Akkam’s Razor

I’m sure the nativist and xenophobes are quite upset at the loss of American icon Anheuser-Busch to InBev, but fail to notice the contribution of Conservative monetary and fiscal policy - the Belgians were able to purchase AB for 52 billion EUR.  Based on current exchange rates and the weakened dollar, the 52 billion EUR equates to purchasing power equivalent to $82 billion USD.  That’s the equivalent of a 37% discount.  After accounting for the share premium paid to AB (22%), that is still a currency advantage of 15%.

Popularity: 1% [?]

It goes without saying that given the stream of news through this weekend through Monday (Fannie Mae, Fannie Mac, IndyMac, and National City), the most popular post on Akkam’s Razor is this one, detailing my findings in search for the FDIC’s bad bank list.

bankrun, banks, business, CAMELS, economics, Election 2008, fannie mac, fannie mae, FDIC, finance, government, indymac, moral hazard, national city, news, politics, UBPR

Popularity: 1% [?]

Can’t help but wonder why Pat Meehan’s sudden resignation, news that Vince Fumo isn’t resigning, and yet more alleged shenanigans regarding Curt Weldon have all crossed through my feed reader today?  Maybe there’s some meat to allegations of political prosecution at the urging of the Bush White House?  You may recall that the FBI had to run the investigation against Weldon as the Delco GOP (and Meehan) had no interest in investigating their own, having focused their attention on Philadelphia Democrats (rightfully so).   Or is the former Arlen Specter aide (or his sidekick) planning on running against Joe Sestak?

Update: As expected, the Democrats caved, including local Representatives Pat Murphy and Joe Sestak.  The roll call in the House can be found here, and the Senates tally forthcoming.

In the spring of 1987,  the year of the 200th anniversary of the first Constitutional Convention, President Ronald Reagan began calling for another.  Reagan had been frustrated by Congress’ failure to brovide him with a Balanced Budget Ammendment.  Reagan’s solution was to call for a new Constitutional Convention, as described (but never tested) in Article V of the Constitution, where each state would get delegates to propose a balanced budget ammendment, and then pass it on to the individual state legislatures for approval.  Reagan succeeded in getting agreement from 32 of the required 2/3 of the States, but was eventually blocked by an unlikely coalition of Constitutional defenders, fearful of the seismic changes [pdf] regarding preemptive federalism and the erosion of states’ rights.

Cryptome has scanned images and transcriptions from various sources referring to John McCain from the CIA’s reading room. It really tells an interesting tale, one that may not be about John McCain the Presidential candidate or Senator, but rather John McCain, the hopes of what could have been and his own vision of what he was.

On why he flew 50 times more hours to qualify as a jet fighter pilot:

McCain: When I finished [the US and Spanish Naval Academies] I had two choices: to be naval officer or a pilot…I chose to be pilot. I had to study another year and a half and I graduated in 1958. I trained intensively. I flew many hours in training to become a jet pilot.”

Mark Nickolas has posted that Hillary needs to run for President of Appalachia, confirmed by her strong performance last night in West Virginia. It is tempting to disregard this electoral preference on surface faultline demography like race, age, poorest, or education, but Josh Marshall at TPM hints at something more.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Any voter who is demographically reflective-of or self-identifies as a Reagan-Democrat (coined by political consultant and Hillary pollster Stan Greenberg) will be referred to as a Bush-Democrat.  Although they are many, they must be constantly reminded of their legacy in perpetrating the Revisionist Reagan haigiography, and of the failure of their particular brand of conservatism.  If these Bush Democrats (or as Pat Buchanan rightfully observes, Hillary Democrats) decide to vote against their own economic self-interests and switch to McSame, let them reap the ‘rewards’.

Popularity: 1% [?]

You'll probably encounter this article by Clive James in Slate all across the interwebs today, accompanied by shrieking cries of "fascist", "wingnut" and "moonbat", and appeals to Godwin.

Take a few minutes and read this, and think long and hard about where we are, where we're going, and where we're likely to end up.

Popularity: 17% [?]

The most important story that most people know nothing about is the Scooter Libby perjury trial.  This trial delivers - Freedom of the Press, Undercover Spying, WMD, Iran, Iraq, the cozy and manipulative relationship the Bush White House has with the Press, bloggers…and well, everything, including possibly the kitchen sink.

The grand jury from whom these charges sprung was charged with determining if a crime had been committed by the disclosure of the name of an undercover CIA operative doing WMD research against Iran and Iraq in an attempt to smear her husband, war critic of former Ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson, in response to an OpEd he wrote asserting that Iraq never made an attempt to acquire "yellowcake uranium" as mentioned by the President in his notorious SOTU address regarding the "16-words".

The subpeona list was literally a who's who of the government and press, and in the end, the machinations and statements of Scooter Libby, and their contrast with "the truth", ended in perjury charges for "Irving".

But the nagging question remains - is Patrick Fitzgerald, Republican US Attorney from Chicago, Roman Catholic, Jesuit Educated, "relentless" prosecutor done?  Not based on this statement, as recapped at Rawstory, from his rebuttal of the defense closing argument:

While rebutting the closing argument by the defense at I. Lewis Libby's trial, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spoke of a "dark cloud over the White House," due to the alleged obstruction of justice by the former White House aide. At the Washington Post's website, columnist Dan Froomkin points out that for the first time, as many have speculated, the prosecutor wasn't just accusing Libby, he was also referring to "them."

According to Froomkin, Fitzgerald "at long last made it quite clear that the depth of Vice President Cheney's role in the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative is one of the central mysteries that Libby's alleged lies prevented investigators from resolving."

"There is a cloud over the vice president . . . And that cloud remains because this defendant obstructed justice," Fitzgerald said. "There is a cloud over the White House. Don't you think the FBI and the grand jury and the American people are entitled to straight answers?"  More…

Popularity: 27% [?]

I saw this story on the Onion a couple of days ago…

Funny stuff, huh?  Then I saw this one, NOT from the Onion (it's from USNews)…

With President Bush unable to get much traction so far in moving his agenda through Congress or in improving his job-approval ratings with the public, White House advisers are casting about for ways to jump-start his final two years, including issuing executive orders to get things done without having to ask for support from the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Popularity: 32% [?]