COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Congressman Labrador bitch slaps AG Eric Holder - Big Time

122 comments:

  1. Taking names and kicking ass. Sweet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Seems silly to me.

      There are so many things out that you can justify asking Holder to resign for, and ol' Raul pens it on being unprepared when he comes to Congress.

      Being head of the organization that designed and implemented 'Fast and Furious' or arguing for the gutting of the Suspension Clause as it involves habeas corpus should be enough to get Holder fired.

      But it won't. If the actions of Janet Reno and Alberto Gonzalez didn't get them fired, Holder's not going to be fired.

      Complaining about him being unprepared before Congress is just pissing into the wind.

      .

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Holder finding his inner Negro

    WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder and other legal experts strategized with black religious leaders on Wednesday (May 30) about new restrictive state voting laws that could affect their congregants by reducing early voting and requiring identification.

    “I would argue that of all the freedoms we have today, none is more important or more sacred than the right to vote,” Holder told about 200 people gathered for a meeting of the Conference of National Black Churches and the Congressional Black Caucus.

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  3. White people’s rights any less sacred? I guess Holder could not find the Conference of National White Churches and the Congressional White Caucus. I wonder why not?

    Really? They don’t exist?

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  4. We have a black president, a black first lady, a black attorney general and we need to pay special attention for a special class of voters with extra pigmentation? We tolerate the absurdity of a class of legislators that find the color of their skin their highest form of mutual recognition and distinction. Who are the racially obsessed?

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  5. . . . . repeats the same half-truths and lies about stimulus funding that factcheckers have repeatedly debunked,” Rebecca Leber of Think Progress writes. “During the campaign, Romney has routinely dismissed the nation’s 3.1 million clean energy jobs while intensifying his attacks on the industry. Ironically, the clean energy industry is booming in his home state of Massachusetts, creating 64,000 jobs across the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors.”

    Romney Attacks Green Energy Jobs in Colorado, Which Has Over 70,000 Green Jobs: How far off your rocker do you have to be to campaign like this? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Colorado had 72,452 “green goods and services” jobs in 2010. Nonetheless, Romney decided to say this in a speech in Colorado yesterday: “[Obama] said he was going to create some 5 million green energy jobs. Have you seen those around here anywhere? No, as a matter of fact he’s gone after energy.”


    Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1cZQ1)

    Gone Completely to the Dark Side


    In his quest to become President the man has repudiated everything he, supposedly, ever stood for.

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  6. You have to admit, whether you agree with him or not, Obama doesn't change his "beliefs" as often as he changes his magical undies.

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  7. Raul's OK. He got my vote. My Congressman made the EB!

    b

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    Replies
    1. He took out Minnick when Minnick wouldn't sign the pledge to overturn ObamaCare. And Minnick hadn't even voted for it in the first place. Inexplicable. Also, we found Minnick had been paling around with Pelosi.

      Only takes two strikes here to get rid of a democratic congressman.

      b

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  8. The resentment felt in the Bush camp is more than matched by a sense of betrayal on the Democratic left, which bought into Obama’s pledges that he would keep America safe in a way that more vigorously respected the Constitution and the country’s values. Reports by Newsweek and The New York Times on how Obama personally signs off on a “kill list” of al-Qaeda terrorists prepared by the CIA and the Pentagon is chillingly reminiscent of the deck of playing cards that Bush used to keep score of top terrorist targets when he was in the Oval Office.

    “There has been a surprising amount of continuity,” William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an email, adding this critical difference: “Obama’s form of unilateralism (drones) has worked a lot better than Bush’s. That’s what the people want–effective defense/offense on the cheap (especially as measured in American lives).” In a briefing earlier this month, the former Clinton administration official said that Obama’s muscular approach to national security has managed to offset any GOP advantage on national security. “Every day spent by the Romney campaign talking about those issues is a wasted day for Romney,” Galston said.

    LINK

    When the senior Bush’s portrait was unveiled during Bill Clinton’s presidency, Bush got the crowd laughing when he said, “Welcome to my hanging …” Clinton defeated Bush in 1992, yet the two have become good friends, traveling together in recent years on seven humanitarian trips. Clinton jokes that Barbara Bush refers to him as her “black-sheep son.”

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  9. Michael Tomasky is unimpressed:

    In three weeks or so, the Supreme Court will rule on health care. Republicans have been discussing what they might do in the event that poor, beleaguered John Roberts manages to withstand that vicious assault of the liberals and to lead a majority that strikes down the individual mandate. This one is a classic, folks. After spending three years lying their eyes out about the bill and tearing this country apart over it, it now turns out that they may well want to keep several of its provisions. And of course they want to keep the easy and fun stuff and get rid of all that bad-bad-bad stuff, but what they don’t understand—or more likely do understand but refuse to acknowledge—is that the good doesn’t work without the "bad." It’s breathtaking and ignorant—whether breathtakingly ignorant or ignorantly breathtaking I’m not quite sure. Call it the audacity of dopes.

    LINK

    The Republicans’ “answer” to this ["high risk pools" that develop without an individual mandate] is their answer to everything like this, tax-free saving accounts. But health-savings accounts, if they work at all, which is a serious question, work only for healthy people who break a leg tossing the Frisbee. Nobody can sock away $25,000 for an operation or $100,000 for end-of-life care; the very idea is crazy. The GOP would also subsidize care for high-risk people. But Pollack notes that these subsidies would have to be billions of dollars a year. Republicans aren’t throwing that kind of money around at anything. Except at ships the Navy doesn’t want and tax cuts really rich people don’t need.

    It’s just a shockingly unserious approach to a very serious problem of roughly 4 million uninsured Americans who have cancer, diabetes, emphysema, and the like. Republicans don’t give a happy crap about any of these people. They have no interest whatsoever in trying to solve a public problem. See, this is the Democrats’ burden, and when you come down it, the true difference between the parties these days. Democrats are actually concerned with trying to address a public-policy problem in a responsible way. You can disagree with their way, but they’re at least trying to do something positive in the country—help those 4 million as best they can. This involves difficulty and choices because nothing meaningful in life doesn’t. It also requires the people to stop being selfish apes for five minutes and look at the larger picture.

    The Republicans, on the other hand, are complete nihilists. They don’t care about solving any policy problems. They care about two things. They care about politics—advantage, winning, humiliating Obama. And they care about ideology, their drunken and medieval belief that the market can fix everything.

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  10. Here’s hoping little Johnny Roberts is as delicate a flower as conservatives fear he is.

    Dripping I'd say.

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  11. D is pissed. We're waiting for the Datsun to be modified into a van so we can hold 4 Swiss Guards, and Paolito, so D went to the track. Gypsies everywhere he reports. And Canaanites, he says. He got his pocket picked, and came back livid.

    "Bob, there's not a real Christian Soul in this whole damned town."

    I told him not to worry, I had my American Express and Bank of America cards, and we already know they take those.

    While holed up here we have found this -

    Today’s Italian papers are full of different, and contradictory, reconstructions of the events that led to Gotti Tedeschi’s downfall. At least four different versions have been floated in the early coverage:

    Theory #1: Gotti Tedeschi was suspected of being another one of the moles behind the Vatican leaks scandal, and thus his removal was a form of punishment.
    Theory #2: Gotti Tedeschi ran afoul of the Vatican’s powerful Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, partly over the fate of a large Italian Catholic hospital system which Bertone wanted to control, partly over revisions to the Vatican’s anti-money laundering norms.
    Theory #3: Gotti Tedeschi got the axe because of internal resistance to his policy of transparency, including his willingness to give testimony to Italian authorities investigating suspect transactions without waiting for formal requests to move through diplomatic channels.
    Theory #4: Gotti Tedechi never took his role at the Institute for the Works of Religion seriously, devoting the lion’s share of his time and energy to his work with Italian banks and his own speaking and writing. (By his own admission to Italian investigators, he only showed up two days a week). Internally, this version holds, Gotti Tedeschi was more an obstacle to reform rather than an agent of it – in part because of inattention, in part because he didn’t support the efforts of the institute’s director, Paolo Cipriani, and his staff to bring things up to snuff.


    Banker got axed and everyone is trying to figure out why.

    There are a lot of Paolos here. And cats. D says so many cats cause so many rats. He's going to take a few back to his Notel back home, and add them to his others.

    And you wouldn't believe the pigeon shit. If they had any spunk they could scrape up and collect it and sell it as guano. But this place is spunkless. Nobody does anything. Just wander around and talk about the past. This place has had it.

    b

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  12. Obama/Romney tied in new polls in Nevada, Iowa, Colorado.

    I'm telling you, this thing is going to be a wipe out.

    Rufus will be on the wrong side of history, yet once again.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/31/obama-romney-in-virtual-ties-in-nv-co-ia-nbcmarist-polls/

    Buy Romney Intrade now.

    b

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    Replies
    1. Nope, whether the voters choose Romney, or O'bummer, Ol' Ruf is still the one on the "right side of history."

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    2. :)

      I think so too.

      b

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  13. Anyone with half a brain that's looked at this knows that there are only 3 options.

    * Leave it as it is (and, that's not so hot for the Americans that have pre-existing conditions, or for the Millions of Americans that work at places that offer a dinky little $3,000.00/Cap Policy that will, basically, cover the cost of One Cat-Scan/Yr.

    * Go for a One-Payer Sytem (such as Canada) or

    * Have a "Mandate."

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    1. Yes, agreed, those with half a brain would think just that.

      b

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  14. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/montana-attempts-to-buck-the-supreme-court-on-citizens-united/2012/05/30/gJQA4DCi2U_story.html

    Interesting article about Montana and its ways by George Will.

    b

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  15. Che Ti Dice La Patria?


    http://greenlanternpress.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/che-ti-dice-la-patria/

    We drove for two hours after it was dark and slept in Menton that night. It seemed very cheerful and clean and sane and lovely. We had driven from Ventimiglia to Pisa and Florence, across the Romagna to Rimini, back through Forli, Imola, Bologna, Parma, Piacenza and genoa, to Ventimiglia again. The whole trip had taken only ten days. Naturally, in such a short trip, we had no opportunity to see how things were with the country or the people.

    b

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  16. Today being a day off for the Captain of the Swiss Guards, D and I asked him over for a drink as we wait for the Datsun.

    "What's with the Cardinals?", I ask.

    "The white ones are all about money, and ease" he says. "They like good food, wine, an occasional tryst. The Africans are sincere, are believers, want to help their folks back home. And trustworthy too. If they say they'll do something, they do it. And are polite, and considerate of us."

    "What do you usually do when you have a few days off?" I ask.

    "Ski"

    "Where around here?"

    "Switzerland, an easy trip."

    b

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  17. Obamacare if passed will be one giant goat fuck. Extending the age a person can be on their parents policy to 26? The only winners will be the people who make couches, Cheetos, Xbox, and Wii.

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  18. Last ride in Popemobile --

    VATICAN CITY | Thu May 31, 2012 10:11am EDT

    (Reuters) - Just after dawn on Wednesday, May 23, Paolo Gabriele said goodbye to his wife, passed by the bedrooms of his three children and left to start another day in the service of the man Roman Catholics believe is the vicar of Christ on Earth.

    By the end of the day, Pope Benedict's butler would be branded a traitor and some, including an Italian cardinal, would compare him to the most famous betrayer in history - Judas Iscariot, the man who turned Jesus over to the Romans.

    Dark haired and handsome, Gabriele, 46, left his simple home on the third floor of a 1930s Vatican apartment block named after the 7th century monk Saint Egidio.

    With the St Ann's Gate entrance, guarded by Swiss Guard in blue berets, to his back, he passed the Holy See's central post office on Via Del Belvedere, turned left to climb a stone stairway named after Pope Pius X, and walked up a flight of covered steps to enter the small Renaissance-era Courtyard of Sixtus V.

    Here he used a key held by fewer than 10 people to enter an elevator that leads directly to the pope's private apartment on the third and top floor of the Apostolic Palace in the world's smallest state. Even cardinals can't use it.

    Gabriele, said by those who know him to be a timid, reserved and shy man, is now at the centre of the worst crisis in Pope Benedict's pontificate.

    His face has appeared on the front pages of newspapers all over the world, accused of being the source of leaked documents alleging serious Vatican corruption and cronyism in a scandal that has shaken the very centre of the Church.

    To some - even if he is found guilty - he is an idealist who wanted to root out corruption in the Vatican and was helped by outside accomplices. To others, he is merely a pawn in a much bigger power struggle among cardinals inside the Vatican walls.

    "I know Paolo and I don't think he is capable of doing something like this by himself," a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Reuters.

    "It is clearly a betrayal of the pope's trust but I don't think he could have acted alone," that person said.

    That Wednesday morning when Gabriele, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, entered the private papal apartment, he walked down a corridor past the pope's modern private chapel, with its stained glass ceiling and white leather kneelers.

    Even as he was serving the pope his breakfast, after the pontiff had said mass with other members of the "papal family" that morning, Gabriele knew he was a suspect in an investigation into leaks that had begun in January.

    "He was questioned earlier but the decisive elements that permitted the arrest surfaced later," a Vatican official said, adding that one of the pope's two private secretaries, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, had confronted Gabriele with his suspicions.

    LAST RIDE IN THE POPEMOBILE

    At precisely 10:30 that sunny Wednesday morning, Benedict rode in his white popemobile through the Arch of the Bells into St Peter's Square to start his weekly audience. Gabriele was in his usual place, to the right of the driver, and his stony face showed no emotion.

    It was the last ride he would take in the iconic vehicle that carries the man world diplomacy recognizes not only as leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics but as "The Sovereign of the State of Vatican City."

    That afternoon, agents led by Domenico Giani, 49, the shaven-headed Vatican police chief who is known by the diminutive "Mimmo" to his friends, rang the buzzer on the Gabriele family apartment and entered.

    Giani was formerly a member of the Italian secret service.


    Extended article below -

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/us-vatican-butler-scandal-idUSBRE84U0PD20120531

    Comparing the good natured Paolito to Judas - they would do that, the bastards.

    b

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  19. Is Washington gridlock structural (permanent) or human (temporary)?

    LINK (free registration req):

    What Doesn't Work:

    1. Third Party
    2. Term Limits
    3. Balanced Budget Amendment
    4. Public Financing of Elections
    5. Stay Calm - Things will get back to normal

    What Could Help:

    1. Realistic Campaign Finance Reform
    2. Independent commissions to redraw congressional districts
    3. Restoring majority rule in Senate (reigning in the filibuster)
    4. Expanding the electorate

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    Replies
    1. 4. Restricting the electorate.

      b

      Delete
  20. Appeals Court Rules Against Defense of Marriage Act

    BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

    In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman deprives gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples.

    ...

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/05/31/us/ap-us-gay-marriage-federal-benefits.html?_r=1&hp

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    Replies
    1. Ah, um, Ash, what do you think concerning the new issue of 'gendercide'? A newly coined term which refers to ultrsounds determining the sex of a fetus thus allowing the woman to decide if she wants that particular sex of baby or not?

      In these cases it would seem the mother doesn't have a problem with a birth, unless it is a particular sex.

      Since the Democrats have been big behind Planned Parenthood, the practice is rapidly becoming known as 'the Democrat War on Women'.

      Where do you stand on this new war on women?

      b

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  21. Forcing the vote as they do in Australia. Maybe

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    Replies
    1. I had to smile at that one as well - careful what you wish for.

      The first three seem worth pushing.

      At least before chucking the Constitution for South Africa's document.

      Delete
  22. Gridlock is a "feature," not a bug.

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    1. No doubt, acrimony and gridlock are built-in features of our political system, and it is true that we have had several eras of intense stress and polarization, including the period right before the Civil War and around the turn of the 20th century.

      Yet, it is not exactly comforting to compare what’s going on now to the years leading up to the Civil War. And an examination of the Obama presidency suggests that we are experiencing neither politics as usual nor an odd blip. We are witnessing unprecedented and unbalanced polarization of the parties, with Republicans acting like a parliamentary minority party opposing almost everything put forward by the Democrats; the near-disappearance of the regular order in Congress; the misuse of the filibuster as a weapon not of dissent but of obstruction; and the relentless delegitimization of the president and policies enacted into law.

      Given the defeat of problem-solvers such as Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and the emergence of take-no-prisoners partisans such as Richard Mourdock, there is no reason to think the system will correct itself anytime soon.

      My feeling is half way between feature and bug. The world moves at a faster pace than ever before. The "feature" needs to keep up.

      Delete
  23. The DOMA Knockdown is going to reverberate. (and, probably, to Romney's advantage.)

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  24. The wheels are really starting to fall off of Obama's wagon now --

    Rasmussen: Romney now up in Ohio
    posted at 1:21 pm on May 31, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

    Not just in Ohio, Rasmussen states, but also in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. In case you haven’t been keeping score, those are four states that Barack Obama won in 2008, and which Mitt Romney must take away to have a shot at the Presidency in November. According to the latest from Rasmussen, Romney’s on his way.


    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/31/rasmussen-romney-now-up-in-ohio/


    Ohio
    Florida
    North Carolina
    Virginia
    Nevada
    Iowa
    Colorado


    b

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  25. Which is to say I am in the muddled medieval middle ground, half way between structural vs human fixes for Washington "gridlock." The Beltway milieu is not for spineless woosies, but neither should one have to be a pathological hybrid of John Edwards, Wilbur Mills, Chris Dodd, and Mitch McConnell.

    One of the thematic problems I saw at BC was a Mensa-like impatience with the imperfect (quite at odds with the Christian belief in the fallen man who can only ask for forgiveness and hope for mercy from the omnipotent divine.) I am surmising that quite a bit of this fed directly into the Tea Party dogmatism, but I am only guessing.

    I liked the suggestions for the practicality, but the very mundane quality may doom the effort since neither the masses nor their leaders get excited over the unsexy subject of congressional redistricting. Maybe try to link it somehow with gay marriage?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. If Congress only met once every four years it might help.

      They always think they have to get back there and do something, when often things are better off left alone.

      b

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    2. Yeah, they could put you and (or, if they happen to have a sense of humor on that day, Dale) in charge of naming post offices, since that's about all they do anymore. :) (I don't know about you, but I'd work pretty cheap.)

      Delete
    3. should have been "you and I"

      Delete
    4. Or, as we say in Mississip, "me an' you." :)

      Delete
    5. All three of us. One to control each branch of guv'mint!

      Permanently.

      b

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    6. Rotating positions between us every 11 years, at the completion of the solar orbit of Jupiter.

      b

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    7. Putting your buddy in the White House, or Congress, I'm not sure anyone would notice; but putting him in charge of the Supremes for eleven years might be a bit much.

      Delete
  26. As you so succinctly put it, Max, "everyone is scared shitless." They know something is "wrong," and that the world is quite possibly changing in a way that they don't like, but they can't figure out exactly, "How?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm starting to be reminded a little bit of the late sixties/early seventies.

      Between the War in Vietnam, The Civil Rights Movement, bra-less teenage girls showing their nipples, and escalating inflation everyone was getting a little out-of-sorts.

      Delete
    2. And of course we ended up with trickie dickie.


      Now I'm frightened. :/

      Delete
    3. Shows to Go ya that frightened people make bad decisions. Right now, gridlock looks pretty good to me.

      Delete
    4. It's calmer this time because the largest impacted demographic is the unemployed over-50 who don't typically "take it to the streets." Talk about the mother of all donut holes from hell.

      And it's not funny.

      But I appreciated Tomasky's right hook: their drunken and medieval belief that the market can fix everything.

      I believe there's even an acronym for that - EMH (Efficient Market Hypothesis).

      Which worked out real well just 4 years ago.

      (Too much??)

      Gotta go.

      Delete
    5. Right now, gridlock looks pretty good to me.

      Good point.

      Delete
    6. EMH theorizes that it'll all "work out" in the end.

      Keynes, of course, pointed out that "we're all dead in the end."

      Delete
    7. There was even Less "interference" with the "market" in 1929 to '42. And, That was a "sweet ride," wasn't it?

      Delete
    8. Glass-Steagall ws firmly in place and financial "weapons of mass destruction" were still a glimmer JPM's eyes.

      Who is Blythe Masters?

      She is the JP Morgan employee who invented credit default swaps, and is now heading JPM's carbon trading efforts.

      LINK

      From 2009 but I did not realize that carbon trades were going through the derivatives markets.

      Wow.

      Delete
    9. Indeed, the same dynamic that led to the S&L crisis also led to last year's CDS crisis, and will lead to the next crisis as well. So - while CDS might be a particularly dangerous type of "weapon of mass destruction" (in Warren Buffet's words), the new carbon derivatives may very well become the new form of looting on the public's dime. If the government allows massive carbon derivatives trading with as little oversight as over the CDS market, taxpayers will end up spending many trillions bailing out the giant banks and propping up the economy when the carbon market bubble bursts.

      Holding my breath.

      Delete
    10. Don't tell me how funny I am.

      It only encourages me.

      Delete
    11. who is maxine?


      seems to me she's Ms T, in another incarnation...

      cant keep straight all the fake names he/she.it has used

      Delete
  27. Democrats in the House vote to kill girl babies in the womb -

    http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/230283-house-rejects-bill-penalizing-doctors-for-sex-selection-abortions

    Ash seems so far to be strangely missing in action on this issue.

    b

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  28. Only one problem; Republicans control the House.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a special vote needing 2/3 to pass. Some parliamentary maneuvering or other.

      b

      Delete
  29. Again, just the tea partiers playing to the cheap seats. Not a chance in a kazillion that Harry Reid would ever let such a bill come to the floor in the Senate - much less get passed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's discrimination against the girl babies, Rufus, surely you can see that?

      Sex discrimination in abortions - what the hell has this country come to?

      b

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    2. You're right, Harry would kill it. But that is not a reason not to bring the subject up.

      Harry's days are numbered, thankfully.

      He gets my vote for sleaziest s o b in Congress.

      b

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  30. "We've established that you are a whore, now how much?"

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/05/31/actress-denies-prostitution-rumors.html

    1.5 million, she purrs.

    b

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  31. John Edwards is gonna walk. They aren't going to try that one over again.

    He's free to try to fleece anyone he can.

    Her sure has nice hair, doesn't he?

    b

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  32. One option would be for the central bank to resume its past practice of buying bonds in secondary markets to bring down borrowing costs. That would allow Spain to raise funds more easily, but the central bank so far has given no indication it is considering such a move.

    ...

    The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, this week added its voice to those policy makers and analysts calling for the EU to grant increased flexibility for the European Stability Mechanism, a new bailout fund that comes online in July. The idea is that the ESM should be able to fund banks directly and not have to funnel the money through national governments, as is currently the case.

    That represents an attempt to break the tight bonds between financially ailing banks and governments, which analysts say are compounding investor concerns toward the euro zone. This change is opposed, however, by Germany and others that view it as step toward accepting joint liability for euro-zone debts.

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  33. Max Boot wrote last year about a visit by a small group of us to Afghanistan in October. One of the most memorable parts of the trip was the day we spent with the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 10th Mountain Division:

    And on the ground? A seven-day visit to Afghanistan in late October, taken along with other security analysts at the invitation of General John Allen, the senior American and NATO commander, reveals that U.S. troops are fighting with wholehearted dedication—and, at least in the south, enjoying considerable success.

    ...

    The 3rd Infantry Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (known as Task Force Spartan) is now back at Fort Drum, and yesterday dedicated a statue in memory of its soldiers who didn't make it home:

    An emotional day on Fort Drum as the 3rd Brigade Combat Team unveils and dedicates a Spartan Statue to those soldiers who didn't make it back home.

    ...

    The Spartans had been planning for this statue for nearly six years. Funds were raised entirely by Spartan soldiers and their families."


    - Bill Kristol

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  34. The most recent supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra.

    ...

    Lead scientist Dr Guilherme Gualda, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said "Our study suggests that when these exceptionally large magma pools form they are ephemeral and cannot exist very long without erupting.

    "The fact that the process of magma body formation occurs in historical time, instead of geological time, completely changes the nature of the problem."

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  35. If the failing company’s resources are redeployed to purposes more consistent with consumer demand, new opportunities for work and investment will arise. The closing or downsizing of a company releases scarce factors of production, including labor, for purposes hitherto out of reach.

    ...

    We don’t live in a free market, but rather in a corporatist economy where government favors may convert activities that would serve the general interest into activities inimical to it. That's why one cannot give a priori approval to Bain.

    A final judgment must await close examination of its activities in light of government corporatist intervention.

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  36. On this day in 2005, former FBI official Mark Felt was revealed to be "Deep Throat." He was the secret informant during the Watergate scandal.

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  37. D and I have found one of the targets of the machinations in this, what amounts to, a pre-emptive vendetta (D's words) is one Monsignor Georg "Gorgeous George” Ganswein, The Black Forest Adonis. Another is Cardinal Tarcisio "The Boss" Bertone, who is said to be able to play the Pope like a fiddle. Poor Paolito is being so used.

    the picture the leaks paint of gossip and intrigue being the lingua franca of Benedict’s senior clerical courtiers, all plotting to gain an advantage over rivals behind their elderly boss’s back

    A den of vipers indeed, as accurately described by the Italian free press.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9302717/Is-there-something-rotten-in-the-Vatican-court-of-Pope-Benedict.html

    In the mail today we received the tranquilizing darts and dart guns we requested from the Idaho Fish and Game Department. We filled out their request form more or less accurately.

    Tomorrow: Ostia!

    Sunday: the excarceration!

    Next week: France and the Low Countries!

    reporting, dateline, Rome

    b

    ReplyDelete
  38. The Exorcism of Fabio ...

    Coming soon to a theater near you.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Update -

    That D, he's something. He was able late this afternoon to sneak into the Vatican and get a picture of The Swiss Guards taking a break. Being one of the best friends Israel has ever had (no joke here) he was able to get the picture published in an Israeli newspaper, Arutz Sheva.

    I count eight Swiss Guards, I think. D is saying they all may want to split with us as far as to the Brenner Pass when we nab Paolito.

    b

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So excited by this turn of events I forgot to post the link -

      http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156268#.T8hAPMX5AiV

      b

      Delete
    2. How was D able to sneak into the Vatican, you ask? The Guards were on their break, hah, smart huh?

      b

      Delete
    3. .

      That D, he's something. He was able late this afternoon to sneak into the Vatican and get a picture of The Swiss Guards taking a break, hah, smart huh?

      Yes that Dale is something. He snuck into the Vatican using a forged pass he purchased from an agent in the middle of St. Peter's Square. Most people just walk in for free or with a tour guide.

      Dale also picked up a Rollex watch from the same guy for $14.95 and then bragged about the great deal he got to Bob.

      Bob was duly impressed.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Frik and Frak on vacation.

      .

      Delete
  40. "If there was a significant financial meltdown in Europe, it would affect the global economy…[It] would have significant impact in Asia," James Bullard, president of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said in Tokyo on Thursday.

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    ReplyDelete
  41. Replies
    1. Nah, much too thoughtful and logical for T, and no biblical quoting or Jew baiting.

      b

      Delete
  42. Swiss Guards casual clothing designed by Quirk

    http://goitaly.about.com/od/vaticancity/ig/St--Peter-s-Basilica-pictures/st-peters-swiss-guards.htm

    b

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Swiss Guards in Battle Gear, also designed by Quirk

      http://media.photobucket.com/image/swiss%20guards/dingsdb/religious/f73d.jpg?o=50

      Notice the stylish and utilitarian too curvature of the helmets. It's this kind of thoughtful combining of the beautiful and useful that has always been a mark of Quirk clothing worldwide.

      b

      Delete
    2. Graceful and impenetrable armour -

      http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-500145_162-1220173-2.html?tag=page

      courtesy Armour by Quirk

      b

      Delete
    3. Scroll down to the bottom for action video of Swiss Guards -

      http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy-featured/swiss-guards/tour-swiss-guards

      Notice the Datsun air cleaners used for neck guards/braces.

      This is pure Quirk, utilizing everyday materials with elegance, style, utilitarianism.

      Total cost of warrior outfit, including recycled aluminum for armour, and cloth from Goodwill --

      $14.38 per Guard

      b

      Delete
    4. .

      Swiss Guards casual clothing designed by Quirk

      Designed in the sixties but some designs, like the little black dress, never go out of style.

      Designed for a riot or a rave.

      Let's rumble! TM (Souls-R-Us Casual Ware)

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      Notice the stylish and utilitarian too curvature of the helmets.

      Designed for those long nights on guard duty when nature calls and you just gotta answer.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      Total cost of warrior outfit, including recycled aluminum for armour, and cloth from Goodwill --

      $14.38 per Guard



      A bargain.

      We also provide the kevlar vests, AK-47's, and Sig-Sauer automatics for when it's time to rock-n-roll. (Distributed through Guns-R-Us 2, LLC)

      .

      Delete
    7. Weapons collected through pawn shops and resold nationwide by Guns-R-Us 2, LLC Distribution Network.

      (no warranties included, expressed or implied)

      b

      Delete
    8. .

      Nonsense, all our products are U.S. Government approved and recommended.

      Our buyers have been out fast and furiously aquiring arms.

      .

      Delete
  43. Fair and Balanced:

    For those who, like me, didn't quite understand the "Polish death camps" blowback, Fernandez and his BC crew are at their literate finest in the Smersh and Memory thread.

    (One example: It has been pointed out privately and in comments below that most special purpose death camps, as opposed to other types of concentration camps, were in Poland.)

    I haven't read all of it yet but I will today.

    ReplyDelete
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