I personally offer my sincere and public apologies to one of Navada's top attorneys, Glen Lerner, for a grievous mistake of fact in an article which has been corrected.

Posted by pokerprof at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, April 6, 2007 11:45 a.m., at the Canyon Gate Country Club in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas chapter of the Federalist Society is hosting a luncheon which will include such speakers as Prof. Michael Dimino, Widener University ; Prof. Stephen Presser, Northwestern University Law School ; and Moderator: Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The speakers will discuss the blue ribbon Article VI Commission which is studying Nevada's judicial system and is reportedly leaning toward a Missouri-type plan for Nevada: a nominating commission with gubernatorial appointment and subsequent retention election. The panel will explore the questions whether appointive methods of judicial selection are necessarily superior to the elective ones; are partisan elections better at securing accountability and competitive elections than nonpartisan ones; or do they sacrifice judicial independence? Does the national model of presidential nomination and senatorial advice and consent provide a model worth imitating? Does retention election strike the appropriate balance between accountability and independence, or is it merely a means of securing voter approval?

Contact KOLESAR & LEATHAM, Chtd., 3320 West Sahara Ave., Ste 380, Las Vegas for more information on the luncheron.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to reports in the New York Daily News, Michael Jackson is considering a long-term deal to perform in Vegas, similar to performers like Celine Dion and Elton John.

One of the proposals to lure Jackson fans to a future venue--or to stroke poor Michael's fragile ego--is a 50-foot robot statue, complete with lasers. "It would be the first thing people flying would see," entertainment consultant Mike Luckman told the Daily News.

OK, I want to change my mutant nightmare (See Mutant Cane Toads....) of ten foot high Mayor Oscar Goodman bobble head dolls to one fifty foot statue of Michael Jackson. I will leave town, I swear.

Posted by Zounds Off at 1:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We saw them lie about every single thing in the run up to the Iraq invasion.

We are consistently lied to. We are controlled and directed, in increasingly worse ways.

It looks now (and what thinking person familiar with recent history can be surprised) like another work of fiction being acted out. Another horrifying scene in a movie poorly directed by criminal madmen who imagine themselves to be great.

This may not be indisputable yet, but it's got a lot of goddamn credibility. It certainly warrants a much closer look and much greater transparency. It is Joe Wilson on the other side of the ocean.....is anyone going to listen, or are they going to eat their yellow cake and be "Good Germans" once again?

This is the edge of the abyss. It must stop.

Posted by Human Head at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Macaulogia: Forum de Estudos reports that the government collects a cool 40% in tax on the daily take on the many casinos now in Macau including those owned by Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn and yet Macao's coffers have swollen and its GDP has doubled. Research by JP Morgan suggests that it could be twice the size of its American rival by the end of the decade.

Currently, Nevada casinos pay licensing fees on each slot and gaming table and according to NRS 463.370, based on gross gaming revenue - payable on or before the 24th day of each month covering the preceding calendar month at the following rates.

3.5% of the first $50,000 during the month, plus
4.5% of the next $84,000 plus
6.75% of revenue exceeding $134,000.

Alan Goodenough, chairman of LCI, once said, "We pay an effective tax rate of 29.9 percent in London; 50 percent in Egypt and 20.1 percent in South Africa. No tax regime is better than Nevada's. It's a breath of fresh air." (The Aladdin Genie stays in the bottle)

I suppose if the same casino owners paid half the Macau amount in taxes to Nevada, well...education might have half a chance of improving in this state, except for interference by legislators, administrators, parents, students...oh, and casinos.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to a Reuters report the U.S. mortgage crisis, that had been seen as the result of the rash of subprime loans made to mostly poorer borrowers, is now hitting the million dollar home market which was often financed through jumbo loans for more than $400,000 and so-called Alt-A loans that are above subprime and a step below prime.

Americans already are facing foreclosure at a record pace, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Lenders started foreclosure actions against more than one in every 200 U.S. mortgage borrowers in the last quarter of 2006.

The 2.2 million foreclosures due to bad mortgage loans may cost U.S. homeowners $164 billion, mostly from lost home equity, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, a Durham, North Carolina-based research group.

Those that are not getting hurt seem to be the banks, which have made the loans. The debts on the foreclosed houses is still a small percentage of the total loan debt extended. Plus, most of these loans are insured which pays back the bank for its losses. And then...the bank just might be the purchaser of the property at the foreclosure sale. An example is Deutche Bank, holder of a loan for a Korean homeowner with $509,000 of outstanding debt, who bought the property with a $100 bid at the Justice Center in Hackensack, New Jersey, last Friday.

In the last three months, the percentage of foreclosures for U.S. homes valued at more than $750,000 has climbed to 2.5 percent, the highest since early 2005, when RealtyTrac, a online marketplace for foreclosed properties, began tracking data. The overall rate of foreclosures also is on pace to increase by a third this year.

About 40 percent of homes bought last year were second homes or investment properties by speculative buyers.

For the past four years I watched as the frenzy to buy into the Las Vegas market appeared as driven as the 1990's need to own tech stocks. Always at the end of the run someone--or many someones--is left holding a chunk of something he or she can't afford to hold on to, hoping for another rise in the market. I have to admit that I only feel sorry for the lower end people trying to get into a starter home and had the market manipulated by that 40 percent who thought they would make real estate killings like they advertise in the infomercials or simply those who believe that six bedrooms and five baths with clubhouse privileges made sense for a family of three. By the way, did anyone notice that those real estate commercials disappeared at least six months ago to be replaced by how to win in the stock market infomercials while the stock market rose dramatically, only to suffer its own deflation? I don't know what impact our lemming investors actually have, but it appears many Americans want to be Donald Trump--and didn't he go bankrupt a few times? But I am not an expert in banking and mortgage financing issues. Instead of staying up late with financial reports and banking treatises, I might have a glass from a six dollar bottle of wine or maybe go for a walk in the desert because you know...thar's gold in them thar hills.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just one day before the United Nations vote on increased sanctions against Iran for pursuing nuclear development, President Mahmoud Admadinejad raised the stakes in this poker game by ordering the arrest of fifteen British sailors and marines, who supposedly will be tried as criminals for entering the country illegally.

However, the U.N. Security Council, approved a resolution that bans all Iranian arms exports and freezes financial assets of Iranian individuals and entities linked to that country's military and nuclear agencies. The resolution passed unanimously with not only Russia and China voting for the resolution, but Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Indonesia, a Muslim nation.

Last summer the Israelis went to war in Lebanon over the kidnapping of soldiers. Now that Iran's capture of the British wasn't the turn card they were hoping for to leverage the U.N. vote, Las Vegas bookies are posting odds on the outcome of bluff or showdown.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a desperate need to write many things, but with so much going on (and having an actual day job) in the news, it's all I can do just to keep up with it in my off-work hours. So for now, here is some light reading to tide everyone over.

So close to war we can taste it....

From PBS--

TONY BLAIR, Prime Minister of Britain: What we're trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand that these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them. And I hope we manage to get them to realize they have to release them; if not, then this will move into a different phase.

JIM LEHRER: Blair did not say what that "different phase" might involve.

From Yahoo News--

Before the video was broadcast, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions.

"It's completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television," the British Foreign Office said in a statement after the broadcast. "There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters."

From Voice of America-- US Calls for British Sailors Release

I can't avoid commentary here. The Geneva Conventions?! These lying, scheming people have the sheer audacity and hubris to complain about Geneva conventions violations after spending the last four years (plus) condoning, supporting, and engaging in worldwide rendition and torture. It is also amazing that this drivel is allowed to escape from their lips unchallenged, as US national televised media in general quietly helps them in promoting selective amnesia by failing to remind everyone that the US captured/kidnapped a number of Iranian diplomats a few months ago. The British media seems to be bringing this fact up a bit more in their articles, but that doesn't matter in the US, where most people don't even know where Britain is.

Moving on.

From ABC--

The U.S. Navy is offering a huge show of military might near the location where Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines five days ago, in what is seen as a clear effort to send a message to Iran, a senior military official told ABC News' Martha Raddatz in Bahrain.

U.S. naval officials in Bahrain told ABC News that the operation was hastily planned after the 15 Britons were seized Friday, yet the Bush administration would not say publicly that this is the case.

From RIA Novosti--

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future.

And lastly on the subject of impending WWIII, the Jerusalem Post--

Several foreign embassies in Teheran are updating their emergency evacuation plans should a Western or Israeli attack on Iran occur.

Things are so ratcheted up at this point, it's barely even a question of "if" anymore, as it looks like the aggressors finally have the Gulf of Tonkin they have been seeking for so long. If you actually believe that the heads of US, Britain, and Israel are trying to avoid war, you are sadly deluded. Please take your head out of the sand before it gets ripped out by $8/gallon gasoline, along with a host of other tragedies both physical and economic that are (and very much will be) a natural consequence of world war.

Oh, right. That won't be our fault. It will be the fault of the dirty, Jew-hating terrorists who aren't anywhere near to being a nuclear power but might be someday who also hate our freedoms.

(Note to those who will read this and automatically assume that I, also, am some sort of pro-Iranian terrorist: I am not saying that Iran is a great and benevolent state full of goodness. What I am saying is that we have no business attacking them, morally or practically. Start seeing reality instead of being caught up in the "You're an anti-Semite terrorist lover" rhetoric that means less than nothing.)

Posted by Human Head at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Read: Special Bulletin: Targeted Attack on UIGEA to be launched in April by Wendeen H. Eolis over at Poker Playerfor all the details and a ton of other links / articles on the topic.

The gist:
• Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley (D) will play second fiddle to Rep. Frank.
• Rep. Barney Frank (D) is seeking a carve-out similar to the existing lottery and pony exceptions in the UIGEA.
• The new PPA Chair D'Amato (R) is, for now, in the background.

Posted by pokerprof at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It sounds like a 1950's science fiction movie but it is true.

Cane toads have been spreading through the Australian tropics since being introduced in the 1935 from South America, but new research suggests that people in western and south Australia may soon have to beat them off with sticks and clubs.

They have also prompted new thoughts on climate change adaptation.

The study, undertaken by the University of Sydney and an international team of researchers, reveals the toad has rapidly adapted to the Australian climate since its introduction and has overturned previous predictions about the spread of cane toads through Australia, which were based on the assumption the toads could only survive in conditions similar to their original South American habitat.

One of the researchers, Professor Rick Shine, said the toads had evolved incredibly quickly because of the rich genetic diversity, the result of a reproductive cycle in which they lay 30,000 eggs in a single clutch.

Their body shape has changed to enable them to move more quickly, and they have become more resilient, coping with much higher temperatures.

"The toads at the invasion front are long-legged, very fast-moving animals and they move every day ... in pretty much straight lines," Prof Shine said, "Compared to the ones in the old populations, which have got relatively short legs and are much less active and tend to meander around."

My mutant invasion nightmare includes 10 foot high bobble head dolls of Mayor Oscar Goodman on every Las Vegas street corner, in the parks, in the malls...!

For more on these toads go to Yahoo News.

And in another report, scientists said on Monday that global warming could re-make the world's climate zones by 2100, with some polar and mountain climates disappearing altogether and formerly unknown ones emerging in the tropics.

But we know that cane toads will survive. I'm less sure about global warming scientists and Al Gore, though.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we made it through another week with no war. That is, no war with Iran, ignoring for now that we are still in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while continuing to fight the oh-so-noble war on Drugs, Terror, Poverty, etc. Not only have these "wars" been demonstrated time and time again to be unsuccessful, they have actually contributed to the worsening of the very problems they claim to be fighting.

We may not be at war with Iran yet, but that doesn't mean we haven't crept closer.

Glenn Greenwald has a great recent post , in part speaking on the depths to which US/British credibility have sunk as they try and use this incident and others like it to foment a new round of regime change. Of course, our propaganda platforms media apparatus continually presents this issue as simply an aggressive act by the insane and very terrorist Persians, completely and conveniently ignoring the fact that we have kidnapped/captured Iranian officials without producing a shred of evidence (other than talking points) justifying the overtly aggressive acts. It is the blatant self-delusion and hypocrisy on the world stage for all to see. The US funds terrorist groups such as MEK to cause bedlam and destruction in Iran, kidnap Iranian officials who have been invited into the country by the "sovereign" Iraqi government, and there are many indications that we have been running cross border operations of our own into their country for some time now.

But our leaders just stand and point, telling the public, "Oh no! Look at the nasty brown terrorist regime that is aggressively capturing the soldiers of our friends and allies and trying to build nuclear bombs to destroy us all, especially the defenseless Israel!"

It must have simply slipped their minds that Israel is itself a nuclear power. I wonder how it is that they have the right to nuclear technology, but Iran does not? Oh yes, it's because they're so friendly, something I'm sure to which the corralled Palestinians would be willing to attest.

Even if Iran is/was trying to achieve "THE BOMB", there is an ocean of credible and internationally diverse evidence (including reports from our own CIA) that they are nowhere near to realistically achieving such a thing. Not only is there no credible evidence backing up the claims of the various warmongering mouthpieces, there in fact exists a continual stream of evidence to the contrary.

But the rhetoric and aggressive testing of Iran's fences continues as Lord Bush, Chancellor Cheney, Baron Blair, and the AIPAC-serving Congress continue to press for new war abroad.

For those who continue in their blind support of the constant fiery (and amazingly shallow) war rhetoric, consider for a moment what is likely to happen to our overstretched, exhausted, and increasingly mentally unstable forces should we continue down this path.

That's right, mentally unstable. Ruined is another fitting description that you'll no doubt hear much more of in the coming years, as keeping their true collective condition under wraps will inevitably become a true impossibility. No one escapes PTSD and worse after 3 and 4 consecutive forced tours in a combat zone with no end in sight.

Here is a good overview of the US supply line situation in Iraq. Guess what al-Sadr and his Shiite brethren are going to do to that supply line if we attack Iran?

**snip**

And it will only go downhill from there as the neocon wet dream of world war will begin in earnest. Neocons will get to giggle together in dark corners of power, beating their uninspired, flaccid meat for all it's worth as they continue to hope with all of their might for the detonation of a nuclear device in the Middle East.

Speaking of wrinkly and flaccid, there was the great neocon fellator, Joe Lieberman, on Wolf Blitzer's show this morning. He spewed the same inane talking points he always does, and did so at great length with the current focus being on how bad the new emergency funding bill is that recently passed the House by a narrow margin (with nary an interruption or challenge from Wolf, I might add, who is obviously very content to simply go along with his softball script).

Joe then proceeded to knocked me out of my chair by actually saying something that was not only true, but had some substance. I'm still reeling, quite frankly.

As proof that the current piece of emergency war funding legislation is ineffective he said (and I'm paraphrasing here because I couldn't record it), "If the members of Congress want this war to end then all they have to do is de-fund it."

Go find it. Go watch it. He said it.

Wolf just stood there quietly, letting the remark pass by in the stream of Lieberman detritus, never asking the question that should have been asked immediately after hearing this statement.

If that's all Congress has to do to stop this war, why aren't they doing it? Isn't that exactly the thing the American public demanded by overcoming obviously rigged mid-terms and installing a new majority to do their will? A majority that promised they would do just that-put an end to this illegal war?

Lieberman's statement is as true as it is illuminating. The only thing that Congress has to do is de-fund the war. That's it. And yet, here we sit, mired in aggressive and illegal wars (or rather, invasions) that we have quite obviously lost while our "leaders" in the legislative branch continue beating the war drums and try, at the behest of their AIPAC masters, to help the neocons begin another war, this time with Iran.

And the best they can come up with, the best that they can narrowly pass, is a bill that doesn't get our people out, but "redeploys" them sometime during the next year and a half. Not only that, but the bill is 25% more than the amount Lord Bush wanted--simply because Pelosi had to pay off some other whores to get the votes and get it out of the House so she could say she did her job.

Sure, Democrats will end the war, sort of. So long as they get a slice of the tasty funds for themselves, they'll be happy to. The bill is going to get vetoed anyway, so what the hell.

They continue to spend money that we do not have and waste the lives of people who do not concern them.

There is really only one explanation for this. These politicians view you and I as infantile and unable to comprehend the "subtle nuances" of our racist and destructive foreign policy. In their overwhelming hubris, they see themselves in the combined role of your parent as well as your better. What the public demands or wants is of no consequence because they know better. They will set the parameters, and then, if they deem it appropriate, they will let Americans choose the direction of their country, just so long as it stays within the artificial limits that they and their well-moneyed handlers have set.

The crucial time is closing in.

Extra Credit Flashback: Zbigniew Brzezinski op-ed in the LA Times from almost exactly one year ago.

Posted by Human Head at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Texas schoolteacher won first place in a contest to find America's messiest desk.

Sponsored by publisher Little, Brown and Co., the competition promoted "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder," by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman, a new book that argues neatness is overrated, costs money, wastes time and quashes creativity.

Ha! I can't even find my desk. But, of course, I know where to find everything...except when I can't.

Posted by Zounds Off at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

France has placed all the information it has gathered on more than 1,600 UFO sightings on a website. The site immediately crashed when millions of aliens visited the site to see if their vacation photos had been posted. I thought to go to the site, but as of yet my internet connection can't go galactic. George Knapp, a Las Vegas reporter known for his fascination with Area 51 located north of Las Vegas, probably hasn't come back from the site, yet.

The site (if it ever comes back) is: cnes-geipan France UFO Site

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of our readers wrote in about a letter written recently to Governor Gibbons--our other reader was following all day kindergarten news--and as the professor sent this to as many media outlets he could, we provide the letter here:

March 5, 2007

MEMORANDUM

TO: Jim Gibbons
Governor, State of Nevada

FROM: Hussein S. Hussein, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

SUBJECT: WHY IS A STATE EMPLOYEE UNDER SURVEILLANCE BY A STATE AGENCY FOR MORE TWO YEARS?

Request: This memorandum is a request to our newly elected governor to protect a state employee (Dr. Hussein Hussein) from a state agency (Nevada System of Higher Education "NSHE") and to immediately order the removal of the long-term surveillance by NSHE against me.

Background: On December 27, 2004, NSHE found itself on the front page of the Reno Gazette Journal (RGJ). The news was bad for NSHE. The news exposed rampant animal abuse at the UNR. The RGJ called the series of articles "Trouble on the Farm". The news hit the wires and was republished across the nation in the press. I exposed this animal abuse to the RGJ. I was "the source".

Within hours of the release of this news, a surveillance camera was installed outside of my laboratory and office at the UNR. The surveillance is 24/7 and continues to this day. I don't know if you have ever been under such a microscope. It is not very fun.
Why was this one State employee singled out for 24/7 surveillance for more than two years, all within hours of being exposed as a whistle blower in the press? Regardless of the answer to that question, the time has come for this to stop. This is where I need your help.

The law on spy cameras on campus is clear in at least two regards. One, criminal activity has to be suspected. Two, the UNR President must approve it.
Therefore, the UNR President has concluded I am a criminal in need of surveillance. But all I am is a State employee who is trying to do his job.

In the last two years, no criminal charges have been brought. I am an innocent State employee who happens to have blown the whistle on severe and systemic animal abuse. The surveillance continues almost as persistently as the animal abuse continues. You may recall the 400 drowned UNR sheep last winter. This continues, despite UNR having paid taxpayer money to the USDA for the 56 confirmed violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

Are we working as State employees in an Orwellian totalitarian State?
Well, maybe not everyone is, but I am.
I need your help, Sir.

I have endeavored for two long years to get an answer to the surveillance, to the spy cameras. No one has any answers.
NSHE State lawyers have no answers. NSHE private lawyers, McDonald Carano Wilson LLP, have no answers.
So, I need your help. Can you help me?

Thank you very much.
_______________

Reading about the surveillance kind of reminded me of that little known critter known as the Patriot Act which then reminded me of ....

Just 45 days after the September 11 attacks, with virtually no debate, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act.

Originally passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York, New York; the Act (full text) was formed in response to the terrorist attacks against the United States, and dramatically expanded the authority of American law enforcement for the stated purpose of fighting terrorism in the United States and abroad. , At the time the ACLU, who often supports frightening causes such as NAMBLA, correctly pointed out flaws that threaten your fundamental freedoms by giving the government the power to access to your medical records, tax records, information about the books you buy or borrow without probable cause, and the power to break into your home and conduct secret searches without telling you for weeks, months, or indefinitely. It has also supposedly been used to detect and prosecute other alleged potential crimes, such as providing false information on terrorism, but on March 9, 2007, the US Justice Department released an internal audit that found that the FBI had acted illegally in its use of the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about US citizens. Federal courts have ruled that some provisions are unconstitutional infringements on civil liberties. The Patriot act had been renewed on March 2, 2006 with a vote of 89 to 11 in the Senate and on March 7 280 to 138 in the House. The renewal was signed into law by President Bush on March 9, 2006.
.
And then there is a little something called the Real ID Act which federalizes and standardizes state driver's licenses for all 50 states, and it will result in something that has been resisted in this country for a long time -- a national identity card.

The Real ID Act was pushed through Congress in 2005 with little meaningful debate. The changes should result in new fees and if you thought the lines were long at the DMV before, wait until everyone has to come in to replace their now obsolete license, loaded with paper to scan. Plus, there is a little more to consider about this new threat to Americans' privacy.

The law requires DMVs to store scanned copies of birth certificates, Social Security cards, and any other documents that individuals present when they apply for a license. It creates a national linked database allowing millions of employees at all levels of government around the nation to access personal data. It also mandates a nationally standardized "machine-readable zone" that will let bars, merchants, and other private parties scan personal data off licenses with greater ease than ever before, putting all that information into even greater circulation. Privacy activists, such as privacyrights.org, point out how this will create new opportunities for ID thieves to commit identity theft, while the supposed reliability of the documents should make them more valuable to counterfeit.
An anti-Real ID Web site that includes the status of efforts in all 50 states and what consumers can do to take action is at www.realnightmare.org.

But back to our professor and his letter. If I was the professor, I would either put up a giant smiley face, find creative ways to express my magic finger, or, heaven forbid, install my own camera aimed right at theirs.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hear me, people: We have now to deal with another race--small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. Stangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. (emphasis HH)

--Chief Sitting Bull, speaking at the Powder River Conference in 1877

Ponder the words of a real chief as you consider Lord Bush's bravado at yesterday's press conference, and his continuing hubris regarding the war and the freedom's of individual Americans.

Yeah, I'm still pissed off about it.

The issue of the brewing crisis involving the US Attorney firings has still been bouncing around in my head the entire day, mostly in relation to my previous post.

Bugging me, bugging me, bugging me. Something about it wasn't quite right, and I knew it at the time but couldn't quite nail it down. Bush being a smug tough guy yesterday was something we mostly only hear about. I mean, he's been differing degrees of yesterday, but never quite yesterday.

He seems to be actively seeking this fight. This is what has been bothering me.

Back and forth, all day long, I have questioned myself about being too far out with this nuisance train of thought tumor. It appears that I'm not alone, as I found a link to this waiting in my inbox this afternoon.

"If they lose this showdown, they lose their leverage in investigating NSA spying, the DeLay/Abramoff-financed Texas redistricting, Cheney's Energy Task Force, the political manipulation of science, the Plame outing... everything."

Crafty bastards.

My thoughts earlier were centered around the fact that when stripped down to its bare technicalities, it really may be permissible for the administration to fire these attorney's even though the "why" of the firings is particularly odious. It seemed to me all day long that they could very well secure themselves a legal wall on this basis alone, halting any move forward and weakening the resolve and political strength to pursue the more concrete investigations on which they really ought to be focusing with equal, if not greater, vigor.

IANAL, and there is great likelihood that the above is not absolutely correct for a variety of reasons. Chief among these, I Am Not A Lawyer. Absolutely correct or not, it should get illustrate the underlying nag, which is that this just seems too easy and that Bush seems to want this just a little too much.

Kos had on different glasses, but seems to come from the same angle. The fact that this seems to be a real possibility quite frankly scares the Bong Hits 4 Jesus out of me.

Posted by Human Head at 1:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On March 20, 2007, Claire's Stores, Inc. announced that the company has agreed to a $3.1 billion takeover proposal from New York-based private equity firm Apollo Management LP.
You might remember that on December 19, 2006 Apollo's buyout of Harrah's Entertainment in partnership with Texas Pacific Group for $17.1 billion was approved by Harrah's board and later approved by stockholders and regulators.

Also, Smart & Final, Inc. announced on February 20, 2007 that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Apollo Management, to close in the second quarter of 2007.

These private equity firms, such as Apollo and its partner in the Harrah's buyout, invest in companies listed on public exchanges and take them private. Passive institutional investors may invest in private equity funds, which are in turn used by private equity firms for investment in target companies. Types of private equity investment include leveraged buyout, venture capital, growth capital, angel investing, mezzanine capital and others. After acquisition, these firms seem to often divest parts of the acquisition quickly, holding onto the more profitable divisions for later sale or offering the company again to the public through an initial public offering to complete the "sell out."

Apollo Management L.P. was founded in 1990 by Leon Black (Apollo Advisors). It has invested over $16 billion in companies and, along with Harrah's, Apollo has invested in such companies as AMC Entertainment, CEVA Logistics , Hexion Specialty Chemicals, General Nutrition Centers (GNC), and Linens 'n Things.

TPG Capital, L.P., Apollo's partner in the Harrah's buyout and formerly Texas Pacific Group, commonly referred as "TPG", was founded by David Bonderman, James Coulter, and William S. Price III in 1992 and focuses on turnarounds, management buyouts, and leveraged recapitalizations. TPG is noted for the 2002 leveraged buyout of Burger King with Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, and the acquisition of MGM in 2005 with Sony Corp. and other private equity firms. Also, on December 1, 2006, it was announced Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts were exploring the possibility of a record $100 billion leveraged buyout of the nation's second-largest retailer Home Depot . And in February 2007, Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announce intention to acquire TXU http://www.txucorp.com/media/default.aspx for about $45 billion, including debt, in the largest-ever leveraged buyout. The deal is also notable for a drastic change in environmental policy for the energy giant, in terms of its carbon emissions from coal power plants and funding alternative energy. However, The Blackstone Group, together with The Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings, are considering a rival offer for TXU Corporation.

Two things come to my mind when I look at these players in business acquisitions, which amaze me by the fact they don't "produce" anything: first, that my assets total about $1,100 and a 1990 Ford, and my debt in student loans exceeds $50,000, so guys, I am ready to negotiate a hostile takeover by you; and second, if only AMC Entertainment, with Leon Black sitting as a director, was affiliated with AMC tv, I would know why AMC tv continually shows the movie "Jaws," all about a predator which consumes everything it sees.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have no idea how normal this is or isn't to people, but whenever I think about things, there are always a certain number of said things that prompt a song in my head.

Remember the awkward phase of rap that produced the cringe-inducing song from West Coast Rap All-Stars, We're All in the Same Gang?

That's the song that plays in my head every time I begin considering things political. I wish I could explain it and I wish it weren't so. As if "modern" politics weren't intellectual torture enough, this song has to pop in and add to the mental waterboarding.

(I thought it might be nice to get my digression out of the way early--c'mon, follow me through the jump)

With regards to the widening and deepening of the US Attorney firing scandal, the president did what de does best today--spew ridiculousness and generally try to be a tough guy. That's not the primary thrust, as it is more than obvious that these silly presidential actions and words are nothing more than the natural result of a child with entirely too much privilege and power. One who was never told "no" and who has no concept of what it is like to without, under any circumstances--someone whose words evidence that these concepts are completely and utterly foreign if not couched in the very, very distant abstract.

Today, I'm feeling much more like addressing the continued national bought-and-paid-for, partisan (and unbelievably shallow) national media. You have the media "conservatives" hollering, "but Carter (or Truman or Roosevelt) did it!" on TV, echoing bloggers and columnists and of course, the waterboys. Here are a couple of articles from TIME in 1978 for further details on Carter and "Floodgate" (gleaned by myself and BG in a combined 10 minute research effort on the Internets, aka the new Terrorist Training and Recruiting Camp). The national media seems to primarily be focusing in on Carter, but only in the broad strokes by "liberal" MSNBC, among others. Likely because they are very aware that in the modern bankrupt-in-oh-so-many-ways America they would have some trouble finding people who really know who Truman and Roosevelt were (does Leno still do Jaywalking?) and the media demonstrates time and time again that "details" and "context" aren't things that they think the public needs.

My natural reflex here is that I ache to pose the same question my mother posed to me so many times. "If (insert friend name) went and jumped off a bridge does that mean you have to do it too?"

The obvious and logical answer to that (even for children) is "no"--unfortunately in Washington (which is increasingly just a playpen for criminally-minded simpleton children, itself) the "no" answer is neither logical nor obvious.

Then there are the "liberals", who are trying to ignore the "Carter did it too" platitudes and focus (correctly) on the fact that Bush's offer to interview Rove and others on the condition that they not be under oath and that there be no transcripts from said testimony is basically nothing more than Bush telling Congress that his people need a comfortable and secret forum in which to tell more half-truths (also known as lies).

Yet, a witless media is still trying on behalf of Lord Bush and the powerful people who own him to convince everyone that this is no big deal because everybody does it and has done it.

This is no longer about the firings themselves. It is about the accompanying lies that are explicitly designed to (feebly) disguise true intent to manipulate and ignore the law as the president sees fit and to destroy anyone who does not march in lockstep alongside. It will be interesting to watch Congressional Democrats respond--not the verbal responses, but the action taken to push on (or not) into the belly of this beast.

Let's see if they can pull up their shorts and keep this one "on the table".

*******

However, all of the above simply leads me to this statement, found (via NitPicker) yesterday.

"We have a crisis where there doesn't need to be one, and now Democrats have an issue where they can open up the subpoena floodgates," said an exasperated Republican aide. "Once these investigations start, there always ends up being a lot of messy collateral damage." (Emphasis NitPicker's)

NitPicker's emphasis is well placed, and the exasperated Republican aide is right on. With the proper pursuit there is sure to be a lot of collateral damage, and messy collateral damage, at that (here is a nice peek into just one of the many rabbit holes). I'm not a big believer that any of it will go very far, though, because it likely won't be too long before we hear the cries of Lieberman-ized congresscritters acquiescing to transparent bullying, telling everyone something that echoes the sentiments of "...a Constitutional Crisis is not what the country needs in Time of War" or some such tripe.

Constitutional Crises are exactly what we need, they are exactly what we are heading for (and should have arrived at long ago), and they are the only thing that Americans have left to grab onto that might allow them to regain the freedoms they once enjoyed.

"Liberal" Democrats are arguing malice (and doing it pretty darn effectively) and "Conservative" Republicans pleading the combination of incompetence and "they did it too". It doesn't matter one iota if one attributes these events (past or present, Democrat or Republican) to ineptitude or malice. I want to know why either has been deemed be acceptable as defined by your party affiliation.

It is all about protecting the corruption on your side of the partisan fence, and the media consistently promotes this way of thinking as being acceptable, just as they ever have. They media are simply the announcers that preside over a body politic primarily composed of cutthroat, connected people who fight with each other over what have become (and have been for some time) "the spoils of government".

And the public continues to sit and watch this bi-partisan symphony of gluttonous destruction through the windowpane as we are promised scraps from politicians who pay only lip service, ignorant to the fact that we are dying in the outdoor cold, and never remembering that it is our allowance of both malice and incompetence that enable them to shut us out in the first place.

Posted by Human Head at 3:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)