Pass the Popcorn

A Judge in Alaska has ordered that the Fairbanks North Star Borough^* personnel records of teabagger Senate candidate Joe Miller are to be released on Tuesday.

The judge set a Tuesday release date to allow an appeal to be filed on Monday:

A judge ruled Saturday that the Fairbanks North Star Borough must release personnel records of U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller.

In an unusual weekend hearing, retired Superior Court Judge Winston Burbank ruled that the public's right to know about candidates outweighed Miller's right to privacy.

"I hold that although Mr. Miller has a legitimate expectation of privacy in those documents, Mr. Miller's right to privacy is indeed outweighed by the public's significant interest in the background of a public figure who is running for the U.S. Senate," the judge said. He noted that U.S. senator is among the highest elected offices in the nation.

Burbank ordered that nothing actually will be released until Tuesday afternoon, however, to allow for the ruling to be appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

Mr. Miller has been fighting this kicking and screaming, which implies that this his personnel file is packed with lots crunchy goodness.

If this is true, I would think that an appeal by Mr. Miller is likely though. All he has to do is delay the ruling by 7-8 days, and it becomes moot.

My sense is that he was not a model employee, since we have heard whispers from both the City of Fairbanks, as well as his old law firm, that they were not sad to see him go.

^*A borough in Alaska is roughly equivalent to a county.

How to Pet a Kitty

Too True

You can read the rest at the Oatmeal, and I highly recommend that you do so.

The Military Side of the UK Budget Cuts

It's pretty grim:

• Scrapping the existing carriers.
• Scrapping the Harrier fleet.
• Replacing the 138 F-35B STOVL with somewhere around 50 of the F-35C carrier variant.
• The two carriers will be built, but one will not be fitted with catapults or arrestor gear, and so will never carry airplanes.
• Scrapping the nearly new Sentinel surveillance aircraft as soon as they are back from Afghanistan.
• Reduce MoD civilian staffing by 25,000 and military staffing by 17,000.
• Canceling the late and over budget Nimprod MRA4.
• Delaying a new SSBN.
• Significant cuts to the surface fleet.
• Speeding up the return of troops based in Germany

From a pure perspective of governance, you have to give the Tories props: When they said they would cut the budget, they applied this to the Ministry of Defence as well, which is, at least consistent.

Realistically, these cuts mean that, outside of low intensity UN peacekeeping missions, the British will be incapable of engaging in an operation independently of the US, but that has been the political reality since Suez in 1957 anyway.

PAK-FA's Air Show Video Pr0n

It's an air show routine, so hit highlights its low speed/high alpha performance, which does appear to be pretty damn impressive.



H/t The DEW Line

Another Bit of Tech that I Worked With on FCS*

I'll wait for reports from the field

The army is looking to deploy the XM25 25mm grenade launcher to Afghanistan.

The 'special sauce" for this system is that the fire control system on the round can set the round to detonate at a specific distance, so you can set it to detonate past the cover an opponent is using for protection.

The example here is to put a round through a window, where it is set to detonate 2m beyond the building facade, which will certainly spoil that guy's day.

This was intended to be used on the FCS-RMV in the full auto and remote controlled XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon where it would take the place of a crew served machine gun.

Truth be told, it strikes me as a little complex to function well in the confusion and grit and grime of battle, we should be hearing reports in the next few months.

^*Full disclosure, I worked on the Future Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, FRMV, "wrecker" variant of the FCS-MGV^† from 2003-2006 at United Defense (later BAE Systems after the Carlyle Group sold me to buy Dunkin Donuts).
^†Future Combat Systems-Manned Ground Vehicle. These are the ones that are the tanks and APCs. As opposed to the various unnmanned vehicles, networking technologies, etc. that form the full FCS along with the MGVs.^‡
‡Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can't hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as "technical hit man", where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.

Unconventional Helicopter Developments

250 kt record breaking flight, complete with Pr0n film^* music soundtrack


The EADS X3


And their EADS/Eurocopter video


X2 Raider Mockup


The X-2 Raider, blissfully music free

Graham Warwick gives a survey of new technologies that might find their way into the Joint Multi Role (JMR) rotorcraft program, along with the video of the X-2's record breaking flight (top)


Meanwhile, EADS is flight testing its X3 (I wonder where they got that name) compound helo, which uses dual wingtip props, and it provides anti-torque by varying the pitch of the thrusters.

It's far less ambitious than that of the X-2, but their selling point is reduced life cycle cost, which is probably more a shot at the expensive tilt-rotors out there than the X-2 advancing blade concept, which really doesn't seem particularly different in the amount of bits that move.

One interesting twist is that the X3 will slow its rotor at higher speed, reducing drag, though I could see this added to an advancing blade helicopter as well, particularly if the aircraft has a wing.

My quick look at the demonstrator indicates that it is not a particularly useful helicopter.

With two props about a yard from where the entrance to the passenger/cargo area is, both loading and unload, as well as the use of a winch for a rescue mission, would appear to me to be highly problematic.

Of course, the X3 is a demonstrator cobbled together with bits of various existing helicopters, so an operational version would likely address these shortcomings.

Sikorsky is also pitching a replacement for the OH-58D, theS-97 X2 Raider, which is rather similar to the MI-24 Hind or the Augusta/Westland Lynx concepts for an attack helicopter which retains transport capabilities or the ability to carry its own reloads.

^*Not that I'd know what pr0n movies' sound tracks actually sound like.^†
†Not that there is anything wrong with that.

A Good Comment on Junk Science

Paul Munro of XKCD gives us this cogent take-down of much of the junk science out there.

If this sh%$ worked, not only would business be all over this like white on rice, but they would be patenting the hell out of it as well.

Always Proof Read Your Classified Ads

And if you phone it in, for Pete's sake, proof what they wrote down!


H/t Tiempo at the Shortskoolbus BBS.

I am not a Witch, I'm You, Except With Bigger T%$s

Elvira takes on Christin O'Donnell, and amazingly enough, it's safe for work:

It's Bank Failure Friday!!!!

And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

133. First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
     
134. Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, FL
     
135. The Gordon Bank, Gordon, GA
     
136. The First National Bank of Barnesville, Barnsville, GA
     
137. First Suburban National Bank, Haywood, IL
138. Hillcrest Bank, Overland Park, KS
139. First Arizona Savings, A FSB, Scottsdale, AZ
     

So, after a lull of a few weeks, things appear to be ramping up again.

6 7 banks, there have been 10 6 weeks with 6 7 or more closures so far this year, and it's week 42.

Not pretty

Full FDIC list

So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):



I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I'm keeping it here for historical purposes.

The British Attempt at Slow Seppuku

The British are engaging in truly draconian spending cuts in the face of a recession to the tune of £156 billion (roughly 20% of the current budget) and 490,000 employees.

By way of perspective, the UK Budget in 2-7-2008 was about £520 billion, and the job losses would be equivalent to the loss of over 2½ million jobs in the US, and that is just the direct losses, when one considers the follow on effects, essentially the jobs that are held by people who provide goods and services to these public employees, are likely to be even larger.

If one assumes that the total job losses will be roughly double the civil service cuts, and this is a conservative estimate, with the UK's workforce size of roughly 30 million, we would see at least a 3% increase in unemployment.

On the bright side, unlike their fellow wingnuts on this side of the Atlantic, they are also applying the cuts to their Defen(c)se establishment as well (more in a later post).

I think that Paul Krugman has a wonderful bit of snark on this, where he calls the people who will be hurt by this British Fashion Victims:

In the spring of 2010, fiscal austerity became fashionable. I use the term advisedly: the sudden consensus among Very Serious People that everyone must balance budgets now now now wasn’t based on any kind of careful analysis. It was more like a fad, something everyone professed to believe because that was what the in-crowd was saying.

And it’s a fad that has been fading lately, as evidence has accumulated that the lessons of the past remain relevant, that trying to balance budgets in the face of high unemployment and falling inflation is still a really bad idea. Most notably, the confidence fairy has been exposed as a myth. There have been widespread claims that deficit-cutting actually reduces unemployment because it reassures consumers and businesses; but multiple studies of historical record, including one by the International Monetary Fund, have shown that this claim has no basis in reality.

No widespread fad ever passes, however, without leaving some fashion victims in its wake. In this case, the victims are the people of Britain, who have the misfortune to be ruled by a government that took office at the height of the austerity fad and won’t admit that it was wrong.

…………

It would be funny if it were not tragic.

Why the Aqua Buddha Works

I suggested that Rand Paul might be pushed into doing something stupid, but I missed an obvious point, one that Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall got, which was that by making the attack, and by Paul responding with indignation, "How dare you," rather than a strong denial and push-back, "My opponent is a liar," he has shown himself to be weak, and the voters hate weakness.

He calls it the, "Bitch slap theory of electoral politics":

Let's call it the Republicans' Bitch-Slap theory of electoral politics.

It goes something like this.

On one level, of course, the aim behind these attacks is to cast suspicion upon Kerry's military service record and label him a liar. But that's only part of what's going on.

Consider for a moment what the big game is here. This is a battle between two candidates to demonstrate toughness on national security. Toughness is a unitary quality, really -- a personal, characterological quality rather than one rooted in policy or divisible in any real way. So both sides are trying to prove to undecided voters either that they're tougher than the other guy or at least tough enough for the job.

In a post-9/11 environment, obviously, this question of strength, toughness or resolve is particularly salient. That, of course, is why so much of this debate is about war and military service in the first place.

One way -- perhaps the best way -- to demonstrate someone's lack of toughness or strength is to attack them and show they are either unwilling or unable to defend themselves -- thus the rough slang I used above. And that I think is a big part of what is happening here. Someone who can't or won't defend themselves certainly isn't someone you can depend upon to defend you.

Rand Paul was bitch slapped by Jack Conway, and now he's acting like a bitch, not shaking hands and implying that he will skip the last debate.

Josh Green at The Atlantic notes, "The issue isn't Paul's Christianity, but his manhood," and that his talk about skipping the final debate is all anyone is talking about.

In Case You Were Wondering………

Yes, Juan Williams is a wingnut, he just pretends to be stupid and conventional on NPR, and works as a willing punching bag on Fox.

And now that he's been fired, he lets it all hang out on Fox:

…To say the least this is a chilling assault on free speech. The critical importance of honest journalism and a free flowing, respectful national conversation needs to be had in our country. But it is being buried as collateral damage in a war whose battles include political correctness and ideological orthodoxy.

Hint 1: If you think that you are entitled to be paid for spouting bigoted and stupid sh%$, you might be a wingnut.

This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought.

Hint number 2: If you think that people complaining about what you say is an assault on the 1^st amendment on par with the Soviet political prison prison system, you might be a wingnut.

Well, this does explain his concealing his own issues when he vociferously attacked Anita Hill for her (not proven) allegations of sexual harassment while he was under suspicion for doing the same.

It also explains why he thought Michelle Obama's work on organic food and nutrition somehow showed that she was, "Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress."

As I said yesterday, Good Riddance…….

He, of course, wins, because he just got a $2 million contract from Fox to be their "House Slave."

Not What Ginny Thomas Intended

That harassing phone call to Anita Hill is not working out as planned:

For nearly two decades, Lillian McEwen has been silent -- a part of history, yet absent from it.

When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations.

Lillian McEwen was that woman.

……

She has written a memoir, which she is now shopping to publishers. News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas.

……

However bizarre they may seem, McEwen's recollections resemble accounts shared by other women that swirled around the Thomas confirmation.

……

"I have no hostility toward him," McEwen said. "It is just that he has manufactured a different reality over time. That's the problem that he has."

(emphasis mine)

Gee, Ginny, not turning out the way that you wanted it.

I think that I get it: She is raking in big bucks as a teabagger AstroTurfer, and she suddenly thought that she could alter reality with her new successes.

Reality has a way of not cooperating.

The fact that Clarence Thomas perjured himself 19 years ago is moot.

While Congress could impeach over this, they have done so over charges which have resulted in acquittals, they won't.

It is an important thing to remember though: Republican court nominations lie when questioned, and Democrats should treat them has hostile witnesses in hearings.

Just Read This

Yves Smith again:

The Obama Administration is entirely predictable. It ever and always sides with large corporate interests, while trying to create the impression that it is actually concerned for the welfare of the average citizen. Admittedly, the occasionally tough talk with little follow through feeds a perverse spectacle of plutocrats sulking, pouting, and claiming that they are really, really badly treated.

……

There are so many people on the internet who write, and think, gooder than I do.

My only addition on this is her there are limits to looting without productive activity, and when we run down that string, things will get very ugly very quickly.

I Just Voted

Maryland has a week of early voting, and since I will not be in town on Nov 2, I voted.

I voted straight Democratic Party, except for Barbara Milulski, because of her vote on the telecom immunity bill. I wrote in my Congressman, John Cardin (D).

When I said that she would never get my vote again, I meant it.

As to various constitutional amendments, state and county:

• I voted no on question 1, which would have required a constitutional convention every 20 years. This is a recipe for mischief and mayhem.
• I voted no on question 2, which would have raised the bar for a jury in a civil trial from $10,000 to 15,000.
• Voted against requiring that Orphans’ Court judges be members of the Maryland Bar. It's a lay court, and has been for over 200 years, and the Maryland Bar is a private organization, and I do not believe that a private organization, particularly one as insular and secretive as the Bar should determine this.
• As a corollary, I oppose the use of private bars for licensing of lawyers period. It should be public.
• The county wants to change its charter to force binding arbitration and a no strike clause on its workers. I voted no. (It will probably win though, since arbitration sounds fair, and the no strike section is at the end, where people will not see it)

So I am not a bystander in the elections.

Good Riddance…………

National Public Radio has fired Juan Williams over his statements that he is scared by Muslims in public places on Bill O'Reilly's show:

I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.

It's actually more than that, because while this seems to be an admission that is an admission that he will sometimes judge people by color of their skin rather than by the content of their character, it actually followed a bigoted rant by Long Island Klansman Bill O'Reilly about the "Muslim dilemma".^*

So it was not just an admission of personal weakness, it is an active endorsement of O'Reilly's bigoted screed.

His explicit endorsement of bigotry is not surprising. He is Fox News' "House Slave," to quote Harry Belafonte, and he has his tongue so far up Billo's ass that he is tasting tonsils.

He was on the Long Island Klansman's (O'Reilly), and Billo had been launching into his bigoted screeds. and his seemingly mild statement validated those screeds.

I think that context and venue matter. This was not Nightline, or Jon Stewart. This was Bill O'Reilly, and fellow hater Mary Katherine Ham, in a full blown hate-fest, and they Williams basically said that it was OK.

As to the effect on NPR, I think that his leaving will be good for the network.

Williams has always been a hack, and a stupid one at that, as his truly pitiful tenure as Talk of the Nation host showed.

He has been coasting on his work writing the companion book to the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize for decades.

I'm with Matthew Yglesias's take on this, which was that he should have been fired long ago, "on the grounds of general lameness and lack of valuable contribution to their programming."

Additionally, he has always been ethically challenged. During the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings, he was a vociferous defender of Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court nomination hearings, but he neglected to disclose that he himself was the subject of credible allegations of sexual harassment of a subordinate the Washington Post.

I do find the fact that we now have two echos of Clarence Thomas's sexual harassment and perjury in the same week rather odd. Synchronicity, neh?

I'm so glad that I won't have to listen to him any more. Hopefully they can send Cokie Roberts away too.

^* Which has eerie echos of people 70 years ago talking about the "Jewish Problem."

Ginny Thomas LoL

H/t Blue Gal

Yes

Jonathan Bernstein asks, "Is Howard Kurtz Always This Awful?

This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.

It's Jobless Thursday

And it's better, but still awful. Initial claims fell to 452,000, remaining in range where they have been most of the year, and the less volatile 4-week moving average fell to 458,000, while continuing claims fell by a minuscule amount, and emergency benefits rose.

This is not even close to being a recovery in the job market.

Thank You, you Anti-Vaccine Ratf%$#s

Remember, the folks who listen to the junk science don't just put themselves at risk, but they place the rest of the population at risk by poking holes in herd immunity.

The net result of all this is 10 infants have died in the worst whooping cough outbreak in California whooping cough outbreak in over ½ a century.

I'm Not a Fan of Jerry Brown, But This is a Good Ad

It's draws a very good line between Meg Whitman and the Governator.

The Mortgage Fraud Goes Max Bialystock*

It turns out that some of the banksters have simultaneously sold mortgages to multiple people (see also here for the court fiuling):

In a complaint filed this month in Washington, D.C. federal court, Bank of America said the FDIC has wrongly denied claims by Ocala noteholders to recover from Colonial Bank and an Illinois lender also in receivership, Platinum Community Bank.

Bank of America accused executives at Taylor Bean, Colonial and Platinum of having fraudulently schemed to "double- and triple-pledge mortgages and steal assets" to hide their faltering conditions as the housing market declined.

So these banks, and a number of others, probably repeatedly sold the same mortgage to different trusts.

This is Max Bialystock level fraud. There is no gray area here, but predictably, the Obama administration is maintaining that somehow or other the problems are not systemic at the same time that they have convened a task force to see if laws were broken.

We have a system where banks simply ignored the law over what amounts to about a $30 dollar cost per loan transfer, MERS, we have banks destroying the chain of custody of the loans, and the solution of the Obama administration is to wave a wand and grant absolution.

That's the message of these conflicting messages: There is a task force, but that is just politics, and all will be forgiven on November 3^rd.

Un-dirtyword-believable.

^*Just F%$#ing Google it.

Economics Update

Catching up on the economic number dump, first we have the Federal Reserve's so-called Beige Book, which shows that growth has continued, but it is very sluggish.

This is reinforced by the fact that consumer confidence fell in October, factory production and capacity utilization fell in September, for the first time in a year, though home builder confidence rose (to a truly pathetic 16 where 50 is neutral), and housing starts rose.

We also have some importing news out of China, with their central bank making a surprise increase in its benchmark rate, and Chinese government published new statistics showing that its growth slowed and inflation edged up.

Certainly, it looks like the Central bank is concerned about inflation, and the statistics, even considering the general unreliability of official government statistics, indicate a problem.

One interesting effect of the rate hike is that it should place additional upward pressure on the Yuan.

Normally I Don't Like Andy Borowitz's Humor…

But his take-down of Ginny Thomas's "drunk dialing" phone harassment of Anita Hill, is truly an thing of beauty:

Three Things to Do When Clarence Thomas’s Wife Calls You
Posted by Andy Borowitz

Like many Americans, over the past several years I have been the recipient of multiple unwelcome voicemails from the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. These calls have come in the middle of the night, at the crack of dawn, even at the dinner hour favored by telemarketers. Regardless of the time of day, all of these voicemails have one thing in common: she always sounds like she’s drunk-dialing me, except she appears to be completely sober.

………

One final note: if you get a call in the middle of the night and there is silence on the other end, that is not Virginia Thomas. That is Clarence Thomas.

A very well deserved take-down of a classless and corrupt, she is clearly playing on her marriage to a Supreme Court justice to secure large donations for her AstroTurf group, woman.

Go read Borowitz. He is very funny here.

Damn!

A 3 judge panel of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals just stayed the injunction against the enforcement of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Thankfully, this is only a short term stay, basically it's a stay until the panel has a hearing on the stay next week:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily stalled the landmark court decision allowing openly gay recruits to be accepted into the military.

In response to an emergency request from the government, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, issued a one-page order late in the day allowing the Pentagon to continue enforcing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which bars openly gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.

The decision, which returns the law to the status quo before a Federal District Court judge in California declared it unconstitutional, will be in effect while the appeals court considers whether to issue a longer stay, until February, when the Ninth Circuit will hear the full appeal. A decision about the longer stay could occur as early as next week; the parties have been told to prepare briefs on the issues by Monday.

So the witch hunts continue.

This stance is both morally wrong, it's bigotry, creates security problems, because people forced into in the closet are subject to blackmail, and politically stupid, because it demoralizes a large portion of the base less than 2 weeks before the election.

As I have said before, when you are doing something that is so transparently wrong and stupid on so many levels, it isn't because you are interested in process, it's because you really do oppose gay rights.

This is not the actions of someone who wants to, "repeal the law that denies gay and lesbian Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It's the right thing to do." This is the actions of someone who does not believes that gays should serve openly in the military.

We Are Going to See More of This

The Cook County Sheriff has issued a statement that he and his deputies will not enforce foreclosures until he receives documentation from the banks that they have their sh%$ together:

Two of the largest U.S. mortgage servicers have said they will resume home foreclosures, but a big-city sheriff has news for them: he won't enforce their foreclosure evictions.

The sheriff for Cook County, Illinois, which includes the city of Chicago, said on Tuesday he will not enforce foreclosure evictions for Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase and Co. and GMAC Mortgage/Ally Financial until they prove those foreclosures were handled "properly and legally."

While the Cook County Sheriff has been here before, he instituted a moratorium over lack of notifications to renters 2 years ago, but I think that this time, there is a distinct possibility that this will go viral, and that other county sheriffs will follow his lead.

Basically, this is a political winner for almost any incumbent charged with foreclosure service.

The standard disclaimer, that my powers of prediction suck wet farts from dead pigeons, apply.

What the Shrill One Says

Paul Krugman, in discussing the response of the Obama administration to the foreclosure fraud crisis, a go slow and protect the bankster response, notes that it's the same response that they have to every crisis:

As NAME ISSUE HERE has come to light, the Obama administration has resisted calls for a more forceful response, worried that added pressure might spook the banks and hobble the broader economy.

Whether it has been an excuse for inaction, such as financial reform, or the fraud perpetrated on desperate home owners with the HAMP, or the avoidance of the good for the mediocre, as with healthcare the administration seems to have a deep and abiding fear of effective action and good policy, even when it is good politics.

More of This, Please…

The state of Michigan and the Department of Justice have filed an anti-trust suit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:

The Justice Department filed an antitrust suit Monday against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, accusing the giant health insurer of using its market clout to stifle competition and cause consumers covered by other health plans to pay more for hospital care.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit and joined by the state of Michigan, said Blue Cross contracts with at least 70 of the acute care hospitals in the state force them to raise prices and prevent other insurers from competing with them.

Antitrust officials say the provisions likely resulted in Michigan consumers paying higher prices.

Here is hoping that they get nailed to the wall.

OK, This Might Get Interesting

The ACLU has initiated discovery on the Florida foreclosure "Rocket Docket," because they believe that the abbreviated court proceedings might be a violation of homeowners due process rights, because, "Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections."

It certainly appears that these courts are constructed with the specific goal of not doing either due diligence or due process.

Their press release after break

ACLU Seeks Public Records To Determine Constitutionality Of Foreclosure Proceedings In Florida
October 19, 2010

Lack Of Due Process Protections Would Disproportionately Impact Homeowners Of Color

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida today filed public records requests with judicial officials in Florida to determine whether homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated during foreclosure proceedings and being unlawfully removed from their homes.

In Florida, where almost half a million foreclosure cases are pending, the state legislature recently spent over $9 million to create special foreclosure courts, staffed by retired judges, with the intent of speeding through the state's backlog of such cases. But recent media reports in Florida and around the country, which reveal rampant error and fraud in the foreclosure process, have shown that courts should take particular care with foreclosure cases. Instead, in the rush to push foreclosure cases through the courts, Florida may be taking shortcuts and, in the process, forsaking constitutionally-required due process protections.

"It is disturbing that Florida may be implementing less exacting due process protections at a time when widespread flaws in the foreclosure system illustrate the need for increased vigilance and strict procedural safeguards," said Larry Schwartztol, staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. "These records requests aim to shed light on whether recent changes to Florida's handling of foreclosure proceedings are violating the due process rights of homeowners."

Filed with the Office of the State Court Administrator and the chief judges of all 20 of Florida's circuit courts, the requests seek access to, among other things, all documents related to special court systems created to dispose of foreclosure cases and the rules and procedures in place that govern those systems.

Government data show that the foreclosure crisis across the country has disproportionately impacted communities of color. According to a recent report by the Center for Responsible Lending, nearly 8 percent of both African Americans and Latinos have lost their homes to foreclosures, as compared to 4.5 percent of whites. Additionally, the indirect losses in wealth that result from foreclosures as a result of depreciation to nearby properties will also disproportionately impact communities of color. The Center for Responsible Lending report estimates that between 2009 and 2012, the African American and Latino communities will be drained of $194 and $177 billion, respectively, in these indirect "spillover" losses alone.

"Communities of color in Florida and across the country are hit hardest if courts disregard the kinds of protections that are meant to uphold people's basic constitutional rights," said Muslima Lewis, Senior Staff Attorney and Director of the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Florida. "Getting the documents we are requesting will be an important first step toward exposing and addressing any systemic injustices that may exist in the Florida foreclosure court systems."

Copies of the ACLU's public records requests are available online at: www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-seeks-information-about-constitutionality-florida-foreclosure-courts

What a Sick F%$#ing Freak

Right wing activist, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas just called Anita Hill demanding an apology:

Nearly 20 years after Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Justice Thomas’s wife has called Ms. Hill, seeking an apology.

In a voice mail message left at 7:31 a.m. on Oct. 9, a Saturday, Virginia Thomas asked her husband’s former aide-turned-adversary to make amends. Ms. Hill played the recording, from her voice mail at Brandeis University, for The New York Times.

“Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas,” it said. “I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.”

Ms. Thomas went on: “So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.”

Ms. Hill, in an interview, said she had kept the message for nearly a week trying to decide whether the caller really was Ms. Thomas or a prankster. Unsure, she said, she decided to turn it over to the Brandeis campus police with a request to convey it the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Seriously, there is all sorts of pathology here from a woman who is both the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice and an amazingly well funded political activists.

One can only imagine what the Thomas' dinner table conversation is like.

Mortgage Backed Security Holders Stir……A Little…

Institutional investors who purchased mortgage backed securities issued by Countrywide, now Bank of America have sent a demand letter requesting that Bank of America repurchase their mortgages for non-performance.

What makes this a big deal is just who is writing this.

Pacific Investment Management Co. [PIMCO], BlackRock Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are seeking to force Bank of America Corp. to repurchase soured mortgages packaged into $47 billion of bonds by its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit, people familiar with the matter said.

A group of bondholders wrote a letter to Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the debt’s trustee, citing alleged failures by Countrywide to service loans properly, their lawyer said yesterday in a statement that didn’t name the firms. The New York Fed acquired mortgage debt through its 2008 rescues of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.

Bank of America responded that it would, "defend its shareholders," which might make for an interesting conflict between two groups of too big to fail financial institutions.

In either case, it makes Congressional Deus Ex Machina hail Mary play less likely, since the constituencies that normally bribe lobby the House and Senate appear to be fairly evenly divided.

My guess is that this is actually not as big a deal as it sounds.

I agree with Yves Smith, that this is primarily posturing:

• This is not litigation, it's just a nastygram that was release.
• The claim appears to be an extension of a claim against trusts.
• They are claiming that the lack of due diligence was because the former Countrywide is not going after Countrywide, that sold the loan.
• That BoA/Contrywide has been too slow in forclosing. (!?!)

Still, if it prevents Congress from bailing out the banksters, it would be a good thing.^™

The full press release from the bond holders is below the fold:

Institutional Holders of Countrywide-Issued RMBS Issue Notice of Non-Performance Identifying Alleged Failures by Master Servicer to Perform Covenants and Agreements in More Than $47 Billion of Countrywide-Issued RMBS

Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ --Today, the holders of over 25% of the Voting Rights in more than $47 billion of Countrywide-issued RMBS sent a Notice of Non-Performance (Notice) to Countrywide Home Loan Servicing, as Master Servicer ("Countrywide Servicing"), and to Bank of New York, as Trustee, identifying specific covenants in 115 Pooling and Servicing Agreements (PSAs) that the Holders allege Countrywide Servicing has failed to perform.

The Holders' Notice alleges that each of these failures has materially affected the rights of the Certificateholders under the relevant PSAs. Under Section 7.01 of the PSAs, if any of the cited failures "continues unremedied for a period of 60 days after the date on which written notice of such failure has been given ... to the Master Servicer and the Trustee by the Holders of Certificates evidencing not less than 25% of the Voting Rights evidenced by the Certificates," that failure constitutes an Event of Default under the PSAs.

In a previous release, the Holders emphasized their intent to invoke all contractual remedies available to them to recover their losses and to protect their rights. Kathy Patrick of Gibbs & Bruns LLP, lead counsel for the Holders, emphasized that the Holders' notice does not seek to halt loan modifications for troubled borrowers. Instead, it urges the Trustee to enforce Countrywide Servicing's obligations to service loans prudently by maintaining accurate loan records, demanding the repurchase of loans that were originated in violation of underwriting guidelines, and compelling the sellers of ineligible or predatory mortgages to bear the costs of modifying them for homeowners or repurchasing them from the Trusts' collateral pools.

Patrick also noted that the group of Holders that tendered today's Notice of Non-Performance is larger, and encompasses more Countrywide-issued RMBS deals, than were included in the August 20 instruction letter. When asked why the group of holders was larger, Patrick replied, "Ours is a large, determined, and cohesive group of bondholders. We have a clearly defined strategy. We plan to vigorously pursue this initiative to enforce Holders' rights."

The Notice of Non-Performance, which is the first step in the process of declaring an Event of Default, was issued on behalf of Holders in the following Countrywide-issued RMBS:

Deal Name		Deal Name	Deal Name
CWALT 2004-32CB		CWHL 2004-22		CWL 2006-15
CWALT 2004-6CB		CWHL 2004-25		CWL 2006-16
CWALT 2004-J1		CWHL 2004-29		CWL 2006-19
CWALT 2005-14		CWHL 2004-HYB9		CWL 2006-2
CWALT 2005-21CB		CWHL 2005-11		CWL 2006-20
CWALT 2005-24		CWHL 2005-14		CWL 2006-22
CWALT 2005-32T1		CWHL 2005-18		CWL 2006-24
CWALT 2005-35CB		CWHL 2005-19		CWL 2006-25
CWALT 2005-36		CWHL 2005-2		CWL 2006-26
CWALT 2005-44		CWHL 2005-3		CWL 2006-3
CWALT 2005-45		CWHL 2005-30		CWL 2006-5
CWALT 2005-56		CWHL 2005-9		CWL 2006-7
CWALT 2005-57		CB CWHL 2005-HYB3		CWL 2006-9
CWALT 2005-64		CB CWHL 2005-HYB9		CWL 2006-BC2
CWALT 2005-72		CWHL 2005-R3		CWL 2006-BC3
CWALT 2005-73CB		CWHL 2006-9		CWL 2006-BC4
CWALT 2005-74T1		CWHL 2006-HYB2		CWL 2006-BC5
CWALT 2005-81		CWHL 2006-HYB5		CWL 2006-SD1
CWALT 2005-AR1		CWHL 2006-J2		CWL 2006-SD3
CWALT 2005-J5		CWHL 2006-OA5		CWL 2006-SD4
CWALT 2005-J9		CWHL 2006-R2		CWL 2006-SPS2
CWALT 2006-14CB		CWHL 2007-12		CWL 2007-2
CWALT 2006-20CB		CWHL 2007-16		CWL 2007-5
CWALT 2006-37R		CWHL 2008-3R		CWL 2007-6
CWALT 2006-41CB		CWL 2005-10		CWL 2007-7
CWALT 2006-HY12		CWL 2005-11		CWL 2007-9
CWALT 2006-OA11		CWL 2005-13		CWL 2007-BC1
CWALT 2006-OA16		CWL 2005-16		CWL 2007-BC2
CWALT 2006-OA17		CWL 2005-2		CWL 2007-BC3
CWALT 2006-OA6		CWL 2005-4		CWL 2007-QH1
CWALT 2006-OA9		CWL 2005-5		CWL 2007-S3
CWALT 2006-OC10		CWL 2005-6
CWALT 2006-OC2		CWL 2005-7
CWALT 2006-OC4		CWL 2005-8
CWALT 2006-OC5		CWL 2005-9
CWALT 2006-OC6		CWL 2005-AB2
CWALT 2006-OC7		CWL 2005-AB3
CWALT 2007-17CB		CWL 2005-AB4
CWALT 2007-23CB		CWL 2005-BC5
CWALT 2007-24		CWL 2005-IM1
CWALT 2007-OA7		CWL 2006-10
CWALT 2008-2R		CWL 2006-12

SOURCE Gibbs & Bruns, LLP

DADT Injunction Stands (for now)

In response to the government's request that she stay her injunction against Don't Ask Don't Tell, Federal Judge Virginia Phillips has refused a stay:

A federal judge formally refused on Tuesday to let the Pentagon reinstate its ban on openly gay men and women in the U.S. military while it appeals her decision declaring its "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional.

A day after tentatively siding against the Obama administration, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips issued a written decision denying a government request to lift her own injunction barring further Pentagon enforcement of the ban.

Needless to say the Obama Administration will attempt to have the injunction stayed on appeal, taking it first to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then to the Supreme Court, and they will do so on an expedited basis.

Because the Obama administration is desparate for the witch hunts in the military to proceed without pause.

Even if they feel that they have a constitutional duty to fight the case, this injunction will not, according to Barack Obama's own words, he does not believe will do any damage to the military.

The only reasons to pursue this are cowardice and bigotry, and at this point, I am inclined to favor the latter as an explanation, because at this point, with two weeks to go in the election, the all the gay baiting that is going to be done has been done.

Realistically, when you look at administrations inaction on these matters, combined with Obamas public statements opposing gay marriage, I think that we have to believe that this is motivated by bigotry.

The Funniest Military Video Ever

It starts with a survey of the concepts, but at about 2:20, it gets hysterically funny.



H/t Juha Boren for the tip.

Surprise, the Pentagon Lied Again

This time, it was not that the wedding party that they bombed was a terrorist base camp. This time, we get the updated report, and it is determined that the DoD found no compromise of its intelligence capabilities from the Wikileaks documents dump:

The unauthorized release of tens of thousands of classified U.S. military records from the war in Afghanistan last July on the Wikileaks website did not result in the disclosure of sensitive intelligence sources, according to a mid-August assessment by the Department of Defense that has just been made public.

“The review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised by this disclosure,” wrote Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates in an August 16 letter (pdf) to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin.

We get lied into a war. We get lied to during the war. We have a war on whistle blowers who reveal the lies.

Without accurate information, the public can never weigh in in the policies of its government, and this is a very bad thing.

Here is a Big Surprise

The astroturf group Concerned Taxpayers of America represents just two of said taxpayers:

A few weeks ago, a group called Concerned Taxpayers of America emerged out of nowhere and started to spend large sums of money attacking Rep. Peter DeFazio (D) in his re-election bid in Oregon. At the time, both DeFazio and his opponent, Tea Party favorite Art Robinson, claimed complete ignorance of the group, and DeFazio even tracked it to a townhouse in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington to demand that the group identify itself — but to no avail.

Friday’s FEC filings, however, finally reveal that the Concerned Taxpayers of America consists of exactly two concerned taxpayers:

………

This sh%$ really needs to stop.

Because No Matter How Bad it is for the United States, It is Good for the Bankers

Timothy Geithner has reiterated his support for Bob Rubin's strong dollar policy:

"It is very important for people to understand that the United States of America and no country around the world can devalue its way to prosperity, to (be) competitive," Geithner added. "It is not a viable, feasible strategy and we will not engage in it."

Answering audience questions before the Commonwealth Club of California in Palo Alto, he said the United States needed to "work hard to preserve confidence in the strong dollar."

The dollar is overvalued, particularly with regard to the Chinese Yuan, and it has been for years.

It's been overvalued, because it makes the US position as a reserve currency more secure, which means more people paying American bankers to hold their money, even as it increases exports and decreases imports, harming the rest of the country.

Once again, when Timothy Geithner has to choose between the country and the banks, he chooses the banks.

This Explains a Lot

Many years ago, Yves Smith worked for Goldman Sachs, AKA the Vampire Squid,^* and she said that Goldman Sachs is actually a cult:

As important, Goldman is a cult. I say that as a former employee, based not just on my experience a very long time ago (boy, am I getting old, more than 25 years ago) but also on reports I get from recruits and what I can infer from press reports. If anything the firm has become more inward looking over the years

The people there honestly believe that working for Goldman is the most elevated calling (Blankfein’s bizarre-sounding “Doing God’s work” remark no doubt resonated within the firm) and doing anything else is a fall from grace. Seriously. People who exit Goldman typically take a year or two to get over it the deeply-inculcated belief that departure = failure (this isn’t my own response; I’ve had a number of men volunteer that to me). Similarly, the first person I met at Goldman, which was through personal contacts, made it clear he was blocked in her career (his boss was too close to her in age) said he couldn’t possibly work for another firm. It wasn’t that he had assessed the tradeoffs and decided on balance it was still better to stay; he literally recoiled on a psychological level from the idea of departing. That sort of deep indoctrination was not at all unusual.

And people who had managed not to imbibe the Kool Aid were viewed with some suspicion. I left as a pretty junior person; the only reason I was remembered was a woman in investment banking in the early 1980s was an unusual commodity. Someone who checked out my reputation years after my departure said the party line on me was “She could have made partner, but we would have had to break her.”

(emphasis mine)

I kind of thought that it was just ordinary greed, but this revelation says a lot.

In the United States these days, we tend to try to describe everything in terms of profit and loss, with greed as a motivator.

But profit and loss do not describe anything. If they did, then the Randroid nut jobs out there would be right, and discrimination would have ended, because it interferes with the most efficient flow of commerce.

Goldman Sachs is a cult, and really do believe that they are doing God's work.

This is so f%$#ing creepy.

^*Alas, I cannot claim credit for the bon mot describing Goldman Sachs as a, "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." This was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.

This Election is Getting Weird

First, Joe Miller says that the Berlin Wall is a good thing, and now he has his own merry band of Brownshirts

So, it appears that Alaska Republican Senate nominee has hired hired goons to harass the press in order to prevent them from asking him questions, and they just assaulted and handcuffed a journalist:

The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was arrested by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.

Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by the guards and detained in a hallway at Central Middle School until Anchorage police came and told the guards to release Hopfinger.

I keep expecting this crowd to burst into Tomorrow Belongs to Me.

Christine O'Donnell may be the sane one of this lot.

Our political culture is broken in some very profound ways, and I have no clue as to how to fix it.

Deep Thought

H/t The Big Picture.
cartoon

Wasp

Here is the windup


And here is the unforced error

For those of you who don't know, Wasp is a book by Eric Frank Russell. It's conceit is that a man is sent to infiltrate and subvert a planet held by the enemy.

Rather than conventional methods of espionage, like sabotage, the goal of the agents is to engender over-reactions from the authorities which would have them weakening themselves, much like a driver distracted by a wasp can kill himself and his passengers by driving into a bridge abutment.

Well, in the Kentucky Senate Race, Democrat Jack Conway ran an ad against Randroid nut job Republican Rand Paul bringing up his involvement in an anti-religious group at Baylor, and his frat hazing style "kidnapping" of a coed who he made to bow down to the "Aqua Buddha."

I cannot claim to have a deep understanding of the politics, or the religiosity, of Kentucky, so I cannot speak to the direct effects of the advertisement (1^st video), but I can speak to the secondary effects of the ad (2^nd video) and it ain't pretty.

Rand Paul is acting like a complete bitch, and his bit at the end where he huffily declares that he won't shake hands at the end of the debate.

I'm with Theda Skocpol on the nervous Nellies who are wringing their hands over this:

One reason that Dems do not seem to be able to play hardball -- in a viciously hardball political world -- is that Dems often lack conviction or the will to be eloquently honest (for example, on taxes). But an equal problem is that when someone does play hardball, the rest of the prissy liberal Mugwumps tut-tut them about it.

The professional losing class can go Cheney themselves.

Honestly, I don't care about Rand Paul's religion. My guess is that his protestations of religion are a less than honest, since his idol Ayn Rand loathed religion, but politically, the important bit of electoral politics here here is that Rand Paul seriously lost his sh%$ on camera, and that was the real success of this ad.

BTW, if you wanted to use a cinematic reference rather than a literary reference, I would suggest that Jack Conway just Gaslighted Rand Paul.

Is the USAF F%$#ing Nuts?

Click for full size

---

Lockheed's Concept


Lockheed's "Secret Sauce", an ejector/blown flap lift augmentation system


Boeing's concept uses the Coanda effect in upper surface blowing like its YC-14


A tailless design for a transport, what the f%$# are they smoking


How stealthy will anything be with debris regularly cutting grooves in the skin?

If they are serious about their proposal for a stealthy transport roughly the size of a C-130, the answer is yes.

It's entirely possible to design a STOL aircraft of C-130 or A-400M size that can cruise at conventional jet transport speeds, i.e. more than Mach 0.7 and take off or land in less then 200 feet.

In fact, the A400M comes awfully close to meeting those requirements right now cruising at almost Mach 0.7 with a takeoff and landing distance of about 2500 feet.

That being said, the idea that you want to do all of this, and then triple (at least) the lifetime costs of the airframe by making it stealthy is simply deluded.

While reducing the vulnerability of cargo aircraft to shoulder launched MANPADS is a good idea, experience has shown that the threats are primarily that and small arms fire, the idea that you need to create a reduced radar cross section, as appears to be the case with all (the tailless design is a Northrop-Grumman concept) is really bizarre.

If the enemy has air-superiority in the region, you are simply f%$#ed, and if they are in a position to have radar guided SAMs near your bases, you are, again, simply f%$#ed.

I'm with what Bill Sweetman wrote in the comments:

Everyone, but everyone, writing future airlift requirements for the USAF and US Army is secretly working for Airbus Military. Other than the massive abuse of chemicals there is no alternative explanation for this malarkey.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!?!?

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Administrative Law Judge George Painter is retiring, and he has filed a formal complaint of bias against his fellow judge, Bruce Levine:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Administrative Law Judge George H. Painter made serious allegations regarding fellow CFTC judge Bruce Levine in announcing his retirement.

In a notice sent to complainants and their attorneys, Judge Painter claims that Levine told him that he had promised former CFTC Chair Wendy Gramm “that he would never rule in a complainants favor”. Painter’s notice goes on to say, “A review of his rulings will confirm that he has fulfilled his vow.”

He is invoking 5CFR§930.208, Administrative Law Judge Loan Program--detail to other agencies to request that his remaining cases be assigned to someone, anyone, else, because Levine is the only other administrative law judge at the CFTC.

You can find the PDF of his complaint, along with a copy of an old WSJ article which details a long history of Mr. Levine's wrong-doing, like ex-parte contact with litigants, here.

It would have been nice if someone had ratted out this rat years ago.

H/t Streetwise Professor

And Sarah Laughed*

The first woman scribed Torah written in modern times has been completed. At the siyum (completion ceremony), my brother sounded the shofar.

Cool.

^*Parshas Vayera in Genesis: ⁹ They said to him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" And he replied, "There, in the tent." ¹⁰ Then one said, "I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son!" Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah had stopped having the periods of women. ¹² And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old?" ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?' ¹⁴ Is anything too wondrous for the Lord? I will return to you at the time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."

I've Never Called Him Stupid, But Now I Will…

Because Barack Obama just met with Condoleeza Rice to discuss foreign policy:

US President Barack Obama met Friday at the White House with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice for a chat on foreign policy and her new memoir, officials said.

What's next, meeting with Mary Mallon^* to discuss food hygiene?

Discussing haute cuisine, or for that matter how to win a World Cup, with the British?

Seriously, the idea that you are going to have a friendly chat about foreign policy with the worst Secretary of State of all time, who served the worst President of all time, because ……… Hell, I cannot fathom a possible reason for doing this.

What is going on here is a demonstration of either mind-boggling idiocy, or a truly nasty bit of psychological pathology that requires one to get approval from everyone.

^*Typhoid Mary.

Bad Ideas Revisited

The Royal Navy has a problem, which is that with a typical weapons load in a tropical environment, the F-35B STOVL variant of the JSF cannot land without jettisoning some of its (very expensive) stores.

Their solution is the Shipboard Rolling Vertical Landing, for which the Royal Navy has just paid Lockheed $18 million for a viability study, in which the F-35 will land on a carrier deck in a combined wing borne and thrust borne mode, at about 60 kts airspeed without benefit of arrester gear.

So, you have an aircraft weighing something north of 35,000 pounds, which is going to hit the deck at 60+ kts, though the relative speed will likely be closer to 30 kts, and it will then be manually braked to a stop.

What a bloody mess.

Yeah, Like This Name is Accidental

European missile conglomerate MDBA has announced a successful test of its, "Hard and Deeply Buried Target (HARDBUT) Next Generation Multiple Warhead System (NGMWS).

It appears to be rather different in concept from the penetrators developed by the US, which use mass, metallurgy (ES-1 Steel), and specialized geometry to achieve a target kill. Hardbut appears to rely on a tandem warhead to achieve its goals:

The firing was carried out using a representative missile airframe on the long rocket sled test track at Biscarrosse. The live Precursor Charge (PC) was detonated just in front of the massive concrete target and the inert Follow-Through Bomb (FTB) penetrated through and exited the rear face of the target, demonstrating a penetration capability significantly in excess of any warhead currently produced by MBDA. The trial was also designed to assess the robustness of the compact Ruggedized Electronic In-line Fuze (REIF) which will incorporate embedded smart fuzing algorithms. The target and trial set-up were designed to be operationally representative.

(emphasis mine)

So it appears to me that there is a (probably shaped) charge, with a penetrator that follows behind.

H/t Danger Room.

Factoid of the Day

I would not have known, but when you think about it, it's not surprising that over their history, banks have been a money losing enterprise:

He duly notes the key role banks had in the financial collapse and cites "one amazing statistic," namely that "in the aggregate, banks have never made money over time." Instead, "like the airlines, banks historically have seemingly made money hand over fist during good times, but they give it all back when the cycle turns."

But he asks, "How many bankers suffer the same fate when it comes to their own personal financial affairs?" And the answer to that question, Dennis believes, was a major factor in setting the stage for the encompassing financial crisis we've recently suffered through.

The problem is that while banks have not made money over their history, bankers have, because, when the going gets tough, they get to keep their enormous paychecks of the go-go years.

If we did something simple, like saying that remuneration to officers and executives in excess of $400,000.00 a year, the President's salary, would be subject to claims against the company which paid them for 5 years, and then partially subject to claims against a company for the next 10 years, we would find a lot more honesty and probity in the financial industry.

I Hope that He is Wrong, But I Fear that He is Right

John Carney at CNBC says that Congress will make the illegal actions of banks retroactively legal in the lame duck session:

The put-back crisis is not driven by economics. It is driven by legal rights. And there’s simply zero probability that the politicians in Washington are going to let Bank of America or Citigroup or JP Morgan Chase fail because of a legal issue.

So here’s what I expect will happen. The lame duck session of Congress will pass a bill that essentially papers over the misdeeds of the banks that originated mortgage securities. Every member of Congress and every Senator who has been voted out of office will cast a vote for the bill. And the President will sign it.

He is suggesting that you buy stock in Bank of America, because when Congress does this, the stock will rebound.

He's right, the bankers own our government.

It's Bank Failure Friday!!!! (late again)

And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

130. Security Savings Bank, F.S.B., Olathe, KS
     
131. WestBridge Bank and Trust Company, Chesterfield, MO
     
132. Premier Bank, Jefferson City, MO
     

Full FDIC list

3 this week, which appears to be more or less on trend, which is a bit over 3, see graph.

My guess is that the final that the final number will be in the 150-160 range, though prognostic record is rather spotty.

So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):



I would note that are now at the point where the utility of the least squares trendline is diminishing, but I'm keeping it here for historical purposes.

Here is Some Sanity in Defense Procurement

The successor to the over-ambitious Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicle (FCS-MGV)^* the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) has now dropped many of the technologies intended for the FCS-MGV, because, even now, 2 years after the cancellation of the program, the programs are still insufficiently mature to be deployed on a combat system:

In an effort to make use of the billions of dollars it invested in the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, the U.S. Army may have required too many immature technologies in its first Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Request for Proposals, according to the Army's vice chief.

"We wanted to look and ensure that we made use of the investment in FCS and that we had the ability to use those technologies," Gen. Peter Chiarelli told reporters at a Sept. 22 lunch in Washington.

However, if you want a vehicle in seven years, "you can't be reaching deep for technologies right now," he said.

………

According to Chiarelli, FCS was canceled in a way so that the Army could still make use of the research and development work done under the program.

"We wanted to ensure that those technologies that we worked so hard to develop could be integrated in to a new ground combat vehicle," he said.

However, "there were a lot of those technologies that aren't at a technology readiness level today where we could integrate them in seven years."

(emphasis mine)

It boggles the mind that the technologies, "aren't at a technology readiness level," when the original intent was to begin fielding the FCS in 2008.

So the technologies in question won't be ready 9 years after they were supposed to be fielded.

Our defense procurement system is seriously broken.

^*Full disclosure, I worked on the Future Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, FRMV, "wrecker" variant of the FCS-MGV^† from 2003-2006 at United Defense (later BAE Systems after the Carlyle Group sold me to buy Dunkin Donuts).
^†Future Combat Systems-Manned Ground Vehicle. These are the ones that are the tanks and APCs. As opposed to the various unnmanned vehicles, networking technologies, etc. that form the full FCS along with the MGVs.^‡
‡Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can't hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as "technical hit man", where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.

Your Friday of Muppets

Popcorn!

The Beer Diet

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (The Good Kind)

Is an odd data point.

Notwithstanding the poling showing an enthusiasm gap, Democrats are casting their ballot through early voting in greater numbers than Republicans:

But something special is going on in two Ohio Democratic strongholds: Cuyahoga and Franklin counties. I track on this handy web page that other places around the country -- including other Ohio counties -- are so far reporting low single digit early voting rates. In stark contrast, over 112,000 votes have already been cast in these two Ohio counties. As a comparison, this represents over ten percent of all ballots cast in the 2006 election in these counties, with still some time to go.

…

Something is afoot in Iowa. Not only have nearly 120,000 voters already cast their ballot, registered Democrats are returning their mail ballots at a higher rate than Republicans in nearly every Iowa county. This, in part, explains the approximately 5:3 partisan registration advantage Democrats have over Republicans among mail ballots returned so far in the Hawkeye state.

I still see the glass empty, and I stand by my analysis that, win or lose, the Dems don't deserve to win, but this is heartening.

QOTD

I think too often many of us have tried to come up with elaborate financial/economic rationalizations for why the banksters have approached all of this the way they have. The simpler explanation is that they're sociopathic assholes who think that everyone else must suffer for their mistakes.

—Duncan Black

And yes, my prior post segues very nicely into this.

Not Enough Bullets

From an attitude on Wall Street's attitude about foreclosure fraud:

“The first thing that needs to happen, I think, is to get these people out of their homes,” a man wearing a bespoke blue-striped shirt, a Hermés tie patterned with elephants and Ferragamo loafers said recently. “Correct! I’ll explain,” the veteran member of a bank restructuring and advisory team said.

H/t Paul Krugman.

My 2012 Endorsement

I have no connection whatsoever to whoever is printing this shirt.