded, or was burned, skimmed or captured, the government said in a report on Aug. 4.

The relief well, which has about 85 feet to go, probably will intercept Macondo later this week. BP will use this channel to pump the mud and cement through the bottom and fill the area between the casing and the wellbore itself, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said today.

The timing of the completion of the relief well will depend on the weather, as a tropical storm could delay drilling operations, BP said.

No one at BP or the WH seems to be considering the wild idea that maybe the oil isn’t on the surface. And the media blindly follows.

Here’s a good article from the SF Chronicle on the gay marriage ruling and how it’s providing the best platform (more based on facts) for a public debate:

The first federal trial on same-sex marriage may have a limited impact on the higher courts that ultimately decide whether gays and lesbians have the right to wed. But the trial served at least one significant public function: as a platform for the debate that never happened during the Proposition 8 campaign.

“It’s the campaign we never had, the hearings we never had, and it was subjected to legal testing,” said Rory Little, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco. In the courts, “you can’t rest your position on opinions and deeply held feelings. We say, ‘Give us the facts.’ “

Those are a few things in the news this evening. Chime in with more.

Oh, and add some fun videos for late night viewing pleasure.

Filed under: General | Tagged: , | 40 Comments »

When they’re right, they’re right

Posted on August 8, 2010 by dakinikat

More often or not, you run into people that are so partisan or so into their ideology that they can’t see the constitution for what it really was designed to do.  The constitution lists a series of rights that government has an obligation to uphold even if it’s the wishes of the majority to screw over the minority. This is the issue with the Mosque at Ground Zero. (It absolutely should be built there.) It is also the issue with Ted Olsen and the rights of gay Americans to participate in the marriage rite.  It’s a right and it shouldn’t be put up to vote. Think about putting slavery up to a vote in the 1850s.  Think  about putting women’s property rights up for a vote back then also.  For that matter, look at what putting up women’s reproductive rights up for a vote does.  It means that a very hysterical and motivated voting bloc can take away constitutional rights from a minority and that’s a bad thing.

Ted Olsen makes absolute sense on this issue and I’m sure part of the reason the case passed muster was his impassioned argument.  Here’s Chris Wallace calling the overturn of Prop 8 ‘judicial action’ on Fox News.   (You can also view the complete interview at the link at C&L’s video cafe.)

Ted Olson told Fox News’ Chris Wallace Sunday that it’s not “judicial activism” when a judge follows the Constitution.

“Where is the right to same-sex marriage in the Constitution?” asked Wallace.

“Where is the right to interracial marriage in the Constitution, Chris?” replied Olson.

“The Supreme Court has looked at marriage and has said that the right to marry is a fundamental right for all citizens. So you call it interracial marriage and then you could prohibit it, no? The Supreme Court said no. The same thing here,” explained Olson.

“The judge after hearing three weeks of testimony and full day of closing arguments and listening to experts from all over the world concluded that the denial of the right to marry to these individuals in California hurt them and did not advance the cause of opposite sex marriage,” Olson continued.

“This is what judges are expected to do. It’s not judicial activism. It’s judicial responsibility in the classic sense.”

Here’s another part of the conversation that is particularly compelling.

When Wallace pressed the point further, likening same-sex marriage to abortion and noting that “the political process in the case of same-sex marriage was working” since states had been deciding the issue on a “state-by-state basis,” Olson asked Wallace how he would like it if Fox News’ right to free speech was decided in such a manner:

OLSON: Well, would you like your right to free speech? Would you like Fox’s right to free press put up to a vote and say well, if five states approved it, let’s wait till the other 45 states do? These are fundamental constitutional rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees Fox News and you, Chris Wallace, the right to speak. It’s in the constitution. And the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the denial of our citizens of the equal rights to equal access to justice under the law, is a violation of our fundamental rights. Yes, it’s encouraging that many states are moving towards equality on the basis of sexual orientation, and I’m very, very pleased about that. … We can’t wait for the voters to decide that that immeasurable harm, that is unconstitutional, must be eliminated.

Filed under: Gay community, gay, gay marriage | Tagged: | 55 Comments »

Too Darn Hot!

Posted on August 7, 2010 by dakinikat

Grab a cool one and enjoy this new twist … or not … here’s the original with the greatest singer ever … ELLA!  (Her ability to hit a note on pitch consistently still thrills me.)

Open thread!!!

Filed under: cocktails | 72 Comments »

Why won’t Dodd fight for Elizabeth Warren?

Posted on August 7, 2010 by dakinikat

Dodd’s pushing for Sheila Bair for the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) even though she doesn’t want the job.   Every one wants Elizabeth Warren, but Dodd seems unlikely to back her and is showing public unwillingness to fight for her.

The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber wrote that “after surveying a dozen insiders over the last few days — congressional aides, industry officials, progressive activists, and a few administration officials — I’ve concluded that the odds are good that Warren would be confirmed if nominated by the White House.” And Dodd now seems to have shifted his rhetoric, saying that even if Warren is confirmable, it’s not worth a potential fight to get her the job:

“What you don’t need to have is an eight-month battle for who the director or the head or chairperson of this new consumer financial protection bureau will be.”

Republicans overwhelming voted against the Dodd-Frank Reform bill, so why the sudden fear of the Republicans?  Does it have something to do with his coming exit from the senate and most likely entrance into the FIRE lobby or is there some one inside the White House  (like Geithner and/or Summers) who don’t want her in the position and want Dodd to take the fall?

BERJAYA

Filed under: Financial Meltdown of 2008, financial bailout, financial reform | Tagged: , , , | 25 Comments »

Lazy Saturday: Slow News Day

Posted on August 7, 2010 by bostonboomer

BERJAYA

Good Afternoon, Conflucians!!

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t find much new and different in the news today.
Afghanistan continues to be a clusterf&&k, and I wish we could just bring our troops home. But we all know that isn’t going to happen. I guess it’s good news that if I suddenly decide to visit Saudi Arabia, I’ll be able to use my Blackberry there.

Dakninikat sent me this link late last night and I got pretty outraged after I read it: BP Fires 10,000 Cleanup Workers

New BP CEO Bob Dudley wasn’t kidding when he announced last week that it was time for the company to scale back oil-spill cleanup operations. In fact, by the time he’d said that, the responder force had been drawn down by about 25 percent.

On July 13, the Deepwater Horizon Joint Command was reporting 46,000 responders. On July 23, it was down to 30,000, and the numbers have hovered around the low 30s since. Included in this tally are some Coast Guard and National Guard staff, but BP and subcontractors comprise the vast majority. (I’ve been trying to get the exact breakdown from the Coast Guard for four days, but to no avail, and BP said it didn’t have it on hand, though the Coast Guard has told me it just reports BP’s numbers.) In Grand Isle, Louisiana, cleanup workers (none of whom can be named; you know this drill by now) say their coworkers were either told to go home for Tropical Storm Bonnie and then never called back or fired in a massive and sudden drug test.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer published this very good McClatchy article on the lack of knowledge about hazards to cleanup workers in the Gulf states: Oil spill cleanup workers confronted by incomplete data on health risks

Public health officials say they face a daunting challenge: how to inform workers about the possible dangers when studies on the toxic effects of such a large spill have never been done.

Research has provided enough clues about some of the chemicals, however, that independent scientists and worker health advocates say that BP and the Obama administration should be more aggressive in warning workers about the possible long-term health effects of toxins, especially given complaints of worker illnesses that surfaced after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

“It’s sort of a legalistic framework that the government has adopted in saying there are not a lot of studies so we don’t know a lot,” said Dr. Michael Harbut, who specializes in occupational and environmental medicine and has treated oil industry workers.

“It’s true that there have not been extensive studies about crude oil dumping into the Gulf in the millions of barrels quantity and being mixed with dispersant,” he said, “but there are thousands of studies about what happens when people and animals come into contact with these chemicals, and those studies demonstrate that they are not benign.”

Now I’m just depressed that BP is apparently going to leave the scene of the crime, and no one in our government is going to do anything about it. I hope I’m wrong. I did find this story in the Wall Street Journal on investigations of the causes of the disaster:

BP, Transocean Ltd., Halliburton Co. and other companies involved with the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig face years of potentially distracting probes and inquiries into what caused the fatal blowout, why the gushing well wasn’t stopped sooner and other questions.

The investigations might bring changes to the way the offshore oil industry operates in the U.S. and even criminal charges against some of the companies’ employees, legal and industry experts say.

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into the spill, which Attorney General Eric Holder has said could wind up affecting more than just BP. Investigators are gathering documents and interviewing witnesses.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal offshore regulator, is conducting hearings into the industry’s preparedness for another spill and is expected to issue rules governing offshore drilling.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is continuing its probe of the spill and committee leaders hope to issue a report in December, said Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, a senior Democrat on the panel.

Will anything come of all these probes? Your guess is as good as mine.

The release of 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River oil is getting very little national coverage. Here is one article I found in the LA Times: The Kalamazoo River ‘mess’ is a lot more than that

Thirty miles of the Kalamazoo River were fouled. Birds, fish and other wildlife were killed or oiled. People had to be evacuated from their homes because of high levels of benzene in the air. When the heavy crude passed through the city of Battle Creek, the Kellogg Co. even had to stop making Corn Flakes.

The Kalamazoo empties directly into Lake Michigan. If oil had reached that lake, it would have been, in the words of Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, “a tragedy of historic proportions.” Although the Kalamazoo has come a long way from the days when it was the site for paper mills that dumped chemical waste directly into the river, a stretch of the river is still a Superfund site, and scientists warn that the spilled oil could release pollutants buried in the river’s sediment, unleashing even more toxins.

That’s more than a “mess.” On top of that, this disaster might have been avoided had Enbridge been more responsible. Federal regulators warned Enbridge in January about corrosion in the pipeline, and the company had a history of citations. Needless to say, Daniel’s apology didn’t include taking responsibility for that negligence.

But what we really can’t afford to overlook is that the disaster in Michigan is only the most recent example of a threat that too many Americans don’t even know about. The pipe that burst is part of one of the largest pipeline systems in the world. These are the pipes that bring tar-sands oil from Canada to refineries throughout the industrial cities of the Midwest.

If that doesn’t scare you, nothing will. How many more of these near misses can we ignore before there is catastrophe big and bad enough to light a fire under our non-responsive federal government? These are national and global problems that states simple can’t handle on their own.

Matt Taibbi has a new piece in Rolling Stone on the Wall Street “evil-doers” (H/T, GWB). I haven’t read it yet, and I don’t know if I’ll get the chance. Maybe Dakinikat will give us her take on it.

Another article that I haven’t read because it will probably infuriate me is this book review of Jonathan Alter’s book on Obama. Frank Rich in the New York Review of Books: ‘Why Has He Fallen Short?’

Ah yes, so many of the Obots are asking the same question. They are so confused and distraught! From the article:

Of course Barack Obama was too hot not to cool down. He was the one so many were waiting for—not only the first African-American president but also the nation’s long-awaited liberator after eight years of Bush-Cheney, the golden-tongued evangelist who could at long last revive and sell the old liberal faith, the first American president in memory to speak to voters as if they might be thinking adults, the first national politician in years to electrify the young. He was even, of all implausible oddities, a contemporary politician-author who actually wrote his own books.

The Obama of Hope and Change was too tough an act for Obama, a mere chief executive, to follow. Only Hollywood might have the power to create a superhero who could fulfill the messianic dreams kindled by his presence and rhetoric, maintain the riveting drama of his unlikely ascent, and sustain the national mood of deliverance that greeted his victory. As soon as Inauguration Day turned to night, the real Obama was destined to depreciate like the shiny new luxury car that starts to lose its book value the moment it’s driven off the lot.

But still: How did we get to the nadir so fast?

Will Rich answer his own questions? I don’t know yet and I’m not sure I want to read his answers. Maybe some brave Conflucian will do it and report back.

Then there’s this article by Peter Baker in the NYT: Turning a Crisis Into an Opportunity in which Baker tries in a somewhat half-hearted discuss the question of whether President Obama has learned anything valuable from the BP gusher and its aftermath to date. I’ll just give you the concluding paragraphs:

What lessons Mr. Obama drew from the oil spill, he has not discussed much in public. No doubt had he to do it over again, he would have thought twice about announcing an expansion of offshore drilling just before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off the coast. And he has said he wished he had moved more aggressively to clean up the regulatory agency monitoring oil exploration.

But Mr. Obama is not someone to be rushed into moving before he is ready. Asked once why he took a couple of days to express anger at large bonuses by a bailed-out Wall Street firm, he said, “Because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”

Honestly, I don’t know how to respond to this piece. It’s as if Baker started out to demonstrate that Obama learned and grew through the crisis, but in the end he has to recognize that for Obama this isn’t even a crisis worth talking about. He’d much rather travel around and make speeches.

Finally, if you’d like a little gossipy fun, the UK Mail has a very nasty story about Michelle Obama’s Spanish vacation and how expensive it is for both the Obamas and the taxpayers. Here is the NY Daily News Story mentioned in the Mail article.
 The LA Times has a piece on all the criticism of the first lady: Michelle Obama’s Spanish vacation draws critics. And Ruth Marcus of the WaPo thinks all these attacks are terribly “unfair.”

So what are you reading today? Let us know in the comments, and have a great weekend!

Filed under: General | 89 Comments »

Hindsight allows us to see an Ass more clearly.

Posted on August 6, 2010 by sandress

So, I’ve just gotten into the West Wing recently, and I’ve plowed through until Season Seven. I just watched the Debate episode last night, and it inspired me (because apparently I’m a MASOCHIST) to re-watch all of the Democratic primary debates from the 2007/08 primaries. I watched them all the first time through, and through those debates I became a rabid Hillary supporter, and later on a rabid Obama critic. Both of which I remain. I continue to be curious how many of my friends who were vocal about their political allegiances during the primaries actually Watched the debates and stayed up to date on the race beyond the mainstream media’s talking points and their candidate’s website. I did, but I had a lot of time on my hands, and I’m more obsessive than is generally good for me. At any rate, I’m re-watching the debates now, and let me tell you, the shit that comes out of the candidates’ mouths is transformed into comedy gold (well, cynical and dark comedy gold) by hindsight. Also, the softballs lobbed at a certain candidate becomes more obvious in retrospect. I would encourage you all to re-watch (or just watch) the debates, but I warn you, they aren’t for those with weak stomachs or no sense of irony. These aren’t all of the debates, just the ones I could find easily on YouTube. If anyone has links to the missing debates, please comment with them.

Read more »

Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Election 2008 | Tagged: | 133 Comments »

Could the world’s food supply be the next speculative bubble?

Posted on August 6, 2010 by dakinikat

BERJAYASpeculators are always looking for places to speculate. The clarion call of the big money and the adrenalin thrill of the kill don’t always happen on an actual killing field for the very rich.  They frequently happen with some carefully placed shorts and momentum.  They do have the same results as a hunting party.  Something dies.  In this case, it could be the world’s hungry.

I know that wasn’t exactly a profound way to open a thread but I didn’t know how else to begin a conversation on food inflation and this UK Guardian headline: “Commodity prices soar as spectre of food inflation is back; Speculation and rumour could be the driving force behind sudden market rise in food prices”. It sounds like one of my dry economic topics when I put it this way. But, really you need to notice this.

I’ve talked about how incenting farmers to grow biofuels instead of food in a world where the population is still growing faster than it should is a dangerous bet.  It may be that a few some ones are taking that bet since it’s been raised by a Russian Drought and an Indian Plague.  Witness one of the few markets where we’re seeing asset prices rise above a normal rate of return.  No, it’s not really the stock market that’s been floating around the same numbers for months now.  It’s not the housing market or the commercial real estate market that still appears to have some downward momentum.  The new asset bubble appears to be in commodities.  It also seems centered in food.

The price of wheat, oil and copper soared this week but the picture looks much less clear this time. Old-fashioned supply and demand is still at work, but there are fears that wild rumours and speculation are driving up prices.

Wheat prices, which are up 40% over the last month, reached a two-year high as concerns about a drought in Russia and rotting stocks of grain in India exercised markets in London and Chicago. Claims that a major crop failure in Australia, following an invasion of locusts and a wet summer in Canada, could lead to a worldwide shortage, have pushed up prices in recent weeks to levels not seen since 2008.

The rise in futures contract prices traded on the major markets also follows a United Nations report in June that warned food prices could rise as much as 40% over the coming decade, amid growing demand from emerging markets and for biofuel production

The World Development Movement said reports pointing to a long-term upward trend in prices and the recent weather-related farming crisis had proved fertile ground for speculators who bet on rising prices.

Tim Jones, policy adviser to the WDM, said figures from US commodity futures trading commission showed the majority of contracts on foodstuffs over the past six weeks, including wheat, had bet on rising prices.

“There is strong evidence that speculators have seen an opportunity to drive up prices. But the damage caused by their activities is higher prices for everyone and people in developing countries can ill-afford to pay the cost,” he said.

One of the strong signals that the speculators have switched to creating a food asset bubble is this tidbit.  “The CFTC figures showed there was a 35% increase in contracts since June betting on a rise in prices.”  That means commodity futures traders are betting on price movements.  Food inflation (the rise in food prices) should be solidly linked to those pesky real things that shift demand and supply curves like drought (Russia does have one), plagues of locusts, or lots of hungry babies.  Is this the case in the current run up of food prices?

There are temporary reasons behind high food price inflation—drought, petroleum products price hikes, mismanagement of trade policies, transportation dislocations, debt waivers, speculation and so on. Per se, inflation numbers are also not really the point. There is no reason to expect that food price inflation will remain at 12.47%, which it was for week ending July 10. Such numbers are function of the base last year and will undoubtedly soften when the kharif crops arrive post-September. While short-term declines in prices of individual agro-commodities are possible, does one really believe that food price inflation will disappear?

It will moderate from double digits to 7% or thereabouts, but 7% is still inflation. And that 7% will remain, because there are medium-term causes behind the increase in food prices—NREG (which continues), increase in rural incomes (there is no reason to presume public expenditure in rural sector will taper off), increase in urban incomes, changes in consumption patterns and warped incentives through procurement prices and hikes in these (that isn’t going to be reversed either). We are talking about increasing demand imposed on an inelastic supply. (Increases in production and productivity have been marginal.)

These kinds of things make a market ripe for speculation.  This is from The UK Guardian.

But critics maintain that spikes in prices of global commodities are increasingly driven by speculators. They said the effects of a block on Russian exports by the Russian government were overplayed. Russia sends most of its wheat exports to Egypt, Syria and other middle eastern countries, which can access grain from other sources.

Reports that large amounts of India’s wheat stockpile could rot were premature, they said. Also, while India is the world’s second largest rice and wheat producer, it only exports a fraction of its output and would have little impact on global supply.

“Fears have been piqued that we may be heading back to the 2007-8 food crisis,” notes Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analysts at Barclays Capital. “In our view, market fundamentals are less compelling this time around with many of the key factors that propelled prices in that period missing.”

While India and Russia are expected to have very bad harvest, the EU and the US are expected to have abundant wheat.  So, some of these price increases do not make sense in terms of traditional economics which leads us to speculators that like to create momentum and ride it to big profits.

So, what to do?  When speculators in futures markets start destabilizing a market and introducing increased volatility and momentum that is likely to hurt the underlying market, the answer is limit the trade.  New financial reform laws allow Congress to do that and they should consider it right now before we have a mess in the food markets the same way we’ve got a mess in the housing markets.  Fortunately, the capital markets appear to have stabilized.   This would not limit farmers who hedge for risk management purposes.  It would limit big traders, like Cargill and most definitely hedge funds who are only in it for the kill. There are so many big players these days that I’m beginning to think that speculators do more than just ‘add liquidity’ to the market.  They seem capable of creating and driving momentum which is not what we want happening in markets.  Believe me, the world’s food supply is nothing you want to leave to adrenaline and testosterone.  Volatility in prices may give a few of those guys a thrill, but for the rest of the world who worries about food on the table, that’s a deadly game.

Filed under: Economic Development, Economy | Tagged: | 64 Comments »

Friday Late Morning News and Views

Posted on August 6, 2010 by bostonboomer

BERJAYA

Hello Conflucians!!! TGIF!!

I’ve got a potpourri of articles this morning with no overarching theme. I supposed Elena Kagan’s confirmation is the big story today, but I really can’t get too excited about it. She seems to me to be such a mediocre choice. The Politico says that the vote totals were a shot across the bow for Obama.

Though it confirmed her Thursday as the newest justice by a 63-37 vote, Kagan has the dubious distinction of receiving one of the lowest total of “yes” votes for a nominee during the past three presidencies — and the lowest number of confirmation votes ever for a justice picked by a Democrat.

Really, the best part of the Kagan debate was the little dust-up between breath of fresh air Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and nasty blowhard Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) laid out his opposition to Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination, someone in the chamber appeared to be moving around in his chair, gasping and rolling his eyes.

After his speech, a very irritated McConnell removed his microphone, approached the dais and confronted the former comedian, who was presiding over the Senate.

“This isn’t ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Al,” McConnell sternly told the Minnesota Democrat, according to people who overheard the exchange.

I know you’ve all probably heard already, but I just can’t stop chuckling about it.

Tony Bradley at PC World says things are looking better for the future of net neutrality after the Google-Verizon negotiations went public.

The FCC has called off negotiations with major Internet industry players to arrive at a compromise for net neutrality. The meetings were an attempt to come to an amicable agreement over net neutrality rules and dodge political pressure over FCC jurisdiction and authority–but asking the fox how to protect the henhouse is generally unwise.

Good point! Quick, someone tell the President about that fox in the henhouse thing pronto before he lets BP cut and run, leaving taxpayers to clean up their mess in the Gulf of Mexico. But I digress. Back to Bradley’s piece:

Reports of a secret deal between Verizon and Google for preferential treatment of Google traffic on Verizon’s networks may have been a catalyst to the breakdown of negotiations. But, whether that is true or not, the end of the negotiations is great for the future of the Internet. The FCC is supposed to provide guidance and oversight of these Internet industry stakeholders–not the other way around.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Senior Vice President and Policy Director of Media Access Project, had this to say about the rumored Google-Verizon deal. “What is good for Google and Verizon is not necessarily good for innovation and competition on the Internet. What the two companies have in common is that both are incumbents with dominant positions in their markets. It’s no wonder they are prepared to strike a deal that protects their market position at the detriment of the next Verizon and the next Google.”

I’ll be interested to see what Dandy Tiger has to say about this story.

Speaking of BP’s mess in the Gulf of Mexico, yesterday BP completed the “static kill” process on their well from hell, and they are now waiting for the cement to harden on the top. After that a “bottom kill” will be carried out. Here is a transcript of Admiral Thad Allen’s most recent press conference.

To be honest, I am still fearful of something going wrong; but I tend to be the tinfoil hat type anyway. The secrecy surrounding everything BP and the government does about the Gulf disaster does make it easy to be skeptical and conspiracy-minded, IMHO. From Kate Sheppard Mother Jones: Feds Giving Spill Data to BP—But Public Stays in Dark

Under the federal code governing the damage assessment protocol, as the responsible party, BP is guaranteed a role in the process, and therefore has access to data that the government isn’t required to show the public. This privileged information, of course, gives BP an advantage, since the company now knows what it’s up against in court. In fact, BP has already hired a fleet of scientists to conduct its own assessment of the damage, which the company could use to challenge the government’s analysis. BP’s scientists have signed three-year confidentiality agreements, meaning they can’t disclose their data to the public.

Nine prominent scientists and marine researchers from groups and research institutions including the National Wildlife Federation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Florida State University sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and BP CEO Robert Dudley on Tuesday calling for “full and timely transparency of all scientific information” related to the disaster. If the government released the damage data, local and regional conservation and environmental groups could provide valuable insight, said David Pettit, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. But there’s no formal public input period until the government issues its draft restoration plan, which could take years.

In my mind, the only possible reason for the government to cover up the extent of and details about wildlife deaths is to protect BP from liability. Our government really is supposed to represent the people, not giant foreign corporations. I’m as cynical as the next person, but I’m just not ready to give up yet on forcing our government to be accountable to us.

One reason I’m feeling this way today is because of this 2008 interview with Noam Chomsky that I read last night at Truthdig. The focus of the article is on comparing the counterculture movements of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s with today’s culture of political dissent–Chomsky believes that overall things have improved as a result of the efforts of radicals in those years.

Chomsky agrees with me that we don’t live in a democracy today, but he believes we are still making progress and we still have the power to shame our elected officials into doing the right thing at times. It really lifted my spirits, because I think Chomsky is right. I couldn’t choose an except; you really need to read the whole thing to get the full effect.

Another big happening story is the overturning of Proposition 8 in California on the basis that it is unconstitutional to allow marriage rights only for heterosexual couples. The Wall Street Journal believes this decision will not be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, that will mean that same-sex marriage will be “mandated nationwide.”

“Walker stayed his ruling at least until Friday, when he will hold another hearing,” the Times reports. Presumably it will be appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That circuit is notoriously liberal, so one would expect the ruling would be likelier than not to be upheld, whereupon it would go to the Supreme Court.

If the Ninth Circuit upholds Walker’s decision, the Supreme Court would almost certainly agree to hear an appeal, which would present the practical equivalent of a circuit split. Although this is, so far as we know, a novel question for U.S. appellate courts, such a ruling by the Ninth Circuit would establish same-sex marriage as a federal constitutional right within that court’s jurisdiction (nine Western states plus a couple of insular territories), at a time when it is illegal in all but a handful of other states. [....]

…we are prepared to offer up a prediction: When the Supreme Court takes up Perry v. Schwarzenegger–perhaps under the name Brown v. Perry or Whitman v. Perry–the justices will rule 5-4, in a decision written by Justice Kennedy, that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

The reasoning in the article is pretty lengthy, so you need to read the whole thing to understand the WSJ’s prediction. I hope they are right.

In an interesting sidebar story, I had forgotten that Judge Walker, who hear the Prop 8 case, is openly gay: Sources Claim His Homosexuality Played No Role in Striking Down Gay Marriage Ban

The case was randomly assigned to Judge Walker. The judge, who was demonized by the gay community nearly a quarter century ago when he was in private practice, said his getting the case that ultimately might decide the fate of gay marriage in the entire country was one of life’s ironies.

that likely will lead to the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage throughout the United States, Vaughn Walker’s 1987 nomination to a federal judgeship by President Ronald Reagan failed despite a Republican majority in the Senate, partly due to his perceived homophobia. In ’87, Senate Democrats in the Judiciary Committee blocked the nomination not on the grounds of suspected anti-gay bigotry but because Walker was a member of an all-male club.

He resigned during the nomination process. Gays were opposed to Walker’s nomination in ’87 as he had, as a lawyer, handled the U.S. Olympic Committee’s lawsuit against the Sam Francisco-based Gay Olympics for trademark infringement.

That year, future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who was then a freshman in Congress representing a district that included part of San Francisco, the gay mecca of America, was very vocal in her opposition to Walker.

Check the link for some nasty gossip about Ronnie Reagan.

We can’t forget that there is another terrible oil spill in the midwest, and the Washington Post says there are echoes of the BP gusher situation in the new oil disaster:

An oil spill in the Kalamazoo River has set off a small-scale reenactment of the Gulf of Mexico’s drama in farm country 100 miles west of Detroit. The villain is different: a broken pipeline, not a blown-out well. The oily birds are Canada geese, not pelicans.

But other plot points are eerily similar: A large company with safety violations. Regulators who didn’t act fast enough. Claims centers. Containment boom. Broken equipment that everybody’s waiting to examine.

And now, questions about how much of the oil is gone and how much is just unaccounted for.

“The pattern that we see here is a pattern of inadequate oversight and supervision [in government] and an industry that appears to cut corners,” said the National Wildlife Federation’s Tim Warman, who helped write a report documenting hundreds of accidents in the oil and gas industry in the past decade.

{sigh….}

Omar Thornton, the man who killed eight of his co-workers at Hartford Distributors in Manchester CT, called 911 and had a conversation with the operator before killing himself. He apparently wanted to make sure it was know that his motive for the shootings was racism in his workplace. From the transcript of the 911 call:

“This is Omar Thornton, the shooter in Manchester.”

“Yes, where are you sir?” the veteran Connecticut state trooper on the other end of the emergency call responded.

“I’m in the building,” Mr. Thornton said. “Uh, you probably want to know the reason why I shot this place up. This place here is a racist place.”

Seconds later, he added, “I wish I could have gotten more of the people.”

Throughout much of the call, which lasted 4 minutes 11 seconds, the voice of Mr. Thornton, a 34-year-old beer truck driver, was calm but tinged with exhaustion. He seemed eager to explain his bloody rampage, but unwilling to surrender. Having carried out the state’s deadliest attack in recent history on Tuesday at the Hartford Distributors beer warehouse in Manchester, Conn., Mr. Thornton delivered what amounted to a spoken suicide note.

Finally, The New York Times has a story on two new research approaches that could make it possible for humans to regenerate body parts.

Two research reports published Friday offer novel approaches to the age-old dream of regenerating the body from its own cells.

Animals like newts and zebra fish can regenerate limbs, fins, even part of the heart. If only people could do the same, amputees might grow new limbs and stricken hearts be coaxed to repair themselves.

But humans have very little regenerative capacity, probably because of an evolutionary trade-off: suppressing cell growth reduced the risk of cancer, enabling humans to live longer. A person can renew his liver to some extent, and regrow a fingertip while very young, but not much more.

What are you reading today? Please share your links in the comments, and have a fabulous Friday!!!

Filed under: General | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 99 Comments »

Not good news

Posted on August 5, 2010 by dakinikat

BERJAYAIf this is true–and I have no reason to believe it isn’t–then one of the few economic voices in the administration that is not a Wall Street insider is leaving her post.

Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama‘s Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans.

Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.

“She has been frustrated,” a source with insight into the WH economics team said. “She doesn’t feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers [director of the National Economic Council], who does have a direct line to the president.”

“She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn’t seem to be playing that role,” the source said. The WH has been pounded for its faulty forecast that unemployment would not top 8% after its economic stimulus proposal passed.

Instead, the jobless rate is 9.5%, after exceeding 10% last year. It was “a horribly inaccurate forecast,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant. “You have to wonder why Summers isn’t the one that should be taking the fall. But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter.”

Romer’s highly respected in the community and I always thought she would bring a voice of reason to the White House.  Instead, she always got put in front of the camera trying to explain away economic bad news.   I’m not sure who the replacement will be but it I venture a guess to say that it will be some one that plays nice with Geithner and Summers who appear to get their way when ever they can.  I’m hoping it won’t be another Wall Street insider, but it would figure. It would also figure if the next one didn’t have a vajajay too. That seems to go along with playing well with the Obama inside team.

Filed under: Economy | Tagged: | 96 Comments »

Thursday Afternoon News Update: Ball of Confusion Edition

Posted on August 5, 2010 by bostonboomer
BERJAYA

Ball of Confusion

Good Afternoon, Conflucians!!

I didn’t do my morning news post today because WonkTheVote and Riverdaughter beat me to it with three excellent pieces. I just came across a couple of interesting stories, so I thought I’d put up a brief news update.

Minutes ago MSNBC reported that Google and Verizon are denying they have had any discussion about pay tiers on mobile phones.

“We’ve not had any convos with (Verizon) about paying for carriage of our traffic,” Google said on Twitter. “We remain committed to an open Internet.”

A New York Times story about the talks “is mistaken,” said David Fish, Verizon’s executive director of media relations wrote on the company’s public policy blog. “It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose. As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect.”

Verizon Wireless has acknowledged having talks with Google over the past 10 months about Internet traffic to cell phones. The two companies have a common interest, with Verizon now carrying so many phones using the Google-backed, Android-based operating system. Such phones are quickly coming to dominate the smart phone landscape in the United States.

Um…wait a minute, the NYT story said the two companies were in discussions about pay tiers on the internet as a whole. Is this some kind of non-denial denial?

I’m officially confused.

Here is the Wall Street Journal’s take on the story:

Verizon Communications Inc. and Google Inc. may soon announce an agreement that the companies hope could be used as a model for legislation aimed at preventing telephone or cable companies from delaying or blocking Internet traffic.

The two companies have been negotiating with each other for months on a compromise on the thorny issue of so-called net neutrality—the principle that Internet providers such as phone or cable companies should not deliberately slow or block Internet sites or services.

Broadband providers say they need to be able to manage their networks so that all customers get the best possible experience, which might involve slowing some traffic, such as email, so other more timely traffic, such as phone calls, can get through.

BERJAYA

Ball of Confusion

The second story I have for you may be even more confusing than whatever the heck is going on in the Google-Verizon talks. From The Hill: Axelrod: President remains opposed to same-sex marriage

President Obama remains opposed to same-sex marriage despite a federal judge’s decision to strike down a ban on such marriages, a top White House adviser said Thursday.

Senior adviser David Axelrod said the president supports “equality” for gay and lesbian couples, but did not address directly Obama’s position on Wednesday’s court ruling, which struck down as unconstitutional California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in the state.

“The president does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in federal agencies under his control,” Axelrod said on MSNBC.

Huh? Can someone please translate that for me? I don’t speak “Hoodwink.” You can watch the video of Axelrod’s interview at The Hill article link.

What are you all reading this afternoon?

Dakinikat here. I’m adding this news to the thread.  Kagan has been confirmed by the Senate for SCOTUS.

The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to a seat on the Supreme Court on Thursday, giving President Obama his second appointment to the high court in a year, and a political victory as the Senate neared the end of its business for the summer.

Ms. Kagan, a former dean of the Harvard Law School and a legal adviser in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, was approved by a vote of 63 to 37 after hearings and floor debate that showcased competing views of Democrats and Republicans about the court, but exposed no significant stumbling blocks to her confirmation.

She becomes the fourth woman ever named to the court, and will join two other woman currently serving, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Obama administration nominee, who was confirmed almost exactly one year ago.

Filed under: Barack Obama, General, broken promises | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 122 Comments »

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