Posts from — January 2008

Via Michael at Musing’s musings, The Onion presents a hypothetical Jimmy Carter Op-Ed.

Keep liquids away from your computer before clicking, and a soft surface near your chair for ROTFL would not be undue caution.

Understand that the basic facts of the op-ed are all true [although the language is a bit shrill] – I lived through them and remember. Oh, for what might have been…

Guantánamo is the main island in the Hedgemony’s GULag Archipelago.

Another Reader

Zzzz…Zzzz…Zzzz…

[Editor: Income has taken over his mother’s perch atop the “Cat Who” bookcase. If he doesn’t stop growing soon, he’ll have to find a new location.]

Friday Ark

Another Emily Litella moment for the Hedgemony from Danger Room: U.S. Navy Unsure Iranians Made Threat

The spokesperson for the U.S. admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet clarified to ABC News:

“We’re saying that we cannot make a direct connection to the boats there,” said the spokesperson. “It could have come from the shore, from another ship passing by. However, it happened in the middle of all the very unusual activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we’re not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we’re not saying it absolutely didn’t.”

The supposed threat was part of a US Navy agitprop mash-up video released to the media, but we now know that the “threat” was on an open radio channel used by every ship and shore installation in the area. It would certainly have been embarrassing if we had launched an all out air attack on Iran, and then had to apologize. 😈

Update: It wouldn’t be the first time.

After a minor bit of research it turns out that there was nothing wrong with the New Hampshire polls, other than they were conducted before a large group of people made up their minds. The numbers for Obama and Edwards held, and the undecideds broke heavily for Clinton. When better than 15% of those polled are undecided, you don’t try to call a winner unless someone has a 51% approval rating.

The weather was unseasonably mild, and the turn out was, as should have been expected under those circumstances, much larger than normal, so the undecideds showed up and voted. I don’t doubt in the slightest that the media attacks on Clinton for the non-event of her getting “teary-eyed” made a number of people annoyed enough to vote for her.

The real polls that the media should be looking at are those on the favorability of certain groups or professions. For some time they have been showing that people don’t really like or trust the corporate media. The talking heads are really getting on people’s nerves, and their track record for accuracy is abysmal. Most people are aware that if they screwed up half as often as the pundits, they’d be fired.

A bit of advice: having two “experts” on your show, one “liberal” and one “conservative”, doesn’t advance the level of trust when both are equally wrong.

The BBC reports that Sir Edmund Hillary dies aged 88

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, has died aged 88.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described the explorer as a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing.

Sir Edmund’s health had reportedly been in decline since April, when he suffered a fall while visiting Nepal.

He was the first man to climb the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953.

Returning to Everest base camp, he famously greeted another member of the British expedition group with the words: “Well, George, we’ve knocked the bastard off.”

After the ascent, Sir Edmund led a number of expeditions to the South Pole and devoted his life to helping the Sherpas of Nepal’s Khumbu region.

He was almost the definition of the adventurer. He set his goals and then accomplished them.

It’s bad enough when the media pulls this crap, but why are supposedly liberal and/or progressive bloggers picking up on it and repeating it. When you read of an attack by one Democrat on another, don’t just print it. You have to verify what was actually said because the media lies about Democrats, and has done for decades. Go read Bob Somerby’s archives at the Daily Howler on the media treatment of Al Gore in the 2000 campaign.

“Hillary cries” is the 2008 version of “Howard screams”. They spin words and pull them out of context and slap them inside of quotes, and people get sucked in. What does it take to convince people that if they weren’t standing there, or don’t have access to raw video footage, it is not just possible, but probable, that the media is distorting it to fit in its “narrative”. They present answers but cut off the question. They neglect to use ellipses to indicate editing. They lie, OK, they lie.

It is not just Fox, they all do it. If reporters don’t do it, their editors will.

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Now even CBS is saying the word in their business section: Goldman Sachs: Brace For Recession In 2008.

Let’s see, it will technically be a recession™, but not to worry, because it won’t last long, probably be gone by 2009, so no worries. OK, so maybe the Federal Reserve will have to half the funds rate, and mortgage lending is in meltdown, and consumers can’t afford to consume, and businesses will stop making what they consumed, and people will lose their jobs, but it’s not so bad.

That’s right, short lived, like an earthquake, tornado, or tsunami – how bad can it be? If I had the income and tax rate of the guy who wrote the report for Goldman Sachs, not too bad at all, as I could probably get a great deal on a new house [or subdivision] almost anywhere I wanted to live at a foreclosure or tax sale, possibly a yard sale before things settle down. There will be a whole new meaning to “garage sale” – it will come with a house attached.

My predictions were: Clinton, Obama, Edwards for the Dems, and McCain, Huckabee, Romney for the Reps.

The second and third place finishes for the Reps were swapped in the in the final result.

The turn out was decent, in excess of 50%, and secret ballots really mess up the talking heads.

So, now that 2% of the voters have spoken, we still don’t know anything.

The results of the truly important vote in New Hampshire won’t be reported until later today.

[Update: Marty is the new Mount Washington Topcat with 53% of the vote, avoiding a run-off.]

During the Cold War the various militaries played a dangerous game of near misses whenever their forces were in close proximity. Aircraft and naval vessels would make close passes to each other, occasionally with fatal results when someone zigged when they should have zagged.

Reading various news reports and Dr. Cole’s post, Iran IRGC Ships confront US Navy, that’s what occurred to me and to Jo Fish, a Cold Warrior in the Navy.

While there is certainly an element of garden variety stupidity in the game, it can also produce useful intelligence about the defense capabilities of the other force, as well as the skill of the potential opponent.

Danger Room has a post up on How Iran Attacks at Sea, which is quite different than the response one would expect from a navy.

A number of people starting talking about the “Gulf of Tonkin”, the pathetic and perhaps mythological event that was used to justify increased US involvement in Southeast Asia. but fortunately leveler heads have prevailed. I would hope that our forces have learned something from the first Gulf War and added capabilities to our vessels, because, while we have an overwhelming technological advantage, the Iranians tend to use more ballistic than guided weapons, and depend on numbers rather than individual sophistication. It is possible they could overwhelm our defenses with shear numbers of “antique” weapons that can’t be jammed.

Apparently the guild rules on saying “recession” only apply to the United States, because Fallenmonk and Susie Madrak both noticed a James Quinn article in the Telegraph [UK] about the Merrill Lynch economist who used the “magic word”: “David Rosenberg, the bank’s chief North American economist, argues that a weakening employment picture and declining retail sales signal the economy has tipped into its first month of recession.”

I also found the first line of the article interesting: “The US has entered its first full-blown economic recession in 16 years, according to investment bank Merrill Lynch.”

Essentially he is saying that that the supposed “recession” that Clinton left for the Shrubbery wasn’t, in fact, a true recession under guild rules, because 16 years ago, 1992, the President’s last name was Bush.

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The American Street experienced a major meltdown today. For the first time with its new host the server went down, and now the clock is messed up. It should be cleared up shortly.

Don’t forget to vote in the only New Hampshire election that is really meaningful: the Mount Washington Topcat race. Via Lisa in comments, here’s a YouTube link to the candidates in action.

[I note that there is no “Cat Blogging” category at the American Street. That needs to be addressed when things calm down.]

I don’t pretend to offer you advice on how to make money, I’m just an old Boomer who has seen too much for too long not to recognize the reality around me: we are in a recession – been there, done that, still have the check stubs.

The “real economists” will tell you about it in a few months, because their guild rules require that several months of economic pain must past before an official recession may be declared.

The standard prescription for recession is targeted tax cuts, government deficit spending, and Federal Reserve rate cuts. These are supposed to spur the economy and soften the blow…except, the Hedgemony has already done these things, so there’s no relief available.

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My first post at the American Street will be showing up later this morning. I may cross post some of the things, but probably not all. It wasn’t made clear that I would be posting on Mondays and something should appear early in the morning, because neither Monday nor morning are among my favorite things.

Fortunately I know how to deal with those problems and the time difference.