Are they cute or what? Go see the blog to read the story.

Abramoff has been sentenced in the case filed in Florida. Regarding the Washington case, a few days ago, John Hinderaker at Powerline made the following observation about Bob Novak’s article that said Abramoff claimed he has nothing on Tom Delay:

Which means, I think, that allegations relating to DeLay have turned out to be all smoke and no fire. The criminal charges against DeLay by the corrupt and hyper-political Travis County D.A., Ronnie Earle, are, I think, a joke.

What I still don’t understand is, what exactly is the Jack Abramoff “scandal”? Abramoff got caught trying to defraud investors in a cruise ship, but that had nothing to do with Congress. Yet prosecutors gave him a break in return for his agreement to testify against Congressmen. The question is, does he have anything to say?

If we begin by acknowledging that neither lobbying nor making political contributions is illegal, or unethical, or in the slightest degree blameworthy, it is hard to tell from the news coverage to date what the “scandal” is. The only Congressman named in the criminal information filed against Abramoff is Bob Ney of Ohio, but, as I noted here, the claims relating to Ney appear weak. So far, I’ve heard no inkling of any more substantial evidence Abramoff has offered to give against any other Congressman.

I’m not saying there isn’t an Abramoff scandal. There might be. I just can’t figure out what it is.

I read the indictments and information and wondered if there was really evidence showing that Abramoff committed the crimes. I have also posted information from To The Point News on the issue.

Dagney from To The Point News has two new articles on the issue. I have permission to post them.

Here is the first

JACK ABRAMOFF, THE RUSSIANS, AND THE THREE GATES OF THE TORAH

Contributed by Dagny D’Anconia

Friday, 24 March 2006

Jack Abramoff is currently running a small business in the Washington DC area. He has said it has nothing to do with government or lobbying, instead focusing on real estate, energy and movie business. He named it “Middle Gate Ventures”.

The choice of a name is very interesting. Abramoff is a very devout Jew and a lawyer. He knows the Torah well. Jewish law is spelled out in the Torah in three parts.

The “First Gate” deals with law concerning criminal and violent actions.

The “Middle Gate” deals with honest disagreements between people of good will.

The “Last Gate” deals with laws that help prevent disagreements between people.

The three gates of the Torah deal concretely with these three kinds of law, but they also deal with three ways of dealings between people. They reflect spiritual growth from the first to the last gate.

Even though he is now in “Middle Gate Ventures,” he once started a company called “First Gate”. He did it for a group of Russians in the oil industry who indicated that they wanted to drill for oil in Israel. However, the executives of this oil company (Naftasib) were not your average businessmen. They were former KGB spooks.

The enterprise “First Gate” (also known as First Gate Resources) was with Naftasib which was and is run by Marina Nevskaya (its deputy general manager). She was, according company documents, an “instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers”. Naftasib is associated with the Russian Emergencies Ministry and former Prime Miniser Viktor Chernomyrdin, and is a Russian Ministry of Defense and Ministry of the Interior supplier.

The whole idea of which is stupid since we weren’t intended to be a Democracy either, but rather a Republic. In other words, our government was founded to be based on the rule of law protecting the individual, rather than the rule of the mob.

It looks like Sharia law (the law of the collective) and mob law are going to win out in Afghanistan. They dismissed charges against one Christian.

Now, they’ve arrested others:

A monitor of Christian persecution says two more Afghan believers have been jailed in the wake of the case of Abdul Rahman, a convert to Christianity who faced the death penalty under the nation’s Shariah law.

According to Compass Direct, two other Afghan Christians were jailed in the past few days.

Can we please stop pretending that the Muslim culture or whatever you want to call it, is anything BUT a danger to our country? Can we stop pretending that we can make over Muslim countries in our image? Can we stop dreaming that if we let them over here in masse, that their children will become fans of Beavis and Butthead, and thus, okay with American culture.

Can we, instead, be mentally and physically ready to kick the crap out of them if they they pose a real and imminent threat to us?

Otherwise, let’s just buy their oil and let them be in their brutish, backward, poverty-inducing, dictator-magnet, filthy countries.

Oh, and go look at Barely a Blog for a great piece entitled, DEATH FOR APOSTASY AS ISLAMIC AS APPLE PIE IS AMERICAN.

About the Afghan Christian being threated with death.“This is clearly not the end of the story,” Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., told Fox News today. “The dots spell out Islamic fanaticism. ... We will not let this matter rest.”

Go read the whole story. Rep. Lantos gets in the Afghan President’s face.

Perhaps this is a good division of labor. Congress can speak truth to barbarism and the President can try to help them save face—so they don’t act like psycho’s over the fact that we “shamed” them.

It’s a good thing that I’m not a diplomat—I’d just as soon tell them to kiss my grits than allow them to save face. I’m definitely in a Jacksonian mood tonight.

This author is not worried because he believes that Evo Morales can be bought.
I particularly like this part of the article:

No, our interest in Evo flows from our interest in all world improvers. And the burden of this little essay, as so many others, is that the world would be better off without them.

“But shouldn’t a person try to do good?” asked a colleague yesterday. “What about the good Samaritan?”

Yes, we reply. But there’s a world of difference between doing good and being a do-gooder. The person who does good does so at his own risk and expense. The do-gooder’s good is at someone else’s expense.

A person does good when he adopts a child. The do-gooder limits families to one child only…and sets up orphanages at public expense. A person does good when he cleans up a fly-tip; the do-gooder sets up a Department of the Environment and then sets it on his neighbours. A do-gooder runs for public office…invades foreign countries…makes money spending other people’s money…but he would do the most good by minding his own business. Governments by definition are in the business of minding everyone else’s. And Bolivia seems to have had more than its fair share of them.

And about being bought, look at this,

But all the evidence thus far suggests that this government will not be too different from the other 190 that preceded it. “Even before taking office,” writes James Petras, “Morales gave the green light to the privatization of MUTUN, one of the biggest iron mining fields in the world.” Why? He was bought, say his critics.

After the election was won, Morales proceeded to appoint the usual hacks – many of them holdovers, has-beens, and power-brokers from previous governments. He assured his indigenes that he was building a new society for them based on a new form of socialism. Meanwhile, he assured business leaders that real socialism was not on the agenda for another 50 to 100 years. He promised to “tax the rich” – and then took most of them out of the target group. And in private talks, he is said to have assured the US ambassador that things in Bolivia will remain more or less as they have been.

Things I feel sick about:

That even one of our troops died because our approach to the war in Afghanistan was designed to help the populace as opposed to geared only to crushing a country that helped terrorists attack us on 9-11.

So what if we liberated women? Look at what this “liberated Afghan woman jailer” says about freedom of relgion,

“We will cut him into little pieces,” said Hosnia Wafayosofi, who works at the jail, as she made a cutting motion with her hands. “There’s no need to see him.”

Hosnia, baby, a few years ago, you would have been shot for working outside the home.

To hell with these people. I want my tax money that was used to rebuild Afghanistan back. I say that we leave and if they lift their heads to support anyone who tries to hurt us, we make their country into nuclear glass.

Not one of our soldiers should die to support these people’s “rights”.

Another rant,

What the hell have we wrought over there? What kind of judiciary that purports to be fair includes judges who say the following about a case THAT HAS NOT EVEN YET BEEN TRIED?

Judge Ansarullah Mawlawizada, who is handling the case, said he normally takes two months to decide on cases. But because this case is so serious, he expected to hold another hearing within the next week and make a decision.

Mawlawizada, who kept Rahman’s green Bible on his desk, said he respected all religions. He emphasized that he did not favor the aggressiveness of the Taliban, who cut the hands and feet off criminals in a soccer stadium. But he said Rahman had to repent.

“If he doesn’t regret his conversion, the punishment will be enforced on him,” the judge said. “And the punishment is death.”

The Afghans can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.

The year is 2012, and the United States has recently elected the first woman, as well as the first Jewish president, Susan Goldfarb.

She calls up her mother a few weeks after the election and says, “So, Mom, I assume you will be coming to my inauguration?”

“I don’t think so,” her mother replies. “It’s a ten hour drive, your father isn’t as young as he used to be, and my gout is acting up again.”

“Don’t worry about it Mom. I’ll send Air Force One to pick you up and take you home. And a limousine will pick you up at your door.”

“I don’t know, dear. Everybody will be so fancy-schmantzy, what on earth would I wear?”

“Oh Mom,” replies Susan, “I’ll make sure you have a wonderful gown custom-made by a world-famous designer.”

“That’s nice, honey,” Mom continues, “but you know I can’t eat those rich foods you and your friends like to eat.”

The president-elect responds, “Don’t worry Mom. The entire affair is going to be handled by the best caterer in New York, kosher all the way. Mom, I really want you to come.”

So Mom reluctantly agrees, and on January 20, 2013, Susan Goldfarb is being sworn in as president of the United States of America. In the front row sits the new president’s mother, who leans over to a senator sitting next to her.

“You see that woman over there with her hand on the Bible, becoming president of the United States?”

The senator whispers back, “Yes I do.”

Says mom proudly, “Her brother’s a doctor.”

I wondered if this would happen. As a debtor nation, we can only go so far when asserting our sovereignty as we debate issues such as the UAE taking over our ports. Perhaps this explains Bush’s “stubborn” position.

The governor of the UAE central bank, Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi, said the bank was looking to convert 10 per cent of its reserves, which stand at $23bn (£13.5bn), from dollars to euros. “They are contravening their own principles,” he said. “Investors are going to take this into consideration [and] will look at investment opportunities through new binoculars.”

Will this cause the real estate bubble to expel a little air on its way to bust?

Blogging has been light because I am deep into the book, The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the the Welfare State by James Dale Davidson & Lord William Rees-Mogg. The book starts out describing the rise of government during the Agricultural Age when assets became fixed, more abundant and more vulnerable to predation. Government first arose as a protection racket.

I relate to this book because I cringe every time I hear Bush talk about bringing democracy to the world. He, among others, seems to be convinced that democracies are not warlike. This book makes the case that this is not true.

The book points out that the Industrial Democracy has been the most efficient mechanism ever at extracting resources from its citizens that can be used for war as well as social welfare. Such nation states always run deficits because the actual paying customers of the nation states have very little say in the conduct of its affairs. By customers, the authors mean those who pay the taxes.

Rather than being a customer-run entity, the modern democratic nation-state is employee run. That doesn’t mean that it is run by only those actually directly employed by the government. Included in the term “employee” are “increasing numbers of voters” who have been “effectively put on the payroll to receive transfer payments and subsidies.”

The authors say this about an customer- run nation-state as opposed to an employee-run state,

Those who pay for democratic government have little to say about how their money is spent. Instead, it functions as a co-op which is both outside of proprietory control, and operating as a natural monopoly. Prices bear littl relation to costs. The quality of service is generally low compared to that in private enterprise. Customer grievances are hard to remedy. In short, mass democracy leads to control of government by its “employees”.

Think what this means. It inescapably implies that when magnitude means more than efficiency, governments controlled by their customers cannot prevail, and often cannot survive. Under such conditions, the entities that will be most effectively militarily are those that commandeer the most resources for war. But goverments that are truly controlled by their customers who pay their bills are unlikely to have carte blanche to reach into the pockets of everyone to extract resources.

So much for democracies being less likely to wage war.

And, if you want to learn more about those deficits, read this article about government accounting practices. The author figures that the government didn’t think that anyone would really read the U. S. government’s consolidated financial statements. Here is a taste of what the Comptroller General of the United States has said in this report,

“The current financial reporting model does not clearly and transparently show the wide range of responsibilities, programs, and activities that may either obligate the federal government to future spending or create an expectation for such spending. Thus, it provides a potentially unrealistic and misleading picture of the federal government’s overall performance, financial condition, and future fiscal outlook. The federal government’s gross debt in the consolidated financial statements was about $8 trillion as of Sept. 30, 2005. This number excludes such items as the gap between the present value of future promised and funded Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans’ health care, and a range of other liabilities (e.g., federal employee and veteran benefits payable), commitments, and contingencies that the federal government has pledged to support. Including these items, the federal government’s fiscal exposures now total more than $46 trillion, up from about $20 trillion in 2000. This translates into a burden of about $156,000 per American or approximately $375,000 per full-time worker, up from $72,000 and $165,000 respectively, in 2000. These amounts do not include future costs resulting from Hurricane Katrina or the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security…

“Addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal imbalance constitutes a major transformational challenge that may take a generation or more to resolve. Given the size of the projected deficit, the U.S. government will not be able to grow its way out of this problem—tough choices are required.”

EEK!!

I don’t know if the UAE running our ports would raise a security issue. All I can say is that since I read Empire of Debt, all I can think about is our debt position with regard to the rest of the world.

According to the book, we are a huge debtor to the rest of the world. China holds billions of dollars in treasury bills and other financial assets, and if they decided to sell, interest rates would rise, “(t)he housing boom would turn into a housing bust. The imperium would have to beg its subordinate states for more credit.”

I wonder how much in t-bills Dubai holds?

Jim Webb who is running for U.S. Senator in Virginia, will be on television tonight. I just got the following notice:

Dear Jim Webb supporters,

You’re invited to watch Jim’s first national television appearance since officially kicking off his campaign earlier this week. Jim will be the special guest on Comedy Central’s ‘The Colbert Report’ tonight at 11:30 p.m. The show will re-air on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.

WHAT: Jim Webb on The Colbert Report

WHERE: Comedy Central

WHEN: Wednesday, March 8, 2006
11:30 PM

Note that the above is Eastern Time. I have never heard of this show, but I intend to watch.

I just finished reading Empire of Debt : The Rise Of An Epic Financial Crisis by William Bonner and Addison Wiggin . I could hardly put it down this past weekend. It is both funny and terrifying. It challenged all my assumptions and positions.

Here is an excerpt from the back of the cover,

In America, we know what we have to do. We have an empire to run. Outlying places to police. People to boss around. Sabres to rattle. And an economy that has to remain Numero Uno. Unfortunately, history shows that running an empire is a disastrously expensive business. You pay in cash. You pay in blood. And you pay with your own soul.

The book is part history, part economics, part finance. It traces our empire building back to Wilson. You will cringe at Wilson’s expressions about his grand ideas. Or, perhaps our empire building started with Teddy Roosevelt.

Regardless, the authors point out that we are a funny kind of empire. The Roman Empire made money through empire building. The Romans extracted loot and tribute. Instead, we spent money on our outliers—making some of them rich enough to become our biggest competitors.

If that’s not absurd enough, think about this. The authors point out that our biggest creditor is China. China has loaned us billions of dollars. They sell us products that we don’t make anymore and then take the dollars and loan them back to us. We take those dollars and spend them on such ventures as bringing democracy to and rebuilding Iraq.

Think of it this way. We are borrowing the savings of some of the poorest people on Earth and spending them to “make Muslims in Iraq like us”. Is it possible that this is absurd?

This book makes a strong argument that we need to spend a little time on the financial mess in our country, rather than trying to improve the countries of others.

I highly recommend it.

I hope it’s not the taxpayers or someone who loses their property to eminent domain.

Austin’s already got the world’s best cyclist. Why not add a world-class indoor bicycle racing track?

Or think bigger — move the headquarters of the national governing body for the sport here and create a museum dedicated to seven-time Tour de France winner and hometown hero Lance Armstrong. Along the way, grow the top program for up-and-coming cyclists, from youths to Olympians to the pro ranks.

A nonprofit group, the Austin Velodrome Project, is pushing to build a $35 million indoor velodrome in the city. The proposed facility, which has the support of Armstrong, would seat 5,000 people around a banked, 250-meter wooden track, where coaches could closely watch athletes. It would provide a place for uninterrupted, year-round training.

“It would make Austin the center of the cycling universe,” said Todd Reed, a corporate attorney and director of the board of the Austin Velodrome Project.

If the velodrome gets built in Austin, Gerard Bisceglia, head of USA Cycling, which oversees all amateur and professional bike racing in the U.S., says he would consider moving the group’s headquarters — along with the national and Olympic cycling teams — from the Olympic Training Center site in Colorado Springs, Colo., to Austin. Cyclists now train on an outdoor track at the center but travel elsewhere to ride during the cold, snowy months.

Hmmmm…

The Austin group has its eye on four possible sites for the velodrome complex. Major national companies, which Reed declines to name, have been approached for corporate sponsorships to help build the velodrome, he says, but none has committed pending a site decision. Other money for the project could come from government grants such as the Texas Enterprise Fund, an economic development program, Reed says.

Texas Enterprise Fund?

Is that one of thoses types of economic development programs that are often behind eminent domain actions?

Perhaps.

Back to the story,

One proposed site is part of a privately owned tract in Central Austin. Reed says a local developer bidding on this undisclosed tract has told him a 4- or 5-acre velodrome complex could be incorporated into the larger site. The other three proposed sites are on public land. One is at the southeast corner of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and Town Lake, at the site of an old landfill now used for overflow parking during events at Zilker Park.

Another possible site is the Butler baseball fields on Toomey Road, west of Zachary Scott Theatre Center. Velodrome proponents have suggested sharing parking facilities with the theater or including new city Parks and Recreation Department offices in the project. Those offices now front South Lamar Boulevard on the east end of the site.

“We’re supportive, but neutral,” said Ann Ciccolella, managing director of Zachary Scott, which operates on public parkland. A November bond issue election includes money to expand and rebuild the theater.

I think that Ann Ciccolella should be a little worried about this.

I would hate to see businesses or parks or ballfields that Austin residents have been enjoying for years, swept away to attract outsiders. It seems to me that “economic development” helped along by the State is often at the expense of long time residents and for the benefit of outsiders.

I am very wary of this project.

Owen and Mzee have been united since Mzee’s treatment for a crack in his shell. The above picture was taken a few hours after Mzee became irritated with Owen who was nibbling at Mzee’s feet. Mzee pushed Owen against a wall. Now they are buddies again.

The Caretaker is working on introducing Owen to Cleo. Here is a picture of Cleo resting her head on her tub.

Go buy the book!

Today is Texas Independence Day. On this day in 1836, Texans declared independence from Mexico. Here is a copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

We won our independence from Mexico that same year. But, conflict with Mexico was not over. We fought the U.S. -Mexican War beginning in 1846.

I studied a lot of Texas history as a kid in school. Fortunately, I missed the revisionist version.

Even so, I never learned about this,

The second half of 1915 and first half of 1916 witnessed 30 terrorist invasions of Texas sponsored by the government of Mexico, and, in response, of Texas Ranger counter-terrorist excesses. Hundreds died and half the population of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas temporarily fled the guerrilla fighting.

My maternal grandmother was on the border about that time. Her stepfather was a soldier with Gen. Black Jack Pershing who was down there to chase Pancho Villa. My grandmother even wrote a little story about hearing Villa’s men during a night time raid.

Of course, we have recent reports of Mexican soldiers allegedly escorting drug smugglers over the border. Now, we have this report published today, Texas Independence Day,

So-called “rockings,” as Border Patrol officials describe incidents like Thursday’s, have become so prevalent in recent years that the federal agency has erected high-impact plastic glass barriers in spots along the Rio Grande where agents can park their vehicles in and around El Paso. Agents in some parts of the border are even starting to see “flaming rocks” — rocks wrapped in cloth, soaked in alcohol and lit on fire.

“We’ve had rock assaults where there was certainly sufficient velocity to break a windshield,” Boatright said.

“Nobody did get hurt today but rocks can cause severe damage to someone’s skull or face.”

Somehow, I don’t believe that the men who died in the Alamo, or who protected the “come and take it cannon” in Gonzalez would tolerate the present conditions on the border for one second.