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This post is in: Excellent Links
If you read weblogs, please help two researchers with their work by clicking on this link and filling out some questions.
Thank you in advance.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
Today was Tunch’s one year birthday, so I went to the pound and rescued another cat so that he would have a play friend. I now have two one year old cats, and I will not be in the market for another one anytime soon.
Things went relatively smoothly when I introduced the two- there was a lot of tension, some high pitched yelling, and hair everywhere- but enough about me. Tunch and Oliver (and no, I did not name him after Oliver North- when I saw him at the pound he just looked like an Oliver to me- and that seems to be as good a way to name a pet as any other, so it stuck) seemed to hate each other at first, then after a few hours their behavior turned into a sort of almost French indifference (“Yes- I see the stinking cat. What about it? He does not bother me. Give me a Pounce treat. You bore me, human.”)
After ten hours together, I am now John, the human Jungle Gym. The couch is now kitty high hurdles. I don’t know where my cell phone, my keys, any of my pens, or the remote controls are hidden. In other words, I am now servant to two masters. I will post some pictures when I borrow my friend’s digital camera.
by John Cole| 16 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
This is great news:
An Iraqi lawyer who helped the U.S. military find and rescue Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was held prisoner in a hospital in Iraq, has been granted asylum in the United States, officials said on Tuesday.
They said the lawyer, his wife and their daughter were granted asylum in Arlington, Virginia on Monday. Further details were expected to be announced by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge during a speech later on Tuesday.
I know some may think that Muhammed is nothing more than an Iraqi Uncle Tom and a craven opportunist, but hey- how many people, given the opportunity, do the right thing? That counts for something in my book. I want more people like Muhammed in the United States.
by John Cole| 5 Comments
This post is in: Outrage
Why do people sometimes distrust big business? Try this on for size:
Citigroup’s Salomon Smith Barney unit was first among the worst, according to Monday’s settlement between regulators and 10 investment banks. To settle charges stemming from allegations that it slanted research to support a voracious appetite for investment banking fees, Citigroup agreed to pay $400 million, the largest fine among those involved.
All together now: FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. When the fine is that high, it means they can’t even begin to estimate how often they screwed you and me and for how much. Here is how they did it:
Hundreds of documents obtained by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer paint a picture of a firm that perverted the stock analyst role from researcher to booster for its investment bankers. Regulators allege that Jack Grubman, who helped his firm win about $790 million in banking fees, issued “fraudulent” reports on two clients, Focal and Metromedia Fiber Networks. On Feb. 1, 2001, Grubman issued a buy recommendation on Focal, but in an e-mail to an institutional investor he admitted Focal was overpriced. Regulators also alleged that Grubman upgraded his opinion of AT&T without disclosing a conflict: In return for the positive opinion, Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill made a $1 million contribution to an exclusive preschool in Manhattan, ensuring that Grubman’s two children could go there.
Why aren’t these bastards in jail? What exactly does the SEC do when it takes a grandstanding NY Attorney General to make this shake out? Is this Grubman related to the punk who rank over all those people at a trendy vacation spot?
And don’t forget this little tidbit:
Three weeks ago, Citigroup renamed the tainted Smith Barney unit Citigroup Global Markets.
File this under things we need to remember:
Citigroup Global Markets is the corrupt Saloman Smith Barney.
Someone should make a banner.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
I forgot to blog about this when I read it (I took the weekend off), but also via Yglesias is this Matt Welch article, which is a must read. However, it contains one paragraph that I object to:
For all its pretensions, obstructionism and internal problems, France remains one of the leading democracies in the world. The notion that such a country should be “punished” over an honest disagreement in foreign policy is paternalistic, petty and likely to encourage the very behaviour it aims to rebuke.
No one is suggesting ‘punishing’ the French merely because they are obnoxious and obstructionist, have better wine (and whine), are pretentious, or even because they look down on Americans. What we are suggesting is that they should be made to deal with the sort of vile behavior regarding the corrupt and evil Hussein regime- information that is coming to light every day (via BOTW):
British journalists combing through documents in Iraq’s foreign ministry are unearthing substantial evidence of Paris’s perfidy. “France gave Saddam Hussein’s regime regular reports on its dealings with American officials,” reports London’s Sunday Times. “The information, said in the files to have come partly from ‘friends of Iraq’ at the French foreign ministry, kept Saddam abreast of every development in American planning and may have helped him to prepare for war.” Maybe there was something to that joke about the French teaching the Iraqis to surrender.
One of the documents includes “an account of a meeting between Hubert Vedrine, the former Socialist foreign minister of France, and [Colin Powell].” Another states: “According to French information, a discussion about Iraq is going on in Washington between Colin Powell and the Zionist Wolfowitz. Powell was against a military attack on Iraq whereas Wolfowitz was in favor of a strong military operation against Iraq.”
There is so much more, but I am too lazy to catalog it. Besides, even put together in one big portfolio, the anti-war left will still not see it as a problem- it is just a reaction to the unilateralist cowboy Bush. In other words, why waste my time- those of you without blinders on know what the French have done and are doing. Remember- for the French, it’s all about the oil.
This post is in: Humorous
This post is in: Excellent Links