UK Conservative Party Candidate Believes Gays are Possessed!

Today's Guardian newspaper has a story that speaks about the bizarre socio-political beliefs of Mrs. Philippa Stroud, who is "a high-flying prospective Conservative MP, credited with shaping many of the [Conservative] party's social policies, [and] founded a church that tried to 'cure' homosexuals by driving out their 'demons' through prayer."

As ridiculous as the claims appear, Ms. Stroud is not being misrepresented by the center-left newspaper.  In her book, God's Heart for the Poor, she discusses how to deal with people showing signs of "demonic activity". For example, an excerpt below should provide any rational person evidence of her enlightened state of mind:

One girl lived in the hostel for some time, became a Christian, then choked to death on her own vomit after a drinking bout. Her life had changed to some extent, but we wondered whether God knew that she hadn't the will to stick with it and was calling her home.

They wondered if an omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent deity, who supposedly created this woman and for whatever reasons allowed her to become possessed, knew the girl was a "loser" to which they could not cure.

I realize that this is election season in the UK and these outcropping of absurdity are bound to avail themselves.  However, these religious fanatics, election time or not, aren't doing anyone a favor by proselytizing this rubbish and engaging in what is clearly psychological abuse. 

The fact that this woman is not your average nutter, but a prominent member of the Conservative Party and a close confident of David Cameron, the Conservative party's leader, should convince everyone that these jackasses will never change and need to be permanently exiled to some Scottish island in the North Sea, where they can believe all the dogmatic malarkey they wish and practice their bizarro-land witchcraft preferably on their own rancid offspring or a stray local goat.

Religious frauds are a danger to us all.  And if 9-11 has taught anyone anything, it is the portentous evil that can be caused by zealots of all stripes advancing their religious objectives upon civilized people.

You should know Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems

For Americans, Nick Clegg, the leader of the UK"s Liberal Democratic Party, remains a nobody.  After all who in the land of rape and honey would know about the leader of a party which at the dissolvement of parliament held a meager 3rd place standing in Westminster?  However, something extraordinary has happened since the first television debate held between the three leading parties a couple of weeks ago to which all persons in the West should be aware of. 

The people of Britain, who to this day remain weary of the Thatcherites and the mealy-mouth platitudes of the Conservative party and have grown equally unsatisfied with the perennial deceit of New Labour, decided that maybe it was time to give someone else a chance at governing.  The Liberal Democrats in the past few weeks have rocketed in national polls from 3rd place standing  to overtake both the Conservatives and Labour at different times.

Unlike the twedledum and twedledee politics of Labour and the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats have embraced real ideas and proposed real changes to make the UK a better and different place.  As today's Observer newspaper states,

The Lib Dems have in recent years developed a habit of getting things right. They were first of the big three to embrace environmentalism, first to kick back against the assault on civil liberties, alone in opposing the Iraq war.

However, it is Mr. Clegg who has infused the imagination of those who dare to think that the lesser of two evils is no longer an acceptable choice.  Unlike the slick talking David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, and the woefully dour Mr. Brown of Labour, Mr. Clegg appeared during those debates to be a very rare type of politician: a man with principles who could generally be described as decent. The Observer editorial elaborates,

Mr Clegg's mettle cannot be fully tested until he is in office. But he did manage, in the televised leaders' debates, to articulate sensible, liberal positions on immigration and on European integration that many Labour ministers might share but would be afraid to express. He resisted the temptations of casual populism and stated his case with passion and clarity.

On this side of the Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan's blog has been providing us with many key quotes and analysis during the British election.  Yesterday, he posited a quote made by Mr. Clegg that I thought was beyond anything I have heard from any serious politician during an election:

Every time I go back to Beckett he seems more subversive, not less; his works make me feel more uncomfortable than they did before. The unsettling idea, most explicit in Godot, that life is habit – that it is all just a series of motions devoid of meaning – never gets any easier.

It's that willingness to question the things the rest of us take for granted that I admire most about Beckett; the courage to ask questions that are dangerous because, if the traditions and meanings we hold so dear turn out to be false, what do we do then?

But amid the bleakness, there is also humour, and it's no surprise that there are so many comedians among Beckett's fans. His appeal lies in his directness – the sparse, unembellished prose that can make his meticulous stage directions unexpected. He leaves you with a sense that you knew what he meant, even if explaining it back would leave you lost for words. Direct and disturbing – it is impossible to grow tired of Beckett.

Can you imagine George W. Bush and his armada of maladroits possibly contemplating Beckett, much less philosophizing on the inherent existential meanings of his work?  In America, politicians that don't spout prefabricated and dogmatic responses are feared as subversive elite who couldn't possibility understand the woes of self-absorbed fatties who blame the world for their ills!

The people of the UK have a once in a lifetime chance to simultaneously throw-the-bums-out and reform their government while embracing modernity, everyday environmentalism, and pro-Europeanism in a single vote.  I wish them and Nick Clegg much luck on Thursday.

Deepwater Horizon: Spill, baby, Spill...

"Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup duty." - Bill Maher

On April 20th 2010 the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling platform located approximately 80 kilometres off the Louisiana coast, was critically damaged by an explosion.   Eleven workers were lost at sea and are presumed dead.  Initial estimates provided by operators of the platform stated that the rig may have had as much as 700,000 gallons of diesel on board and 1,000 barrels a day of petroleum were leaking out of the broken wellhead.

Two days after the initial explosion the entire platform sunk.   New assessments indicate that the amount of petroleum leaking out of the ruptured wellhead is approximately 5,000 barrels a day; five times the original estimate.  At least six million litres of petroleum have spilled so far, according to U.S. Coast Guard, making this incident the worst U.S. oil spill since the infamous Exxon Valdez.  In addition, millions of animals, including 1.8 million migratory waterfowl, are at risk.  The potential environmental/economic damage extends across the entire aquatic zone adjacent to the Louisiana coast, which is abundant in shrimp, oysters and other marine life.  The state's aquaculture industry, the largest in the lower 48 states, is worth $1.8-billion annually.

News reports are emerging that BP (the facility’s operator) de-emphasized the risk of a catastrophe in risk analysis’ it submitted to the U.S. government as recently as last year.  BP claimed that it was
"unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur" and in the event of such an unlikely situation, "due to the distance to shore and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."  As of today, the oil mass has already reached the Louisiana shoreline and substantial levels of heavy oil contained within a 1,500 square kilometer oil slick is anticipated to wash ashore in Mississippi on Saturday, before reaching Alabama on Sunday, and Florida on Monday.

According to the federal Minerals Management Service, since 2001 there have been 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries, and 858 fires and explosions in the American controlled Gulf of Mexico.   Occupational health and safety management under the previous Bush administration was neutered.  Republican hacks, corporate yes-men, and people who had spent their entire careers fighting OSHA were placed in positions of authority.  Policies were then created to allow industries to set their own standards of compliance.   A culture of indifference to human life and the environment, which was the trademark of the "toxic Texan", became the national standard.

With the actual consequences of Mr. Bush’s deregulatory framework and anti-environment policies becoming clearer, the dunces of the Republican Party, who made "Drill baby drill" their call to arms during the 2008 federal election, have suddenly gone silent on this issue.  The Wasilla whack-job (Ms. Palin) has yet to provide an intelligent response to the catastrophic risk she demanded Americans accept so that they could drive their Hummers and fat-asses to their anti-tax and anti-government Tea Party rallies.

Mr. Obama on the other hand, who during his election campaign vigorously defended the position that no offshore drilling should be permitted on America’s coastlines, reversed himself several weeks earlier and allowed Atlantic drilling to proceed in an attempt to garner the support of Republicans for the passage of a global warming bill.  The hypocrisy and sheer spinelessness of this president to abandon the principles for which he was elected to execute is staggering.  Unlike the daft feces-throwing monkeys of the Republican Party, Mr. Obama promised America he would deliver real change and not simply continue on with the policies of the most hated administration in the history of the nation.

The damage is now done.  Millions of litres of toxic sludge will continue to contaminate the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the shorelines of the Southern states.  Wildlife will die, ecosystems will be destroyed, and the lives and welfare of those people and communities that depend on these commons will be decimated.

Jobs? What Stinkin' Jobs?

A week ago the US government published statistics, which state that the US economy added 162,000 jobs in March.  The conventional propagandists make the absurd claim that the recession is over and that the Gilded age can continue again without interruption.   A huge hurrah could be heard in the financial district of New York as the DJI passed the 12 thousand mark; a level it hasn't reached since June 2008.  Once again, the divide between reality and Dr. Greenspan's imaginarium of useless financial gimmickry grows even larger.  An emerging view that has now become nearly axiomatic amongst those of us in the reality-based sciences, is that the study of economics has become little more than an ideological handmaiden to political forces and is polluted to the point of uselessness.

Those economists, on the other hand, who have been constantly critical of both the Bush and Obama administrations economic dissembling and the "green-sprouts" argument, have noted their objections to the over-simplified and intellectually dishonest statements of their peers who claim that the US economy is on the mend and jobs will soon abound.

Robert Reich, Dean Baker, and Mark Thoma, to name a few, outline the situation:

• The positive news is that manufacturing has shown a brief but constant uptick in jobs over the past few months in the USA.  A total of 45,000 jobs since December 2009.  However, future growth is likely to be anemic.
• The US census bureau added at least 48,000 new jobs for the 2010 census in March.  As many as a million jobs will be added alone for this endeavor in the following months. These jobs are temporary and only provide a short-term solution to those who are chronically unemployed; however.
• Since the inception of the Great Recession, the US economy has lost 8.4 million jobs and failed to create an additional 2.7 million necessary as per population growth.  Thus, a total of at least 11 million jobs have either disappeared or failed to materialize.
• Many of the jobs that have been lost were in construction, mortgage banking, appraisal, financial and legal services associated with the bubble market, and manufacturing.  Most of these service oriented jobs will not return and in the case of manufacturing, are permanently lost as long as the Chinese retain their slave-labor policies and currency manipulation practices.
• State and local governments have shed 72,000 jobs since December, or 24,000 a month.  A trend that will accelerate as the federal stimulus program weans and state revenues continue to slump.
• The federal government's spending on last year’s domestic stimulus is still near its peak, and the Fed continues to hold down interest rates.  Without these two factors, there would be no job growth to report.
• Nominal wages fell in March for the sixth time since 1964. Dean Baker states that, "This is not a good sign for future income growth."
• Consumer debt remains high, with those who are employed saving and paying off existing debts rather than engaging in further purchases.  If there is a permanent change in consumer demand, no recovery to pre-recession levels of economic activity will occur in the near future.

The obvious question that remains is what has the US government or the Fed done to prevent the big banks, which are now bigger than they ever were and were at the center of this recession, from engaging in the same activities that led to this current economic collapse?  Nothing.

Quote of the Day: Dawkins on the Corpulence of the Vatican

From Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, atheist, and professional shit-disturber when it comes to all things religious, speaks on the credibility gap of the current Pope and his personal involvement in concealing the pedophile epidemic within the Roman Catholic Church:

“Should the pope resign?”

No. As the College of Cardinals must have recognized when they elected him, he is perfectly – ideally – qualified to lead the Roman Catholic Church. A leering old villain in a frock, who spent decades conspiring behind closed doors for the position he now holds; a man who believes he is infallible and acts the part; a man whose preaching of scientific falsehood is responsible for the deaths of countless AIDS victims in Africa; a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence: in short, exactly the right man for the job.

He should not resign, moreover, because he is perfectly positioned to accelerate the downfall of the evil, corrupt organization whose character he fits like a glove, and of which he is the absolute and historically appropriate monarch.

No, Pope Ratzinger should not resign. He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice – the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution – while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.

If there isn't any doubt about the perversity of these deviants, take a look at the urinals found in the Vatican.  Nothing bizarre about urinating into the porcelain vagina of the Virgin Mary!

The Final Curtain for Bernard Kerik

The rise and fall of Bernard Kerik is less an American chronicle of a rag-to-riches tale with Gatsby-esque overtures, than a story of conventional political cronyism and personal excess.

Born of an alcoholic father and a mother who was a prostitute, Bernard Kerik's early years were filled with military duty and stints in police enforcement and security work in both America and Saudi Arabia.  In the 1990's he became a close ally of former New York city Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, for whom he served as personal bodyguard and driver.  Mr. Giuliani advanced Kerik into a senior position in the Corrections Department, from which he went on to become the agency’s commissioner.  Afterward, Mr. Giuliani elevated Mr. Kerik to the position of NYC's 40th police commissioner, a post that he would hold for the final sixteen months of Giuliani's second term in office. In what would become a repeating motif to his behavior, Kerik would ride with a security detail of fellow officers who had been involved in traumatic career activities and participate in typical beat-cop activities; actions that are best described as atypical behavior for the head of New York's police.

After 9/11, Kerik attracted a national spotlight and notoriety for his stoic posturing along aside Mr. Giuliani in what became one of America's most difficult and painful moments in its history.  If Kerik had quietly disappeared from the limelight his reputation and contribution to America would have probably remained untarnished.  However, the administration of George W. Bush, always looking for loyal soldiers for their cause, recruited him with a $140,000 salary to serve in the position of training the new Iraqi police force.

His tenure in Iraq was less than inspiring.  According to the Nation magazine,

• Kerik's oversight of a $50 million police-training contract for the controversial defense contractor DynCorp produced few tangible results.
• Kerik spent $1.2 billion to train 35,000 troops in Jordan even though France and Germany offered to provide training for free. He also bought $20 million worth of rifles and revolvers from Jordan when the weapons could've been obtained for far less in Iraq.
• Kerik hired Iraqi policemen without background checks who later turned out to be hardened criminals. He re-hired policeman formerly employed by Saddam Hussein and bragged of training 37,000 new officers. Currently, roughly a quarter of the force Kerik left in place--a total of 30,000 officers--have been or will soon be fired by the US government and paid $60 million in severance payments, according to the far-from-antiwar New York Post.

According to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Washington Post’s former Baghdad bureau chief:

[Kerik] held precisely two staff meetings during his tenure. His main activity was going on nighttime raids against indeterminate targets accompanied by a shadowy former U.S. colonel and a 100-man Iraqi paramilitary force, and then sleeping most of the day. After accomplishing nothing in three months, training no police forces, he departed.

Upon being vetted by the Bush Administration for the post of Secretary of Homeland Security, his life started to unravel.  As discussed by Allan Lengel of AOL News:

In November [2009], Kerik, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of tax fraud, one count of making a false statement on a loan application and five separate counts of making false statements to the federal government. Two of the charges related to statements Kerik made to the White House while the Bush administration was considering him to lead the Department of Homeland Security. He also agreed to pay restitution of $187,931.

Kerik admitted that he failed to report the $255,000 value of a renovation done free of charge by a New Jersey contractor that was trying to land a city license. He also admitted that he lied about the renovations and his relationship with the contractor, which had suspected mob ties.

In the end, Kerik's own petty greed, want for material wealth, and personal status, lead him to disaster.  He was sentenced in February 2010 to four years incarceration.

The young must die so Geezers can pay low taxes!

It never ceases to amaze me at how greedy and un-Christian Southerners are. The latest volley of cruelty originates in the state of Arizona, where the possibility of raising taxes and forcing the wretched Geezer-polis of this desert wasteland to invest in their fellow Americans, communities, and infrastructure not linked to killing foreigners is verboten.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed an austere budget that will eliminate health coverage for 47,000 low-income children by eliminating the state's Children’s Health Insurance Program.   The only state in the union willing to do so.  The NY Times states that Arizona, not content to bulldozer over its future citizens, will "roll back Medicaid coverage for childless adults in a move that is expected to eventually drop 310,000 people from the rolls."

The Republican-controlled Legislature furthermore passed a budget that includes deep cuts to both health care and education.

The Medicaid reduction for childless adults rolls back an expansion approved by voters in 2000 and cuts enrollment about 25 percent. The expansion was to be paid for with tobacco settlement dollars, a revenue source that quickly proved inadequate.

No doubt the anti-tax armada of self-made Geezers will relish the thought that their precious money won't go to the superfluous requirement of having decent health care coverage or education for children.  After all, these people are clearly either just freeloading Mexicans or un-Godly creatures that the Lord himself is endeavouring to punish.

At what point do we stop calling America a civilized country and call it out as an intemperate international hooligan and wastrel. This recession was made, sealed, and delivered by the very people who are now lying in the Arizona sun, casually dispensing with their retirement days. These nabobs of consumerism, who to this day remain contemptuous of anyone who dares to challenge their pseudo-religious doctrine of low-taxes, unregulated capital, and maximum warfare, are to blame for this economic disaster.  The children of Saint Ronnie and his revolution of personal irresponsibility have had their gluttonous feast and are now more than happy to have someone else's children pay the bill.

The Definition of Human Selfishness

Representatives of the human race have voted and decided to liquidate another species in the name of Mammon and short-term economic gain.

Delegates from 175 countries, representing the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, voted on a series of measures to eliminate international trade on the Bluefin Tuna and a variety of other animals that are posed for extinction.  According to the Washington Post,

The adult population of eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna has declined 74 percent over the past half-century, much of it in the past decade, and the population has dropped 82 percent in 40 years in the western Atlantic.

The proposal originally initiated by Monaco and agreed upon by the USA and several EU states, failed to achieve a majority position at the Doha, Qatar conference; with 20 nations in favor, 68 against and 30 cowards abstaining. 

Japan the greatest consumer of worldwide Tuna, imports nearly 80 percent of commercially traded Atlantic bluefin.  Similar to its extensive campaign to dissuade any international body from preventing it from harvesting whales, Japan has used its considerable economic clout to prevent limitations on any trade embargo or harvesting constraints in international waters.  Few deny that the motivations behind their stance are purely commercial.  As Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group said, "This was a case of just plain ignoring the science for short-term economic gain."

Japan is not alone in its posturing; however.  Canada, a country that has made itself into an environmental pariah by its fealty to dirty oil-sands production and the persistent refusal by its conservative government to acknowledge and address climate change, has actively sided with the Japanese on the tuna issue.  Canada's Minster of Fisheries, Gail Shea, applauding the defeat of the trade ban and touting Canada's own policies, which have permitted over the decades the devastation of Atlantic fisheries and the current collapse of Pacific Sockeye Salmon.  So when Canadians say they have a plan to manage fishery stocks, you can be certain that that species will be decimated.

To highlight the absurdity of the entire trade system, consider how Bluefin Tuna is cultured in Spanish waters; as relayed by the BBC.  The fish are initially kept alive in off-shore pens, where they are fed vast amounts of expensively caught fish (around 10-kg of feed fish serve to make the tuna put on 1-kg of body weight).  They are then harvested by hand using divers, packaged at a purpose-built factory, and flown -on the same day- to Asian markets.  All this so some silly twit can eat sushi with his/her choice of dipping sauce.

***

Additional background stories and commentary on this subject can be found here, here, and here.

Lehman Brothers engaged in Fraudulent Accounting

There are a great many people who are enamored with the conceit that all that was needed to be done to save the world from the Great Recession, was simply for the US government to have bailed Lehman Brothers out.  The explanations offered by former Lehman Chairman Richard Fuld, was that the bank was undermined by external agents who engaged in rumors, short selling, and stock manipulation that lead to an needless loss of confidence by clients and trading partners.  Such fanciful narratives hold little water now that a court appointed examiner’s report, to determine whether there was any fraud or other wrongdoing before Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, has been issued.  The conclusions are severe.

It is clear that the weapon of choice, as it has been in the past two decades when dealing with massive corporate fraud and malfeasance, has been management's willingness to utilize accounting gimmickry to conceal the actual health of their business.  In the case of Lehman Brothers, the company was already in bad shape by 2007 and as a result "the firm became addicted to a form of repurchase agreement known as Repo-105."

The report, by Anton R. Valukas, clears the air as to the inevitability of the Great-Recession by stating “Lehman was more the consequence than the cause of a deteriorating economic climate.”   Michael Hiltzek of the LA Times in his 17-March article points out:

Government rescue of Lehman, a la Bear Stearns or AIG, was never in the cards -- the firm couldn't find a willing buyer as Bear Stearns had, and unlike AIG it lacked the assets and collateral needed to fund a government bailout loan.

The examiner said Lehman used accounting gimmicks and had been insolvent for weeks before it filed for bankruptcy in September 2008.

The facts that have emerged to the public in the past week reveal a management structure that was either woefully incompetent or despite protestations, colluded with their independent accountants (i.e. Ernst & Young) to introduce an accounting maneuver, in the form of Repo-105’s, that hid more than $50 Billion.  In a conventional scenario, these assets would remain on a company’s books; however, Lehman’s booked them as a sale.  The reason for their actions was simple.  Pressured by investors and regulators to substantially reduce the company’s overall leverage, they repeatedly engaged in these clandestine manipulations to stave off collapse. 

In the end, Lehman Brothers was not destroyed by external forces, but by pre-eminent hubris.  Lehman’s had procedures and rules that would limit the company’s exposure to risk; however, when these obstacles were encountered it is clear they were simply ignored.  Furthermore, when Matthew Lee, Senior VP Finance Division, who was in charge of global balance sheet and legal entity accounting, brought up these irregularities with management and Ernst & Young accountants, he was quickly terminated.

Hiltzek draws a circle around the most egregious practices and malcontents in this sordid exhibition of capitalistic cannibalism:

One is the folly of relying on self-discipline and self-regulation in the financial markets. The credit-rating firms were utterly useless in appraising Lehman's true condition. Ernst & Young's dereliction seems so extreme that it deserves harsh punishment, maybe even extinction.

Since the markets have returned to their 2008 highs and no real reform has been legislated or implemented, everything is fine and there clearly is no need for the public to be further disturbed by the criminality of the perpetual fraud-mongers of Wall Street.

Wachovia involved in Mexican drug trade laundering

Wachovia Bank, which was absorbed by Wells Fargo & Co. in the subsequent tumult of the 2008 financial crisis, has over the past several years been the subject of a number of criminal and security related investigations relating to fraud, corruption, and questionable business practices.  For example, in 2007 Wachovia was identified in a lawsuit that it had indirectly participated and directly permitted "fraudulent telemarketers to use the bank’s accounts to steal millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims."

Documents from that lawsuit now show that Wachovia had long known about allegations of fraud and that the bank, in fact, solicited business from companies it knew had been accused of telemarketing crimes.  Internal Wachovia e-mail, for example, show that high-ranking employees at the nation’s fourth-largest bank frequently warned colleagues about telemarketing frauds routed through its accounts.

According to the NY Times, Wachovia was making enormous profits from charges associated with the operation of these fraud-engaging accounts.  Linda Pera, a Wachovia executive, wrote in an internal memo that “We are making a ton of money from them."

It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that Wachovia, in its zeal for profits and its internal policies for dispensing with ethical and legal responsibilities, has been engaged in the laundering of Mexican drug money.  The NY Times reports that the bank "will forfeit $110 million, representing the proceeds of illegal narcotics sales that were laundered through the bank" and will pay an additional $50 million fine to the Treasury, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.

The federal prosecutor in Miami began an investigation about three years ago, focusing on the supposed role of a Wachovia unit in processing illegal money transfers for Mexican exchange houses along the border between the United States and Mexico... Exchange houses in Mexico are part of the global remittance business that allows immigrants in the United States to send money back to relatives in Latin America. Federal officials say drug traffickers have used the money transfer business as a way to move cash around.

When it comes to corporations engaging is despicable and completely unethical behavior a simple slap on the wrist and a nominal fine is the standard.  Perhaps the US government should re-assess its stance, because from my perspective corporate crime, whether it was Enron, Iraqi war profiteers inside the Pentagon, or Wall Street investment houses, the number of crimes continue to escalate and get more grandiose with each passing year.