Monday News Bucket

26 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on November 26, 2007 at 7:14 am

   Novakula is worried about Huckabee: WashPo

   The rise of evangelical Christians as the force that blasted the GOP out of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent danger: What if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a conventional conservative but one of their own? That has happened with Huckabee, a former Baptist minister educated at Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The danger is a serious contender for the nomination who passes the litmus test of social conservatives on abortion, gay marriage and gun control but is far removed from the conservative-libertarian model of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

   Whose water is he carrying this time?  Are the Neocons feeling threatened by the idea that the religious monster they unleashed over the 30 years might come back and bite their heads off?  

   • 

     chocolate ink on November 26, 2007 at 5:25 pm

     I was kinda wondering that also CG…someone had to put a bee in Novacula’s bonnet to write this hit piece.  Is this the ‘be careful what you wish for’ dilema for the rethugs..Huckabee is the ideal candidate for the fundies but some of his other ideas might not fly-doesn’t it come down to who still has the most pull in the gop-the religious nuts or the greed mongers. Then again it seems Huckabee is pretty much into the greed mode himself given what he what did as governor.

2. 

   CabinGirl on November 26, 2007 at 7:25 am

   weighs in on the financial crisis: Financial Times

   Three months ago it was reasonable to expect that the subprime credit crisis would be a financially significant event but not one that would threaten the overall pattern of economic growth. This is still a possible outcome but no longer the preponderant probability.

   Even if necessary changes in policy are implemented, the odds now favour a US recession that slows growth significantly on a global basis. Without stronger policy responses than have been observed to date, moreover, there is the risk that the adverse impacts will be felt for the rest of this decade and beyond.

   Several streams of data indicate how much more serious the situation is than was clear a few months ago. First, forward-looking indicators suggest that the housing sector may be in free-fall from what felt like the basement levels of a few months ago. Single family home construction may be down over the next year by as much as half from previous peak levels. There are forecasts implied by at least one property derivatives market indicating that nationwide house prices could fall from their previous peaks by as much as 25 per cent over the next several years.

   We do not have comparable experiences on which to base predictions about what this will mean for the overall economy, but it is hard to believe declines of anything like this magnitude will not lead to a dramatic slowing in the consumer spending that has driven the economy in recent years.

   I think this administration, with Ben Bernanke’s help, is going to do all it can to keep interest rates low and the dollar weakening until next November, at which point the economy will be allowed to come crashing all the way down around the next President’s ankles…the only question is whether they can drag it out that long.

   What do you think?

   • 

     idredit on November 26, 2007 at 8:41 am

     Summers is way optimistic.

     The next President will be hopping from crisis to crisis against a financial Tsunami because the sub-prime problem is but the tip of a colossal iceberg. A case of musical chairs.

     we’ll be saying Welcome to the Weimar Republic of the U.S.A.

     Warren Buffett warned in 2003 the terrorists are the least of threats…these instruments are financial WMDs. Garbage paper.

     What comes after a trillion?  Quadrillion. Helicopter Benny will be printing and dropping bills in 24/7 mode.

     • 

       CabinGirl on November 26, 2007 at 9:48 am

       from the Financial Times

       A Californian hedge fund has made more than 1,000 per cent return this year by betting against US subprime home loans, making it one of the world’s best-performing funds of all time…

       …The decision to use derivatives to short, or bet against, low-quality US home loans taken by a select group of hedge funds last year appears to have become the most profitable single trade of all time, making well over $20bn in total so far this year. John Paulson’s New York-based Paulson & Co, the biggest of the group with $28bn under management, is said by investors to have made $12bn profit from the trade already.

       However, Mr Lahde, whose fund is one of the smallest specialists shorting subprime, has now begun to return money to investors, telling them in a letter: “The risk/return characteristics are far less attractive than in the past.”

       In his letter, Mr Lahde said he expected the collapse in value of subprime mortgage-linked securities to be repeated for bonds backed by commercial property loans in a deep recession – which he also predicts.

       “Our entire banking system is a complete disaster,” he wrote. “In my opinion, nearly every major bank would be insolvent if they marked their assets to market.” He also said he would be putting some of his own profits into gold and other precious metals.

       Mr Lahde has used the phenomenal returns to boost his business, launching a fund to bet against commercial real estate this autumn – which made 42 per cent in its first two months – and is in the process of creating a third fund to short credits with a broader mandate.

       So, the way to make big money now is to bet against the economy improving…if I see Bush claim that “our economy is strong” one more time, I’m going to throw a brick through the teevee.

       • 

         idredit on November 26, 2007 at 10:47 am

         Sheer Greed, but at some point in this cycle, All That Is will strike back with the 11th Commandment:

         “The Greedy shall not be fed”

         Those who have leveraged $10 million into $100 million will lose all $110 million. They’ll have lost the leveraged ten and be asked to pay up the borrowed $100 million. A replay of 1907 and 1929.

         Be careful. Don’t walk under windows. Falling objects.

3. 

   CabinGirl on November 26, 2007 at 7:31 am

   the DARE program is getting the boot in some schools: NYT

   FOR nearly 20 years, Suffolk County police officers have been teaching students in the county’s five western towns about the risks of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, as well as about peer pressure and safety. But that is changing as the county police department eliminates its DARE program, which will be replaced with a more general health and safety curriculum.

   “We felt that DARE was not doing what it was supposed to do,” said Commissioner Richard Dormer of the Suffolk County Police, who announced this month that he would reassign 16 of the 26 officers in DARE — for Drug Abuse Resistance Education — to patrol duty and that the 10 other officers would participate in the new program beginning in January…

   …Project DARE, which was begun in 1983 and is based in Inglewood, Calif., is the most widely used school-based drug prevention program in the country. But recent studies have criticized its effectiveness. In a 2002 study, the National Research Council, which functions under the National Academy of Sciences, found that DARE made no significant difference in drug use among students.

   Apparently they’re replacing it with a more general health and safety program that covers Internet safety, bullying, etc.  Good, because I think the DARE program was really harmful to kids with family members with drug and alcohol problems.

   • 

     eodell on November 26, 2007 at 10:37 pm

     The problem with programs like DARE is that kids aren’t stupid. Shortsighted, maybe, but not stupid. If you send people into the schools to say that smoking pot will give you massive, irreversible brain damage, and some of the kids who hear that either smoke pot anyway (or have already), they’ll discover that smoking pot actually isn’t bad for you, and they’ll start to doubt that what the DARE people said about heroin and meth is true, either. The whole zero-tolerance approach is just the government version of the boy who cried wolf.

     I know more than one junkie who figured the warnings about heroin were bullshit because the warnings about drugs like marijuana and LSD were bullshit. Frankly, I’d be surprised if DARE doesn’t actually increase rates of drug addiction in the areas where it operates.

     • 

       CabinGirl on November 27, 2007 at 7:42 am

       There’s that, and there’s the fact that DARE acts like there’s no redemption for anyone with a drug or alcohol problem.  If you’re a kid with an alcoholic parent, the shame that the DARE program makes you feel about something over which you have no control is absolutely horrendous, and IMO, destructive.

4. 

   ask on November 26, 2007 at 7:32 am

   Russia to “insist” Kosovo talks extended

   BADEN, Austria (Reuters) – Russia on Monday stepped in to head off a threatened declaration of independence by Serbia’s breakaway Kosovo province, saying it would insist on the extension of negotiations beyond a December deadline.

   At the same time, Moscow’s envoy to the talks, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, said there was “no chance of a breakthrough” at a final meeting starting at this Austrian spa on Monday afternoon.

   Dialogue between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians had to carry on, he said, two weeks before a U.N. deadline expires on December 10, after which the West says the process is ended.

   […]

   Kosovo Albanians say they could negotiate with Serbia “for another 100 years” and come no closer to a deal.

5. 

   ask on November 26, 2007 at 7:58 am

   Iran agrees to Iraq talks with US

   Iran says it has agreed to a US proposal for a new round of talks on improving security in Iraq.

   The talks would be held in the near future, said Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

   Mr Mottaki said Iran had agreed to the talks as part of a policy of helping the Iraqi people.

   […]

   “The Swiss Embassy in Tehran has handed over to Iran a message from the US government for a new round of talks concerning Iraq,” Mr Mottaki told reporters on Monday.

   Switzerland looks after US interests in Tehran in the absence of a US mission.

   • 

     idredit on November 26, 2007 at 3:28 pm

     meanwhile Bush and al-Maliki in deal for long-term US presence in  Iraq.

     “WASHINGTON – President Bush on Monday signed a deal setting the foundation for a potential long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq, with details to be negotiated over matters that have defined the war debate at home — how many U.S. forces will stay in the country, and for how long”

     we’ll see on whose dime. “Enduring relationship” huh?

     No barrel of oil left behind.

     • 

       dada on November 26, 2007 at 4:32 pm

       aside from the obvious capitulation to oil and preferential treatment of u.s. investors, i’m having a bit of difficulty connecting all the dots here.

       it appears central to this agreement is the de facto acknowledgment that the maliki is in serious danger of being deposed should the u.s. withdraw it’s forces. [from the article linked]:

       …The U.S.-Iraq agreement will replace the present U.N. mandate regulating the presence of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Al-Maliki said the agreement provides for U.S. support for the “democratic regime in Iraq against domestic and external dangers.”

       It also would help the Iraqi government thwart any attempt to suspend or repeal a constitution drafted with U.S. help and adopted in a nationwide vote in 2005. That appeared to be a reference to any attempt to remove the government by violence or in a coup…

       this is especially interesting, and confusing, given the recent solidification and leveraging of his influence by muqtada al-sadr in the south, as well as a what appears to be significant change of position(s) vis-a-vis the kurds. add to this the sudden shift by maliki to, purportedly, work more in concert with his nemesis allawi, and the game is afoot, as they say.

       from a very interesting analysis/essay in the asia times:

       …In the past, Muqtada has vehemently opposed any division of Iraq, claiming that even the Kurdish north (which is now Iraqi Kurdistan) should be re-incorporated into the Iraqi republic. Federalism was out of the question for Muqtada, even if it meant granting another oil-rich district in southern Iraq to the Shi’ites. Kirkuk was – until this weekend apparently – a red line for Muqtada.

       It is doubtful whether Muqtada really believes himself when saying, through Araji, that article 140 is “constitutional”. That contradicts everything he has stood for since 2003. On one level, however, this certainly pleases Kurdish politicians like Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani. On another, it creates more common denominators between him and Maliki. After a six-month divorce, the two men are trying to find common ground, to combat the rising influence of Sunni tribesmen in Iraqi politics.

       Shortly before the heated parliamentary debate, Maliki’s security forces refrained from arresting any members of Muqtada’s Mahdi Army in Sadr City in Baghdad. Muqtada received the message and reciprocated from within the chamber. Both he and the prime minister are terrified by the American project of financing and arming Sunni tribes to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. The minute that is over, Muqtada and Maliki believe, the Sunnis will use these arms against the Shi’ites. That explains why last week it was declared that Maliki was bringing 18,000 militiamen (almost completely Shi’ite) into the armed forces. He was doing this regardless of their criminal records or military background or lack thereof. Many of them were members of the Mahdi Army. The argument went: “If the Sunnis are legitimizing their arms, then so will we.”

       In another gesture of goodwill towards Maliki (who needs plenty of them to bolster his image in the Iraqi street and among ordinary, young Shi’ites), Muqtada’s man Araji failed to call for the downfall of the prime minister. For more than four months, that has been a common theme coming from Sadrist politicians, who split from their former ally after he refused to call for a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq, and for his close relationship with President George W Bush. This time, however, when asked about replacing Maliki, Araji said: “It is possible to reshuffle this government and appoint competent, independent ministers who are not affiliated with parties.”
       .
       .
       link

       [recommended]

       this may be good news for maliki in the short run, but my sense of it leads me to believe this may well be a ploy to forestall his ouster until a more advantageous time.

       imo, sadr appears to be moving himself into a position to assume a primary role in the government. a move not likely to be met with much joy around the white house christmas tree.

       the situation in iraq is, for all intents and purposes, out of our hands.

       we shall see.

       lTMF’sA

       • 

         idredit on November 26, 2007 at 4:56 pm

         we went in for oil and we’ll be staying to the last barrel is pumped; even if we’re made bankrupt in the process.

         • 

           dada on November 26, 2007 at 5:24 pm

           the motives at this point are immaterial. with the growing distance between the u.s. and the iraqi govt.; the clearly evidenced rising fortunes and influence of sadr, and the interests of the rest of the arab population in the region, l see no reason to be optimistic that the end result will, in any recognizable fashion, resemble the outcome originally envisioned by the neocons and energy companies.

           eventually, they’ll all be shown the door, as will the military. the failure of the administration, and especially the demoRATs to acknowledge that at this point in the game is akin believing in the santa claus.

           BushCo™ is trying to salvage whatever they can to get thru the next 14 months, after that, the strategy will be to point the finger at the demoRATs for losing…which, imnsho, we have already done.

           game, set, and match.

           lTMF’sA

6. 

   ask on November 26, 2007 at 8:18 am

   New Australian PM pledges quick apology to Aborigines

   SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia’s prime minister elect Kevin Rudd on Monday pledged his government would make an early formal apology to Aborigines for the “stolen generation” of indigenous children snatched from their parents.

   Rudd, 50, who came to power in a general election landslide Saturday, said his would become the first federal administration ever to apologise for the policy.

   “It will be early in the parliamentary term,” Rudd told reporters in Brisbane after receiving a rock star welcome from screaming school children elated by the centre-left Labor Party leader’s election.

7. 

   idredit on November 26, 2007 at 8:18 am

   the word on MSNBC’s First Read

   Senator Lott to resign Senate seat by end of year.

8. 

   dada on November 26, 2007 at 11:48 am

   ex Qwest ceo nacchio finds out that the light was just your basic on-coming train full of “national security”:

   Feds Invoke Secrets Privilege to Limit Qwest CEO Defenses in Civil Suit

   The nations’ top intelligence official told a Denver court Monday that the nation’s safety would be imperiled if Qwest employees are allowed to get classified documents about the telecom’s secret contracts with the National Security Agency…
   .
   .
   Nacchio, who is free on bond pending an appeal, unsuccessfully tried to argue in the criminal case that he expected the company to get classified contracts from the NSA that he thought would make Qwest meet its projections. He argued the NSA withheld the promised contracts as punishment after Qwest declined to help the NSA with a unspecified project that Nacchio believed was illegal to help with without being ordered to do so.

   In 2006, after media revelations about the government’s secret wiretapping program and phone record data-mining, Nachhio’s attorney said that when Nacchio was CEO, Qwest had declined repeated requests from the government for call records.

   The trial judge in Nacchio’s criminal case ruled that Nacchio’s classified defense was irrelevant, but in October, released redacted versions of Nacchio’s argument, which contained startling charges that the NSA asked Qwest for some unspecified help in February, 2001, 7 months prior to 9/11.

   A subsequent story by the National Journal’s Shane Harris revealed that the NSA asked Qwest before 9/11 to monitor and data-mine traffic on its own domestic network and report results to the NSA,  but didn’t ask for access to call record databases until after the attacks.
   McConnell’s court filing invoked the “state secrets privilege,” a powerful legal tool that the government can use to quash portions or all of a civil lawsuit if the matter involves military or intelligence matters. The Bush administration has used the tool to end Sibel Edmonds’ FBI whistleblower suit and lawsuits challenging the government’s outsourcing of torture and warrantless wiretapping.
   .
   .
   wired

   times are tough when even the bad guys can’t catch a break from the RATpubs.

   lTMF’sA

9. 

   dada on November 26, 2007 at 11:51 am

   and the penchant governments have these days for listening in, this bit of news may be causing a bit of head scratching at enessay:

   Skype encryption stumps German police

   Germany (Reuters) – German police are unable to decipher the encryption used in the Internet telephone software Skype to monitor calls by suspected criminals and terrorists, Germany’s top police officer said on Thursday.

   Skype allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet from their computer to other Skype users free of charge.
   .
   .
   “The encryption with Skype telephone software … creates grave difficulties for us,” Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany’s Federal Police Office (BKA) told reporters at an annual gathering of security and law enforcement officials.

   “We can’t decipher it. That’s why we’re talking about source telecommunication surveillance — that is, getting to the source before encryption or after it’s been decrypted.”
   .
   .
   link

   hmmmmmmm…the upcoming auction of the 700MHz spectrum, and all the hype surrounding googles open source, web based technology (ANDROID) may pose a bit of a problem, especially if they can’t get to the source. no wonder the fisa bill and it’s telecon immunity provision are being so stubbornly fought for.

   lTMF’sA

10. 

    BooMan on November 26, 2007 at 1:54 pm

    Mindblowing.

    • 

      CabinGirl on November 26, 2007 at 2:36 pm

      More incredible pictures here.

    • 

      eodell on November 26, 2007 at 10:47 pm

      Wow. Hooray for harmless eccentrics!

    • 

      chocolate ink on November 27, 2007 at 1:39 pm

      Thanks for finding that story Boo, you’re right that’s truly mindblowing-amazing.

11. 

    cruz del sur on November 26, 2007 at 1:58 pm

    Luis Rosadilla is a Representative in the Urugayan Congress. him, and other members of the Defense Comission, where on their way to Haiti to evaluate the Peace mission in that country. Since there is no direct flights to Port-au-Prince, They decided to make a stopover in Miami and catch another flight to Haiti. They bought the tickets and then went to the American Embassy to get the visas.

    A few days later they the group of 5 Uruguayans returned to the Embassy to pick them up. Everybody got theirs, except Rosadilla. He then exchanged his ticket and got one to Panama, from where he flew to Haiti.

    Last Wednesday, Rosadilla received  a letter from the Satate Deparment citing  article 212 citing terrorists, drug dealers, and dangerous persons.

    In the 70’s, Rosadillas had belonged to the armed organization, Tupamaros. So it is understandable that his visa was denied. However, the other 4 members had also belonged to that organization. Furthermore, the US has never mentioned the Tupamaros as a terrorist organization. Even more, Bush had no problems in having a conversation with Minister José Mujica (a prominent Tupamaro) in his last visit to Montevideo for a free trade agreement.

    The one difference with the other ex-Tupamaro members was that Rosadillas was a critic of US policies.

    Hum………………

12. 

    anarchronarchist on November 26, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    What did George Washington say about ‘foreign entanglements’ again?

    Kaos Americana‘s other major ‘black budget’ revenue sources: Drugs and Illicit Gun trade dominance and expansion in Anglo-American controlled war zones
    requiring that
    Kosovo Slides Back Towards War to keep the Kaos high and $$ flowing fast and furious and otherwise unregulated.

    The very kewlest thing about a war zone is you can get away with just about anything….

    • 

      anarchronarchist on November 26, 2007 at 5:33 pm

      If no one else has heard it elsewhere, I think I’ve coined a term!