February 4, 2009 archive

1. The LA Times reports U.S. energy secretary warns of dire climate change scenario for California. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu explained that California’s farms and vineyards could fail by the end of the century and its cities are in danger of collapse. “Chu warned of water shortages plaguing the West and Upper Midwest and particularly dire consequences for California, his home state, the nation’s leading agricultural producer.”

   “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he said. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California.” And, he added, “I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going” either…

   “I’m hoping that the American people will wake up,” Chu said.

2. ProPublica reports Obama limits bailout corporate executive pay, but plenty of wiggle room. “The restrictions are stricter than the Bush administration’s, but provide plenty of wiggle room for execs to do well. There is no real limit on executive compensation, just restrictions on the type of compensation.”

   The Washington Post adds Bailout includes executive pay limits for some firms. “Under the new rules, companies can waive the $500,000 cap by informing shareholders that they planned to continue paying executives higher salaries. Companies would be required to allow a shareholder resolution on the subject, but the results would not bind the company.”

3. The NY Times gives the low down on President Obama’s Commerce Secrertary nominee, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH). Gregg differs with Obama on nearly every major issue. “He differs with his boss-to-be in favoring oil drilling on the coast of an Alaska wildlife refuge. He promotes a lighter touch with China than does the president. And he disagrees with him in backing private accounts for Social Security.”

   Gregg is “the 21st-richest senator, with assets, according to his 2007 financial disclosure forms, of $3 million to $10 million.” Smells like Change we can believe in!

4. The Washington Post reports Interior Secretary cancels leases on federal land in Utah. “Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is cancelling oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land in Utah… The Bush administration conducted the lease sale in December, but environmental groups went to court to block the winning bids encompassing roughly 110,000 acres near pristine areas such as Nine Mile Canyon, Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.”

   At DailyKos, mcjoan notes that “Salazar doesn’t rule out the possibility that some of the parcels on which leases were canceled today won’t eventually be put back out for sale once a valid process for determining their suitability for drilling is completed.”

Four at Four has, as a bonus, political theater below the fold.

Evidently, though I’m all fired up about getting the new Attorney General to review all of the pending federal death penalty cases– there are 49 of them– and to forbid prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, not so many others are quite as ignited as I am.  I think I know why.

The petition now has 62 signatures.  Many people have emailed the Attorney General at whitehouse.gov or at [email protected] to request that he review these cases.  I appreciate everyone’s efforts on this.

Please join me in DC, where things are somewhat “different.”

I was trying to write something more about this report I just read, but after these last eight previous years my rage keeps me from thinking straight in trying to add words to the total apathy, arrogance, and incompetence found in this country and it’s elected representatives.

But I want you to meet Melissa Sterry, a Gulf War I National Guard Veteran, from New Haven Connecticut, and read the cuts I placed below also visiting the Hartford Advocate and read the rest, not only about Ms. Sterry but as to the rest of the Veterans of Connecticut, and what the state reps have to say.  

You may find VP Joe Biden’s remarks interesting here….

“Welcome back to the Justice Department. As we gather here to day it’s worth remembering the mission statement that guides this great department.”

“To enforce the law and defend the interest of the United States according to the law. To ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic. To provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime. To seek just punishment for those guilt of unlawful behavior, and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”

“There’s no mention in that mission statement of politics. There’s no mention in that mission statement of ideology. And that’s how it should be, because there is no place for politics or ideology in this building.”

“With the appointment of Eric Holder as Attorney General, we’re going to be returning to a standard that has governed this great department at it’s greatest moments in my view. No politics. No ideology.“

I’ve always considered  the Hindus to be the endearing exception  to my “all religions are dangerous to others” rule. I mean, how dangerous can a religion be when they have a god who  has an elephant head? Apparently I was mistaken about our Hindu brethren and sistren: they’re as nuts as the rest. I look at the lunatics of  every major religion, and somehow the fact that my pagan Celtic ancestors went in  for the odd bit of headhunting  and human sacrifice seems almost benign. (and yes, I recognize that this organization is purportedly a “nationalist” or “cultural” organization, but this sort of “defend the culture” madness is always driven by deep wells of religious lunacy. Always.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…

Militants belonging to a group called Sri Ram Sena, who claim to be custodians of Indian culture, said Valentine’s Day is un-Indian.

The threat comes days after the group’s activists stormed a bar in the south western city of Mangalore, dragging out and beating women they accused of acting obscenely and “going astray”.

The attack led to fears an extremist “Hindu Taliban” was on the rise in India.

Gangadhar Kulkarni, an activist in the group, which is a radical wing of the Hindu nationalist movement, said: “If people celebrate the day despite our warning, then we will definitely attack them.”

“Valentine’s Day is definitely not Indian culture. We will not allow celebration of that day in any form,” added Pramod Mutalik, the group’s founder.

Sigh.

There are those who will dismiss this as yet another Obama bashing rant, but unlike Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans he leads I really would like Obama to succeed.

I understand Rush.  I am hyper partisan.  I never accepted W as my president even during the smoking pile nobody could have anticipated bin laden determined to attack in the US bullhorn bullshit 95% of YOU! you willfully ignorant accessories to war crimes times you thought he was the bees knees.

I want to grind your nose in your tortures and murders, your common thefts and lies and pederasty and perversion that you accepted by your complicity.  Up against the wall motherfuckers.  Were I not fundamentally opposed to the death penalty you might hope to provoke me to a quicker relief from your shame and degradation than the lifetime in Spandau I think your pissy pants craven cowardice and oathbreaking deserve.

Obama has never been a liberal.  The DLC assumed he was one of theirs until he disavowed them.

The reason progressive Democrats deluded themselves is that Obama was consistently anti-Iraq.  For them the real game is whether we meet the 16 month deadline and the Odierno – Petraeus – McArthur axis are doing what they can to impede it.  No nukes in Korea.  Get the troops out or find another job.

Frankly if he satisfies that minimum requirement Obama need fear no challenge from the left, for the most part they will be co-opted.  Those of us who care about little things like the Geneva Convention and the Magna Carta and the US Constitution can hope they get carried along on the tide but…

We are the 5%ers and proud of it.

Still who knows?  The level of ignorance about simple dimple economics astounds me.

These Chicago School Free Market Fundamentalists, these Randian Hard On Libertarians, these Friedmanite (Milton and Thomas) Monitarist Morans refuse to recognize that we have efficiented ourselves out of business.  We don’t make anything except conmen who will sell you a lump of wood and call it nutmeg.

Tulips.

Keynesian denial seems to have permeated our discourse and people no longer understand that it’s possible to over supply demand.

Supply side economics is a lie.

It doesn’t matter how much you can produce if nobody is buying.  Prices fall into a deflationary spiral and you have an economy with excess capacity.  Cars rotting on lots, high inventory, job cutting, fall in demand.

DUH!

You need to reduce inventory and create scarcity- plow under those debts and fuck the creditors.  You need to create demand and re-inflate.  This is basically spending, but if you were wise and responsible you’d spend it on stuff that was valuable and would last, still spending alone will do because of the multiplier effect.

If I pay you a dollar it doesn’t just go to you.  It goes to your Starbucks barrista and from them to their Chiropractor and Aroma Therapist (you stand on your fucking feet all day and it doesn’t fucking matter).  Eventually your dollar ends up in the pocket of someone who decides to invest it in something like a Credit Default Swap and with less stimulative effect than a bet on 24, odd, black when the ball comes up 00 the coupier rakes it in.  Sucks to be you.

In the mean time someone got coffee which made the coffee people happy and the barrista stands a little straighter.

Fuck you, you tightfisted greed heads.