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There’s no success like failure

Monday, April 4, 2011

From the Department of You Couldn’t Make This Up:

Transocean Ltd. gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the “best year in safety performance in our company’s history” – despite the explosion of its oil rig that killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s truly a pity that the folks who run the Fukushima power plant aren’t Americans. They’d be in line for the biggest safety bonus of all time. After all, as with the Transocean folks, and in the immortal words of Alan Greenspan, with one “notable exception” their plant had a stellar safety record. And they’ve got the Transocean folks beat to a pulp in the competition for the magnitude of the notable exception. Transocean killed a mere 11 people plus a Gulf, while the Fukushima people have a shot at thousands of lives plus a huge swath of an ocean.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the Japanese have learned all of the lessons we here in America have to teach. They might still think that not everything a corporate executive does is tinged with genius. We’ve learned differently here. If you can take down an economy, or a large body of water, you deserve every penny you can steal. If you teach our kids for a living, on the other hand, you’re just scum.

Update: A right wing (this knowledge gained from previous comments from the same source) commentator points out that Transocean is a Swiss company. I invite him to peruse the bios of the management team here. True, some of them are from Socialist Europe, but judging by their educational backgrounds, most of them are true home grown Americans (including the richly compensated Mr. Newman), with a large percentage from Texas, the source of so much that is wrong with this country.


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Friday Night Music

Friday, April 1, 2011

A few weeks ago I taped a PBS Special In Performance at the White House, which honored the Motown Sound. I highly recommend it. I had a little trouble watching one of the Jonas Brothers singing Can’t Help Myself, but the rest of it was pretty good. Part of the fun was watching the audience, many of whom couldn’t stop themselves from singing along.

So I went looking for great Motown songs (the White House clips aren’t on youtube, but I think you can still watch the show on the PBS website), and I found this clip of Marvin Gaye doing I Heard it Through the Grapevine in Montreal.

Definitely one of the greatest songs of all time.


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New York Times parodies itself

Friday, April 1, 2011

I have, on occasion, noted that there appears to be a slight disparity in the way in which our media, including the “liberal” New York Times, reports on rallies held by right wingers as opposed to those held by left wingers. So long as two or more gather in the tea party’s name, the event is covered, while thousands of people braving the snow in Wisconsin merit barely a word.

Yesterday, the “tea party”, the world’s greatest astroturf organization, “rallied” at the National Capitol, and the Times covered it straight:

Outside the Capitol on a cold, damp afternoon, Tea Party activists from around the country warned that they would not accept less than a $100 billion cut from this year’s budget, and that there could be election consequences for those who did not heed their call.

Were they from around the country? No evidence is cited? Was it a rally? Well, if a ragtag group of perhaps 200 people qualifies as a rally, given the venue, then it was a rally. Would a group of 200 people demanding government spending on education have gotten this kind of press? Would they have been favored with one close cropped photo designed to mislead the casual observer into thinking there was a crowd, never mind the two misleading photos the tea party “rally” got?

Now, if you read deep into the article, you finally do find that even the Times finally gets around to estimate that this “crowd”, which Mitch McConnell claimed “sent a powerful message to Washington” consisted of no more than 300 people, including counter demonstrators and, most likely, the legions of the press that are attracted to tea party rallies like flies to dog shit.

It was, by any rationale standard but one, a total failure. It succeeded only because the media feels compelled to treat this political fraud seriously.


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The Day goes to bat for a misunderstood union buster

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Today the Day joins the anti-union push, and in its usual somewhat muddled fashion, helps push the meme that the only thing standing between America and prosperity is unions, and please to ignore those corporations sitting on piles of cash they won’t even share with their shareholders. We are treated to a sympathetic portrayal of Nick Griseto, who recently purchased the Bradford Dyeing Association in the Bradford section of Westerly. Mr. Griseto, we are asked to believe, is a John Galt type, only with warm and fuzzy feelings toward his employees; who would have no problems with his employees wanting a union, which they had for 30 years under his predecessors, but which he can prove that they really don’t want or need, now that he’s engaged in some classic union busting activity that the NLRB and the courts have enjoined, an action so rare in these anti-union times that it speaks volumes about the magnitude of the violations. Furthermore, we feel Griseto’s pain as he bemoans the fact that he must spend so much money on legal fees to protect his employees from the greedy union – hundreds of thousands of dollars we are to believe – which almost sounds like enough money to, just at a guess, pay the workers he just laid off.

But, there’s more. The Day’s enterprising reporter dug up two employees who didn’t want a union, proving Griseto’s point. It was hard work for the enterprising reporter to find them. He had to venture out on the factory floor, follow Mr. Griseto, and speak to the employees to whom Griseto guided him. Now that’s investigative journalism, and fair and balanced to boot. We are to conclude, based on the views of two hand picked employees, that not a single member of the union actually wants to be in said union, but that all would rather be subject to the arbitrary whims of Mr. Griseto. Is there no union steward to whom the reporter might go for comment? Apparently not.

It might interest the Day to know that Mr. Griseto is not the first employer to maintain that his employees neither want or need a union. In fact, it’s fairly common and often, shockingly enough, and I know this should be hard for today’s breed of trusting reporters to believe, isn’t true. Indeed, one might safely maintain that the more adamant an employer is on the issue, the less likely it is that the assertion is true.

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Scratch Pawlenty off the list

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Seems to me that Tim Pawlenty has effectively put himself out of the running as a viable candidate for the Republican nomination for President:

Likely Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty won’t be joining mock candidate Donald Trump in his efforts to put birthers back on the political front burner: “I, for one, do not believe we should be raising that issue,” Pawlenty said Tuesday morning on MSNBC’sMorning Joe. “I think President Obama was born in the United States.”

Now, there are only three reasons that a Republican candidate would make a statement like that. He or she could believe they would not be overheard, he or she could be under oath, or he or she could believe that one can win the Republican nomination by being the sole candidate seeking to appeal to the vanishing slice of Republicans who have not taken leave of their senses.

The first two don’t seem to apply, which leaves the last possibility, but given the fact that Pawlenty has been sucking up big time to the teabaggers, that seems unlikely too, so we must seek for a fourth solution, which would be that Pawlenty’s not very smart. I, of course, exclude the possibility that he is just being honest, because honesty is a quality not seen in a Republican for decades, and scarcely seen in a Democrat. Pawlenty should realize that the safe response to questions about Obama’s birth is as follows: “I believe that there have been serious questions raised, and I think the President should answer them”. Always understanding, of course, that no answer could ever be sufficient, even if Obama unearthed live coverage of his birth by a Hawaiian television station. This response gives comfort to the frothing millions while preserving deniability should the candidate actually get the nomination, at which time, of course, they will want to work their way back toward an appearance of rationality.

To add to his woes, Pawlenty has yet another grievous strike against him, and I’m not talking about the fact that he induces a catatonic state in the listener. While he was governor of Minnesota, he encouraged the banks in his state to offer Sharia compliant financial instruments. Since Muslims, like early Christians (who have, as we all know, cast off the prohibition) are not allowed to pay interest on loans, it is necessary to design Sharia compliant financial instruments that allow them, for instance, to buy a house. These “instruments” are, in fact, simply devices in which the lender charges the equivalent of interest, but the arrangement is defined in such a way that it is not called interest. This is a form of hypocrisy practiced by all religions, and it is harmless. Harmless, and probably good for the banks, which can bury a higher interest rate in a vehicle like that than in a normal loan, where they have to disclose the rate. But, as every Republican primary voter knows, Sharia law is a bogey man second only to the one that currently inhabits the White House.

So, Pawlenty is toast. The nomination will be going to one of the other improbable candidates.

This, by the way, will be the first in a series of post in which I prove conclusively that not a single of the declared or semi-declared candidates has any chance of getting the nomination. Yet, as we know, one of them will, so I will only be “wrong” about one of them, but even then, only in a very limited sense, as the survivor of the “I’m crazier than you” competition will end up being the biggest loser of them all. For there is one fact of political life that has been constant for lo these many years: an also ran at the convention lives on in the world of politics; a losing presidential candidate is immediately relegated to the role of laughingstock, except, perhaps, in the strange case of John McCain, who lives on, zombie-like. But the 2012 Republican candidate will be a historical first: the victim of a drubbing at the hands of a man who has ineffectually presided over a major economic downturn, and is therefore unlikely to escape what will be, in his or her case, a much deserved fate.


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The Majesty of the Law

Sunday, March 27, 2011

When I first read this article in the Times, it brought to mind Anatole France’s observation that
“[t]he law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

Charlie Engle (who, though not exactly poor, was definitely not rich) was recently sentenced to 21 months in jail for taking out a liar’s loan from Countrywide. Meanwhile, Angelo Mozilo, the former head of Countrywide will not face prosecution, though he knew the loans he was making to folks like Engle, and reselling to anyone stupid enough to buy, were fraudulent. He paid a sizable (by my standards or yours) civil fine, but it hardly made a dent in his huge fortune. He certainly did not take as big a hit as Mr Engle will take when he makes a court ordered $260,000 restitution payment to Countrywide when he finally emerges from prison. That’s right. Our government indulges in the fiction that Countrywide was a victim of it’s own fraudulent business plan.

What Anatole France neglected to say is that while the rich are indeed prohibited from sleeping under bridges, if a rich man chose to do so he would surely escape punishment. Angelo Mozilo will never see the inside of a cell, though he helped destroy the economy, though mortgage fraud laws, the last time I looked, were supposed to apply with majestic equality to everyone.

Engle’s story is interesting for another reason, in addition to the disparity between his treatment and Mozilo’s. The investigation into his “crime” (there were millions of liars loans, and nothing special about his) was initiated by an IRS agent who saw him in a movie about long distance running, and decided he must be a crook. He had neither evidence nor reasonable suspicion. After finding nothing in his trash, he put an attractive female agent on the case, who formed a friendship with Engle, who then told her about his nefarious misdeed. The story is a bit reminiscent of the Starr investigation of Clinton. Starr, after no evidence could be found of Whitewater misconduct, decided to keep investigating until something, anything, could be found. The entire investigation appears to have been a gross misuse of power.

By the way, the article in question was written by Joe Nocera, who will be leaving the business section for the Op-Ed page. Bob Herbert will be missed, but judging by his work in the business section, Nocera will be a good replacement.


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Friday Night Video-Some Wishful Thinking

Friday, March 25, 2011

It certainly does seem like years been it’s been clear. An ode to the coming Spring.

By the way, the video features, along with George: Ringo, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Elton John and Phil Collins. Not a bad collection of talent.


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Wisconsin Republicans learned from their favorite son

Friday, March 25, 2011

Joe McCarthy must be proud of his home grown emulators. The Wisconsin Republicans have launched a brazenly open witch hunt against a Wisconsin professor who dared to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times that they didn’t like. The GOP demanded access to his emails, in the hope that they could make a criminal case against him for misusing his university email account. McCarthy would approve.

The professor, William Cronon, appears to be hopelessly naive, in that he actually thought that if he wrote a thoughtful, well reasoned piece opposing this updated McCarthyism, the Republicans might back off, but he’s been disabused of that notion. Only Republicans would have the nerve to claim that opposing an obvious attempt to intimidate is undemocratic. Only in America in the 21st century could they get away with it. McCarthy wouldn’t just approve, he’d be jealous.


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Investigative Journalism at the Day

Friday, March 25, 2011

In today’s Day appears the second in a series of investigative articles. The first, which examined reaction in the boating industry to a proposed tax on boats, has now been followed by an equally hard hitting piece on the reaction among the folks who play with planes to a proposed tax on airplanes.

The results of the Day’s investigation are so surprising that I am still somewhat in a state of shock. It turns out that if you ask the people directly affected by a proposed tax whether it’s a good idea, they will tell you it isn’t, and they will have all kinds of facially reasonable explanations for their position. It’s even true that if you go out of your way to contact people who don’t really care, but would probably rather not pay the tax, they will express displeasure. For example, if you call some joker at Electric Boat, he’ll tell you that they will be “watching” the situation, even though such corporations would never really think of inconveniencing their corporate executives by making them drive a long distance to get on their private plane just to save a few bucks in taxes, which come out of the shareholder’s hide anyway. I, for one, could never have predicted any of this, so I must thank the Day for turning up this surprising bit of news.


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Money in spam

Friday, March 25, 2011

Yesterday I was the victim of an onslaught of spam comments. 61, all touting the benefits of a device or drug that promised to enlarge a certain portion of the male anatomy. Each was from a different IP address, so it was rather tedious work adding them all to my blacklist. It appears to have worked, as today I got only one from the same source.

I always wonder how much these people can possibly make from such an obvious scam. Well, someone has done a study. You can read about it here. The long and short: there is power in large numbers. If you send out enough spam, a tiny percentage of people actually respond; and a tiny percentage of them buy. But a tiny percentage of a tiny percentage of a very large number can still yield some serious cash.


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