Daily Duck Dissects Daily Dish's Gaza Disconnect

In "Andrew Sullivan's Tidy Little World" The Duck attacks this humble blog's idiot namesake for his"wobbly sensibility." (A great turn of phrase that I'm sure to be stealing).

Unfortunately, The Duck's martial diplomacy is awfully reminiscent of a certain resolute someone. We know how that worked out.

-AF
*edited for clarity and sanity.

Newsflash: Bush Administration Finally Bases Policy Decision on Science!

Or "Duck season!" "Rabbit season!" "Duck season!" "Wolf season?"*

For almost eight years, courts have blocked every Bush administration attempt to kick gray wolves off the federal endangered species list. Today the Bush administration gave it one last try. Their justification? The gray wolf spent 34 out of the endangered species list's entire 35 year existence. So its population must be suddenly all better now. From the AP:

...the decision was based on science independently of policy considerations and that it was a watershed moment for a species first listed as endangered in 1974.

"Returning this essential part of our national heritage to so much of our natural landscape ranks among our greatest conservation achievements," Scarlett said.

Leave it to the Bush administration to say, "We've done this wonderful nature thing for America. Now let's kill it."

I don't know why Bush's DOI has had a hard-on for wolves Smells like Cheney. I can see it now...Ole Dick has plenty of free time coming up. Perhaps one of his friends will nice enough stake a wolf out in his Wyoming yard so Dick can shoot it from the comfort his porch. "If it weren't for that damn law!", Cheney bellows, "If it weren't for that damn law..."

Where was I?

It's no accident Lynn Scarlett made this announcement. I bet for weeks she was positively licking her lips in anticipation. Scarlett's official bio sez she "coordinates Interior's environmental policy initiatives to implement the President's executive order on cooperative conservation" -- a stunning piece of Newspeak that implies cooperation between anybody other than the Bush Administration and their campaign contributors.

Lynn Scarlett has a master degree in poli-sci and worse is a die hard -- as in ex-Prezzie of the Reason Foundation (motto: "free minds & free markets") -- libertarian. Now you know how I feel about libertarians (here, here, here, here, here and most especially here). Exactly the qualifications I don't want in our Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

Free market environmentalism my ass!

I'm counting the minutes until these people get kicked out of town.

-AF
(HT: Raw)

Hudson River Plane Crash Caused By Flock of Geese

Unbelievable. In January no less. I'm old enough to remember a time when geese would fly south for the winter.

If you still needed to be convinced that there's something drastically wrong with our ecosystem, this should do it.

-AF

ACLU Rips Whistleblower Law

The ACLU filed a complaint today along with ACLU of Virginia on behalf of themselves, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and OMB Watch. Here's the skinny:

Complaints filed under the False Claims Act (FCA) are automatically filed under seal and those who file them are gagged from speaking about them, keeping the complaints secret from the public for months or even years. "Secret courts and secret proceedings have no place in this country," said Chris Hansen, senior staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. "There are plenty of procedures Congress or the courts could adopt to preserve the interest of privacy when it is warranted without enlisting the courts in a blanket scheme that automatically gags people who have information about possible abuse of taxpayer dollars.

Apparently our whistleblower law gets almost everything bass ackwards by protecting the contractors, the military, our government -- everybody but the taxpayer. Ronald Reagan kicked it up a notch by pushing through an amendment to screw this law up further:

Under the FCA, originally enacted by President Lincoln to combat war profiteering and other contractor fraud against the federal government, private citizens are entitled to bring complaints of fraud on behalf of the government. A 1986 amendment to the law requires that FCA complaints are automatically filed under seal and whistleblowers who file the complaints are gagged from speaking to anybody about them. The seal and gag are not lifted until the Justice Department decides whether it will pursue a complaint, which can be anywhere from 60 days to several years later. According to the Justice Department there were approximately 1,000 FCA cases under seal as of July 2007.

Whoa! Enacted by Lincoln?!? 1,000 sealed cases?!? That's seriously fucked up. Nothing personal Abe. I don't ever want to hear the words "Lincoln" or "sealed cases" in any paragraph related to the Iraq War.

The bottom line:

According to today's complaint, the FCA secrecy provisions have hidden an unknown number of allegations of military contractor fraud during the Iraq War from the public, raising concerns that the government may neglect to take action against certain contractors.

If we're to be serious about this business of war, which despite Obama's election we give every indication we are (Hello? Afghanistan?), we better damn well retool a 140+ year old anti-war profiteering law more that once every 20 years.

-AF

Note: Two foundations that provided major funding for the ACLU were cleaned out by Bernie Madoff. Help the ACLU keep fighting the good fight by donating here.

60 Minutes On Oil Prices

Sunday's 60 Minutes lead story delved into how speculation caused oil prices to soar. Well, duh.

Not so fast, Sunshine. The news is the very Wall Street investment houses that jacked up the prices of that sweet, sweet crude are in the oil business too:

Morgan Stanley isn't an oil company in the traditional sense of the word - it doesn't own or control oil wells or refineries, or gas stations. But according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Morgan Stanley is a significant player in the wholesale market through various entities controlled by the corporation.

It not only buys and sells the physical product through subsidiaries and companies that it controls, Morgan Stanley has the capacity to store and hold 20 million barrels. For example, some storage tanks in New Haven, Conn. hold Morgan Stanley heating oil bound for homes in New England, where it controls nearly 15 percent of the market.

The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs also has huge stakes in companies that own a refinery in Coffeyville, Kan., and control 43,000 miles of pipeline and more than 150 storage terminals.

And analysts at both investment banks contributed to the oil frenzy that drove prices to record highs: Goldman's top oil analyst predicted last March that the price of a barrel was going to $200; Morgan Stanley predicted $150 a barrel.

Both companies declined 60 Minutes' requests for an interview, but maintain that their oil businesses are completely separate from their trading activities, and that neither influence the independent opinions of their analysts. There is no evidence that either company has done anything illegal.
(Emphasis mine)

Oil prices are one more way Wall Street's bigger players fucked us coming and going and coming again. When oil futures and everything else all went boom, they backed up the truck to the US Treasury and had Paulson load 'em up.

Where Goldman Sachs Keeps Their Oil.

When called on the carpet by Congress, big surprise, they lied their asses off:

Yet when Congress began holding hearings last summer and asked Wall Street banker Lawrence Eagles of J.P. Morgan what role excessive speculation played in rising oil prices, the answer was little to none. "We believe that high energy prices are fundamentally a result of supply and demand," he said in his testimony.

As it turns out, not even J.P. Morgan's chief global investment officer agreed with him. The same that day Eagles testified, an e-mail went out to clients saying "an enormous amount of speculation" ran up the price" and "140 dollars in July was ridiculous.

Yep, these fuckers sold us the "China, Russia, India and the Tooth Fairy caused an unbelievable increase in demand" bill of goods. I mean how many times were we fed that lie by the media? We just nodded our heads and sucked it up.

A new MIT study and US Government stats for that time period worldwide supply increased at the same time demand actually decreased:

A recent report out of MIT, analyzing world oil production and consumption, also concluded that the basic fundamentals of supply and demand could not have been responsible for last year's run-up in oil prices. And Michael Masters says the U.S. Department of Energy's own statistics show that if the markets had been working properly, the price of oil should have been going down, not up.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've been had.

I did have a major problem CBS' story. It seemingly let the oil companies off the hook. I'm sorry but if wordwide supply is up and demand is down, how do the Big Oil companies make record, almost exponentially greater, profits?

Taking "Smart" Drugs for Kicks

London Independent columnist Johann Hari scores Provigil on the internet without a prescription from "a foreign pharmacy." First he marvels at it. He stops taking it just to see. Then he starts up again only to quit when his "conscience" wake up too.

**Yawn**

I know Hari is an acclaimed journalist but does his story sound as contrived to you as it does to me?

As a former avid user of recreational drugs, I risk playing the hypocrite. So be it...

Due to legitimate health reasons, I've taken Provigil since it's become available here in the US. I know well the risks involved and I've chosen to take them. In return, unlike any other medication I've tried, Provigil has allowed me to live a more normal life.

It concerns me that folks are using Provigil recreationally when scientists still have only a purely theoretical understanding of its mechanism. This drug has been used by a statistically insignificant population for a relatively short period of time too. We have no idea what the long term effects are if any for prescribed usage.

I also happen to have severe ADHD. In addition to Provigil, I've taken Ritalin, Concerta et a over the yearsl. Compared to Adderall, Provigil just makes me a jitter-free wide awake scatterbrain. In truth, the jury is out as to whether or not Provigil helps concentration in any way other than allowing you to avoid feeling physically fatigued. A simple Google search will turn up almost as many studies concluding Provigil is not helpful in treating ADHD as there are where it is.

-AF
(HT: Raw Story)

They Said It. I Repeat It.

"President Bush exudes serenity as he prepares to leave office, content that the war in Iraq is nearly won and he had the fortitude to buck his party despite incredible pressure to withdraw."

Fox News
01/10/09

-AF

The Next Generation of News Junkies

Will grow up not knowing what a daily print newspaper is.* Looks like The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be but the first giant to fall. (Deets here and here).

A large part of this has to do with publishers' inability to adapt a centuries old business model to a new millennium (i.e. finding a way to make the internet pay without completely alienating readers à la TimesSelect). Yet had they done so, the paper newspaper was still doomed. Our economic crisis and the resulting plummet in advertising revenue greatly accelerated the pace.

I confess to reading rags online each and everyday. Nothing could be more convenient. I scan The NY Times, WaPo, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, The LA Times, etc., without leaving my home and without adding to my ever unmanageable recycling bin. The search function saves time while allowing me to access archives too.

Nevertheless, an internet edition does not provide the same experience as thumbing through an actual, physical newspaper. There's a certain Zen quality to this ritual. These days I'm find myself wondering how many stories of interest I miss by not skimming the ol' gazette page by page.

If you think your newspaper and TV newscasts suck now, there are major implications inherent to the death of the print newspaper. Tops on my list:

1. Drastic cuts to both broadcast & print media newsrooms/bureaus worldwide have already caused the quality and depth of reporting to suffer. This will only get worse.
2. How many times have you seen newspaper reporters on TV explaining stories they broke and/or broadcast news missed? Say bye-bye.
   
3. We will rely on more news from fewer credible sources.
4. Fewer credible news sources allows information to be that much more easily controlled and manipulated by corporations, special interest groups and governments.
5. Fewer news sources means reporting errors & omissions go unnoticed & uncorrected for longer periods of time if at all.
   
6. All kindsa huge decisions (diplomacy, politics, economics, health...) may be made on the basis of incomplete context, inaccurate information and/or flat-out propaganda.
   

There's a more personal aspect to this seismic paradigm shift that I find difficult to express. It has to do with how despite the marvel of the Internet, I feel in many ways our world becomes a colder, duller, smaller place by the minute.

Or maybe I'm just old.

-AF

*I can't help but be reminded of how the advent of the MP3 seemingly doomed the phonograph. But unlike my beloved turntable, the new breed will not come to dig a superior old skool product.

Our Culture is Completely FUBAR

Juuust how fucked up is it that AOL Parent Dish has an inset of "Top Baby Names 2008" in any story about increased teen birth rates for half our country's states?

I say very fucked up.

-AF

Hospital Hell

Mrs. Forester sprung me yesterday. My 24-hour EEG became a 48-hour EEG. Unfortunately, it was a total waste of time. And very uncomfortable.

It was a bad sign when I was served chicken for my first meal. I had told them I would eat anything but chicken. I'm allergic to chicken.

I take a whole lotta, whole lotta medicine. Even though I showed up at the hospital with a typed-out detailed medication schedule, the hospital completely fucked up my "pain management." This despite spending at least 30 minutes of my intake interview with the neurology resident specifically going over my meds.

I'll spare you the gory details. I did not get any useful test results. I left very much the worse for wear.

I don't know when I've been so glad to be home.

-AF