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Windy City Mike
social democrat, ca. 1930 trade-unionist, and professor of alleged history

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Unmitigated Gall

Friday, September 21, 2007

Trafficking in Your Baby

What the crying hell is wrong with England?

A pregnant woman has been told that her baby will be taken from her at birth because she is deemed capable of â€œemotional abuseâ€, even though psychiatrists treating her say there is no evidence to suggest that she will harm her child in any way.

Social servicesâ€™ recommendation that the baby should be taken from Fran Lyon, a 22-year-old charity worker who has five A-levels and a degree in neuroscience, was based in part on a letter from a paediatrician she has never met.

advertisementHexham childrenâ€™s services, part of Northumberland County Council, said the decision had been made because Miss Lyon was likely to suffer from Munchausenâ€™s Syndrome by proxy, a condition unproven by science in which a mother will make up an illness in her child, or harm it, to draw attention to herself.

Under the plan, a doctor will hand the newborn to a social worker, provided there are no medical complications. Social servicesâ€™ request for an emergency protection order - these are usually granted - will be heard in secret in the family court at Hexham magistrates on the same day.

From then on, anyone discussing the case, including Miss Lyon, will be deemed to be in contempt of the court.

And we’re all worried about al Qaeda. How droll.

Posted by Johno on 09/21/07 at 09:53 PM
Crazy Foreigners • Holy Shit! • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Monday, September 17, 2007

I suppose this should make me sad

But it doesn’t. From a WSJ email, dispatched this evening to my inbox, this story:

NEWS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal

Sept. 17, 2007

William Lerach is set to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy in the criminal case involving the noted securities lawyer’s former firm, now called Milberg Weiss LLP. The plea agreement, which calls for a one to two year prison term, could be announced as soon as Tuesday.

I’m all for protecting the common man, the common investor, and I’m nothing if not both of those things. However, while Milberg Weiss (...Bershad Hynes & Lerach) LLP has always claimed that their seldom-seemly, and often seedy, pursuit of class action lawsuits, against any company whose stock price took a noteworthy downturn, was for the public good, I’ve never been able to agree.

Not in my stance as a champion of the unfettered right of public companies to run roughshod over their investors, either. Because I have no such stance. Instead, my dim view of him and all who practice his kind of law is justified by standard tactics he and his partners (current and former) have used in pursuit of specious claims. Think “greenmail”, ala Carl Icahn and Boone Pickens in the 1980s - make life tough enough for someone, even someone who’s got no basis for having to defend their actions, and they’ll pay you to go away.

As referred to in an Los Angeles Business Journal article of Sep 3, 2007, Lerach is an “economic terrorist”, and I don’t think that’s too tough a characterization of him. As the article says:

Lerach, of course, did not invent but did perfect the securities class action lawsuit. In that scheme, most any company that sustained a stock drop, even if it had nothing to do with anything of consequence, often found itself the recipient of allegations of fraud in a Lerach-engineered lawsuit. Likewise, companies that announced most anything negative could get the same kind of lawsuit â€“ often within hours of the announcement.

Lerach then pounded the company, using the discovery process to find some little scrap somewhere in some underlingâ€™s file drawer that â€œprovedâ€ the company knew that bad news could develop.

In other words, this guy, and all lawyers like him, specialized in swooping in any time there was even a flimsy pretext for doing so. I mean, there’s no way a stock could drop without malfeasance and lying on the part of management, right?

Well, no - that’s wrong. But Lerach, et al, after having put their lawsuit’s stake in the ground, would then embark on forced discovery at their target companies, essentially fishing around for a reason to justify their lawsuit.

And one doesn’t have to be a big-business apologist to find that sort of thing to be outside the bounds of fair and reasonable play.

Over the years, I’ve been the recipient of at least 50 securities class action solicitations. I received one just the other day, ”In re CARDINAL HEALTH, INC. SECURITIES LITIGATION“. And while I almost never take the time to participate in these paper chases, I’ve always paid particular attention to any such action which has either “Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP” or any of the many versions of “Milberg Weiss +/-Bershad +/-Hynes +/-Lerach LLP” listed as the attorneys looking out for my “best interests”.

Because they don’t, they haven’t, and investors are simply a raw material for them and their business process. And I throw their solicitations away as soon as possible, to avoid stinking the house up.

His former partner Bershad has already pled, and if the news report is correct, Lerach’s getting ready to do the same. It’s not the Christian thing to say, but I’m not much of a Christian anyway, so I’ll hope that Milberg, Weiss, and all the rest be following them to the pokey soon after.

Posted by Patton on 09/17/07 at 11:25 PM
Filthy Lucre • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Low Blows

There’s two things that I am for sure: a rabid pro football fan (American style) and a bleeding heart pablum puker.

So, I’ve been growing increasingly concerned over the last few years as reports have surfaced of the extent and callousness of the NFL’s disregard for on-field player injuries and for disabilities suffered by retired players. Now, I’m no idiot. I know coaches regularly put guys in numbed up against cracked ribs or a broken finger to finish a series or a game. It’s football! But when you get beyond that, into the realm of doping up a lineman with a broken spine and sending him into the game, or letting your QB or running back play when he’s been hit on the head so hard he’s not sure of his name, the date, or which way is up, that’s a different story. Then pro football with its pads and lucrative ad deals, devolves into mere crude bloodsport (rather than a bloodsport at a remove, which is so much more civilized and refined). My own New England Patriots and their coach Bill Belichick are reportedly among the worst offenders here, taking horrible and stupid risks with players’ health that has cut many careers, and doubtless many lives, short.

Now, again, that’s theoretically an uncomplicated matter of well-informed people making choices as adults to put themselves in harm’s way. But the truth, naturally is not so neat. Via unfogged I have found a fascinating and dismaying article in Men’s Journal about the shameful and shabby treatment of retired injured players at the hands of the NFLPA (the players’ union), the league itself, and the various bodies set up to take care of retired players.

[Wik] A final question: What sense could it possibly make to put a player who makes $6M a year, by contract, for multiple years, in harm’s way unnecessarily? How is that good business? Your journeyman halfback plays on an injured knee, blows out his meniscus and his ACL or fractures his spine, and then collects the rest of his four-year contract from the sidelines, unable to do what he was hired to do but owed every penny of his salary. Wouldn’t it make more rational sense to take better care of your players and try not to play them when injured, in an effort to preserve your investment in him? Hell, leaving aside the fact that this would be the decent thing to do, it’s economically sensible!

Am I right? Am I right?

Posted by Johno on 09/11/07 at 10:13 PM
Lead Pipe Cruelty • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Sunday, September 02, 2007

There’s Nothing More Pathetic Than an Aging Hipster

It’s so sad.

The New York Times Magazine has a deeply depressing ten-page spread this week about the New Savior of the Music Bidness, the One Hero Who Can Save Us All From Certain Penury and Unemployment From Our Phoney Baloney Jobs… Mister Rick Rubin!!

Yep, Rick Rubin. Helluva record producer. Helluvan ear on that guy. LL, Run DMC, Slayer, Anthrax, the Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash’s comeback, Neil Friggin’ Diamond’s very good comeback… that guy knows music for sure. But to save the music industry? Rick Rubin?

Please.

More Perfidious Goodness...

The thrust of the article is that Sony has made Rick Rubin the co-Head of Columbia Records, in the hopes of injecting a little of that wyld-ass energy he’s got into the proceedings, and in the process transmogrifying the ailing Industry into something leaner, meaner, and more efficent at siphoning money into the pockets of shareholders.

Now, there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with that, really. The job of a corporation is, indeed, to “maximize shareholder value.” So good luck with that. But check out some of the “hot” “new” “ideas” that Rubin and his co-Head, a middle-aged run of the mill British record exec named Steve Barnett

(I once worked for a sharp and dapper gentleman, a young pretty thing and a rising force in the Industry, who had a taste for shiny suits, expensive haircuts, and the saddest upscale parties I’ve ever been near, lame affairs where the lower echelons sucked down furious premium cocktails on the company dime while a D-list hipster celebrity like Tricky or the guy who played drums on that Bjork record lurked sulkily in a padded banquette until enough minutes had crawled past that he could reasonably said to have performed the favor of appearing. This particular person had a penchant for arranging the firings of underlings who, in his estimation, were not partying hard enough at company outings. This man had executive power and the trust of a wealthy aging blowhard who once was a person of some consequence in music, at least until he was let go.

...but at least let go more gracefully than the one who was sacked after refusing to leave his hot tub to take an urgent call from the CFO, with an unfortunate sequence of words by way of instruction to his minion, such words being unfortunate due to their inference as to the character and moral standing of the CFO, and their audibility in the conference room at the other end of the line, the minion having failed to put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone…

... the wealthy aging blowhard mentioned two paragraphs prior recently being heard to remark an interview, “I love iPod. I think iPod is great...")

...a run of the mill British record executive named Steve Barnett have cooked up to save Columbia, save Sony, and save the World.

This summer, Columbia Records began a program called Big Red. The company invited 20 college students from Harvard, Penn State and the University of Miami to work on various music projects. The interns concentrated mostly on the digital marketing and promotions departments in Columbia’s offices in Midtown Manhattan, which are on Madison Avenue in a granite skyscraper designed by Philip Johnson.

At the end of their paid internships, the students took part in focus groups that were closely observed by Steve Barnett, Rubin’s co-head at the label, and Mark DiDia, whom Rubin brought in as head of operations, as well as by other Columbia executives. The focus groups may have been the real point of Big Red â€” Barnett and the New York executives, especially those who had been at Sony for years, wanted to try to take the pulse of the elusive music audience. “The Big Red focus groups were both depressing and informative, and they confirmed what I â€” and Rick â€” already knew,” DiDia told me afterward. “The kids all said that a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don’t consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over, it’s just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That’s how they hear about music, bands, everything.”

Well, duh. But wait! There’s an idea here!

At Rubin’s suggestion, [Barnett] has also set up a “word of mouth” department, which will probably employ some members of the Big Red focus group along with dozens of other 20-somethings. The “word of mouth” department will function as a publicity-promotional arm of the company, spreading commissioned buzz through chat rooms across the planet and through old-fashioned human interaction. “They tell all their friends about a band,” Barnett explained. “Their job is to create interest.”

Wow. Damn. The secret to rescuing one of the greatest labels in the history of the world, and the flagship of one the big five… four… three sir! record companies is, pay some teenagers to go on the internet and pretend to give a shit about bands to their friends.

Shit! If only someone’d tried that eight years ago, set up a guy as, I dunno, the “internet marketing manager” and given him money and access to interns eager to tell their buddies all about the next big never-gonna-be, an’, an’, indie companies that you could pay to get content on dorm-room televisions, an’, an’ on campuses and into high schools and skate parks! If only every label in the world had tried that exact strategem back at the advent of the decade, the ship mighta been wrenched around by that critical arc minute to swing it juuuuust wide of the iceberg!

Oh, wait. They all screaming goddamn well did.

Brilliant, gentlemen.

But what else have they in mind?

Rubin has a bigger idea [I bet he does (-Johno)]. To combat the devastating impact of file sharing, he, like others in the music business (Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine at Universal, for instance), says that the future of the industry is a subscription model, much like paid cable on a television set. “You would subscribe to music,” Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. “You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You’ll say, ‘Today I want to listen to ... Simon and Garfunkel,’ and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.”

So, say I’m somewhere like, I dunno, my buddys fire pit in Northeastern Ohio. We got a bale of primo bud and a cooler full ale. And we wanna rock the fark out to Motorhead. All we gotta do is… wait… dude, do you get broadband out here?

But at least Barnett sees reason here:

Steve Barnett is nervous about the subscription model. “Smart people have told me if the subscription model is not done correctly,” he said, “it will be the final nail in our coffin. I’ve heard both sides of the argument, and I’m not convinced it’s the solution to our problems. Rick wants to be a hero immediately. In his mind, you flick a switch and it’s done. It doesn’t work like that.”

So, what you’re sayin’ is, your highly paid guru who has no office, no shoes, no phone number you can reach him on, and an oracular perspective on the Future of the Industry, is halfway fulla shit. Noted.

But this is where the antics spill over into full-on Larry/Curly/Moe madness. Check this shit out!

Barnett has other ideas, which he is discussing with Rubin. For instance, asking Columbia artists to give the record company up to 50 percent of their touring, merchandising and online revenue. This is unprecedented â€” even successful artists like the Dixie Chicks make a large percentage of their income from concerts and T-shirts.

So let’s break this down good so even the dim kids in the back of the class get it. Artists signed to major labels get this much money from album sales:

Zero.

If they go reaaaaaaly far, shift a few million units, that number can rocket all the way up to

A little.

Artists, every artist, from the overly earnest hairy-legged songbird down at your local coffe joint, to Buckethead’s wife’s excellent band, to Cheap Trick, to the Rolling Stones, Prince, and Barbra herself, make money in these ways:

Touring and appearances

Merch (t-shirts, keychains, beer coozies, etc.)

Whatever b.s. online revenue streams they can dig up.

If the artist also happens to be a songwriter, or to control their own publishing, they may also get decent to spectacular paydays off of that as well, and forego some of the above. (The rap and electronic worlds also have their alternate revenue streams, but at the end of the day they amount to a new flavor of touring, merch, online B.S., publishing, or songwriting.)

So, basically, leaving aside songwriting and publishing which are separate pillars of the business, with their own contracts, deal structures, and support agencies, the magic bullet that’s gonna save Sony/Columbia from disappearing up their own anii while simultaneously collapsing in a fiery heap while offstage a muted trumpet plays “waaah-waaah” is, WE’LL FIND OUT WHAT MONEY OUR ARTISTS ARE EARNING, AND MAKE THEM GIVE IT TO US INSTEAD!!!

(While, one presumes, twisting their moustaches in glee and twisting their monocles deeper into their eye sockets, the better to see the young immigrant boys they hired straight off a plane at JFK for a nickel wrestle each other to their deaths. Sweet suffering Jesus; there’s villainy, and then there’s incompetent cartoon villainy.)

So, while the money man is looking at grade-skool level larceny as a viable corporate survival strategy, what’s the GURU up to, Stu?

[Rubin is] always on a quest to find just the right thing, whether it be a book or a building. Recently, he hunted down the brand of water that claims to have the greatest level of purity (Ice Age); he pored over architectural manuals to determine what kind of hinge would have been used in 1923 (for his house); and when Johnny Cash was ailing, Rubin discovered a kinesiologist whom Cash credited with extending his life. And so on. Rubin has always been passionate, even compulsive, about his interests.

Gentlemen, I say with mingled regret and pleasure that you all deserve everything you get.

[Wik] Oh, and another thing about that “Big Red” focus group? Isn’t it a truism that kids these days (kids these days!!) have finely tuned bullshit detectors that can see right through most forms of marketing known to man and many which haven’t even been invented yet? And a bunch of teenagers on the intarnets getting paid in free.... what.... free CDs??? Free “subscriptions” to whatever music download service Sony pukes up?... are going to somehow outwit their peers?

I’ve seen it a hundred times. Pimping music is wonderful and even fulfilling when you can really believe in the quality of the record you’re working. Then it’s no so much like whoring, and more like evangelizing. But nine times out of ten, you’re actually getting paid to pretend that some giant steaming turd is really a tasty sandwich, when everyone from Prague to Paducah can see the difference. And that not only sucks the soul right out of you, it’s how record companies and their hacks become hacks. The stink of hack clings to the hacky hacks like cigar smoke and drug store perfume clings to the upholstery in the $20 lapdance room out at the Moonlight on old Route 11. And you don’t really come back from that.

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Johno on 09/02/07 at 11:20 PM
Darwin Award Contender • Entertainment • Filthy Lucre • It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell • Music Wonkery • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Saturday, July 07, 2007

A potential new item for Bud Lightâ€™s â€œReal Men of Geniusâ€ series?

I bring you David Gross of San Francisco, who not only:

...asked his bosses for a radical pay cut, enough so he wouldn’t have to pay taxes to support the war.

but

In any event, his employer turned him down and he quit.

Which, I guess, good for him, standing up for his convictions that way and all. Left unanswered, at least for now, is whether federal taxes are levied on the wages of “guests of the Federal Government”. Why would I be curious about that? Because

Gross, 38, now works on a contract basis, and last year he refused to pay self-employment taxes.

Pre-mug-shot

All by itself, that doesn’t distinguish him from a lot of people. The AP story notes that between 8 and 10 thousand people fail to pay their taxes for reasons similar to those of Gross. Contained in the story, at a meta-level, is the fact that this particular non-Rhodes Scholar allowed the AP to write a story about him evading taxes. Nothing like calling out the IRS by name to get them to leave you alone. Posing in two pre-mug shots for the story? A priceless addition, though I’m sure the Feds could already have found him whenever and wherever they needed to.

Of course, these days, he won’t end up becoming a guest of the Federal Government:

Unlike the days when Thoreau was sent to prison in a tax protest against the Mexican-American War, modern war tax protesters rarely go to prison, according to tax resisters. The IRS may take their money from wages and bank accounts - with penalties and interest - after sending a series of letters.

“They’re very polite, which makes it a little boring,” said Rosa Packard of Greenwich, a longtime anti-war tax protester.

But if he thinks he is going to avoid collection of his taxes owed, by hook or by crook, after having trumpeted his resistance on a national newswire, he’s perhaps not smart enough to be gainfully employed, as a contractor or otherwise.

Will his protest, and others like his, have the desired effect? As James Taranto said in the OpinionJournal piece where I first saw this story, “Something tells us the economy will survive.”

(also posted at issuesblog.com)

Posted by Patton on 07/07/07 at 12:37 AM
Darwin Award Contender • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Monday, June 11, 2007

Sucker

Murdoc, of the world famous Murdoc Online, has foolishly entrusted me with the keys to his website. I’ll be guest posting over there for about a week, and you can check out my first attempt at losing him his reputation and traffic here.

Posted by Buckethead on 06/11/07 at 07:39 PM
Just So You Know • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Monday, June 04, 2007

Alex, I’ll take “About damned time” for $500

Via CNN: Congressman indicted in global corruption case

Story Highlights
William Jefferson faces 16 charges of bribery, obstruction, racketeering
Louisiana Democrat’s schemes reached across Atlantic, prosecutors say
Investigators found $90,000 in Jefferson’s home freezer
Search of Capitol Hill office prompted constitutional questions

I hope that the long time between the refrigerator raid and the indictment helped the Feds guarantee this smug, smarmy, thieving fuck does hard time for the rest of his life.

Posted by Patton on 06/04/07 at 11:58 PM
Filthy Lucre • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Sunday, June 03, 2007

The purity of essence of our precious category tags

Patton has accused me of being overly concerned about wasting a scarce natural resource. The category tag. In this, of course, he is completely wrong. Naturally, I could have argued that over-categorizing a post dilutes the utility of tags. And I would have been right. But that wasn’t the point. I was attacking him on aesthetic grounds, and just to stick a stick in his eye.

Just to prove that I am not some sort of homo-tree-hugging-enviro-commie, this post, which really is about everything, is tagged with every category we have. And, when I have a free moment, I’ll add some new categories, and add them to this post.

So there.

Posted by Buckethead on 06/03/07 at 09:34 PM
No Category • Crazy Foreigners • Darwin Award Contender • FakeBlogging • Entertainment • Filthy Lucre • Holy Shit! • It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell • Just So You Know • Lead Pipe Cruelty • NaNoWriMo • Music Wonkery • Partisan Politics • Perfidy • Perfidy Attacks • Perfidy Responds • That Buck Rogers Stuff • The Miracle of Science • Unmitigated Gall • War • Permalink

To Love Science is to Hate Freedom, and Vice Versa

With my first kid’s arrival growing ever more imminent, I have like any responsible father been looking forward to the day when my young son (for a son it is) gets his first chemistry set. More even then that, I have been looking forward to the day when the boy successfully blows something up using ingredients found in said chemistry set.

But apparently, that makes me a terrorist. Wired has a spectacular and detailed article about the difficulties facing home science enthusiasts these days - to buy a couple Erlenmeyer flasks is to be flagged as a producer of crystal meth, and to go so far as to purchase sulfur, potassium perchlorate, and powdered aluminum in one go is to presumptively contravene the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. We are living in strange days if the Feds are raiding private homes and carting off science stuff in the name of national security, but it’s undeniably happening. As a consequence, the chilling effects are making it harder and harder (in this age where the drumbeat goes “America is losing its edge in science!") to do nifty stuff at home that kids can take with them to MIT, CalTech, or, hell, even little Hiram College, the Harvard of the Midwest.

American society in general has taken some great steps forward in ensuring the safety of young children. Many of the laws enacted to protect kids more or less do that job. But for my dollar, just as I oughta be able to smoke a fat doob in the comfort of my own living room and watch Blazing Saddles, and just as I oughta be able to procure Vioxx for myself if that’s what takes care of the chronic pain that keeps me from any kind of rewarding life and I’m fully aware of the risks of heart attack that I am taking on, I oughta be able to spend some time with my kid making stinks, crystals, and small scale bangs in the garage.

Glenn Reynolds has been posting recently about a few books that I’m surely going to keep around the house: the recently published The Dangerous Book for Boys and 211 Things a Bright Boy Can Do, and The American Boy’s Handy Book, originally published in 1888 and featuring all manner of entertainingly dated knowledge like how to make a blowgun, and the rudiments of home taxidermy.

I can’t in good conscience raise children who can’t use a screwdriver, can’t light a fire with two matches, have never made a home volcano, and have never had the oh-shit thrill of packing a D size rocket engine inside a B-rated model rocket and watching that sonofabitch fly high and drift at least a half-mile off course into the housing development three treelines away. It wouldn’t be American.

Posted by Johno on 06/03/07 at 02:28 PM
It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell • The Miracle of Science • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Friday, June 01, 2007

Comparative legal analysis

What do these two suits have in common?

”Couple sue Wal-Mart over slip in vomit“
(AP/Nashville Tennessean)

and

“ACLU: Boeing offshoot helped CIA“
(AP/Houston Chronicle)

Simple:

They each have a distinct odor associated with them
They’re both based on slippery circumstances
They’re both as baseless as the day is long

Only one of them, however, appears to have been categorized by the Associated Press as an “Odd Story”. So let’s look at that one first:

More Perfidious Goodness...

Couple sue Wal-Mart over slip in vomit
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP)—A woman’s fall in a puddle of vomit has resulted in a lawsuit against Wal-Mart. June Medema, slipped in the vomit at a Davenport Wal-Mart on June 13, 2005, according to the lawsuit, filed by Medema and her husband, James, in Scott County District Court earlier this month.

Medema claims that she was seriously injured in the fall.

The lawsuit alleges that Wal-Mart’s negligence led to Medema’s fall, but it does not specifically say how the store was negligent.

John Simley, a Wal-Mart spokesman, decline comment saying he hadn’t seen the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that Medema suffered serious neck and upper back injuries in the fall and has undergone several surgeries and is unable to work.

It’s a mercifully short story, so it’s included here in its entirety. All you need to know is in that third paragraph - “...but it does not specifically say how the store was negligent.” In order to prove negligence, of course, the Medemas will have to prove that Wal-Mart knew the vomit was puddled on the floor. Which will be rather difficult - if they didn’t see it, why should Wal-Mart have done so?

As to the second story, I can completely understand the ACLU going after a Boeing subsidiary - They can’t sue the US government or the CIA on a classified matter, so they simply picked someone else in the transaction chain to sue.

NEW YORK â€” A Boeing Co. subsidiary that may have provided secret CIA flight services was sued Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three terrorism suspects who claim they were tortured by the U.S. government.

The lawsuit charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. enabled the clandestine transportation of the suspects to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other “forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The ACLU, of course, has been known to provide valuable legal services. They’ve also been known to tilt at windmills in pursuit of an agenda that tends to be decidedly leftist. Not “liberal” - leftist. As I said, I can understand their grasping at straws to find someone to sue, because money-grubbers have to go where the money is, even if they expect to get no money out of the matter.

I just can’t understand why they think their suit will survive a summary judgment request. Jeppesen Dataplan didn’t man the flight, didn’t own the plane, and didn’t load or unload alleged passengers from the alleged extraordinary alleged rendition alleged mission. Jeppesen provides flight planning services. Logistics.

Undaunted by this bit of reality, the ACLU soldiers on:

The ACLU said the company “either knew or reasonably should have known” that they were facilitating the torture of terrorism suspects by providing flight services for the CIA.

That’s one of the ten most absurd things I’ve read in the last 48 hours. Having been on flights which used the services of flight planning companies like Jeppesen, and having occasionally been with the pilot when he was planning the flight, I’m comfortable asserting that in no case did a flight services vendor demand to know, let alone show even the slightest interest in, what the purpose of the flight was. Which is just as well - it would have been none of their business, and they’d have been told as much.

It occurs to me that there are two other things these two suits have in common - they’re both weakly disguised fundraising attempts, and neither one will be successful at anything other than garnering publicity for its plaintiff.

Also posted at issuesblog.com

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Patton on 06/01/07 at 02:31 AM
Filthy Lucre • Holy Shit! • It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell • Just So You Know • Perfidy Attacks • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Monday, April 30, 2007

Back from a short vacationâ€¦

...and once again, I find myself astounded by the institutionalized idiocy of the Transportation Security Administration.

Thanks to Richard Reid, for instance, I still get to experience the silly waste of time inherent in removing my shoes and running them through the scanning equipment. Thanks to the efforts of the 21 alleged terrorists in the UK during the summer of 2006, passenger screening personnel still get to inflict the silly waste of time inherent in depriving passengers of any liquid or gel not contained in a properly sized receptacle, or that receptacle itself not contained in the proper 1-quart see through bag. (See also this item on the Department of Homeland Security’s designation of an entire state of matter as a national security risk)

More Perfidious Goodness...

A screener told me yesterday, with no small hint of pride, that, Yes! We still check all passengers’ shoes! This, in sleepy little Myrtle Beach, SC, where many, though not most, of the flights are turbo-prop or 57 seat commuter jets with presumably low value as flying projectiles, and even lower value as targets for suicide bombings.

The experience reminded me of the many instances in which Bruce Schneier has had occasion to comment on the misguided nature of our government’s reaction to events, including its apparent fetish for adding every new terrorist’s trick to the permanent list of reasons for inconveniencing the traveling public, while adding no safety to the equation at all. Zero. I would direct the curious reader to this list of articles on Mr. Schneier’s site for a thorough review of all that’s wrong with the manner in which our bureaucratic overlords maintain their ridiculous pretense to be adding to our security. He’s rightly called it “Security Theater”, among other things.

At the time of this writing, the link just above produces a list of 244 such articles. They cover the failures of security, the knee-jerk TSA reactions to events, the useless political correctness and abuses of power inherent in current process, and the arguably unconstitutional restrictions on rights to redress for incorrect blacklisting or commentary about the process as you’re having it inflicted on your person. Add to this the gaping productivity hole (estimated at $10 billion/year and up) left by the process, the passengers’ costs for security (you didn’t think the airlines were absorbing that, of course), and factor in a rational cost/benefit analysis (even under the assumption we wanted to guarantee that no person ever died except from natural causes) and it seems clear that security is not just irksome - it’s poorly and stupidly implemented.

Luckily, it’s not yet illegal to parody the process while away from airports.

(also posted at issuesblog.com)

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Patton on 04/30/07 at 01:10 PM
Just So You Know • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Saturday, April 28, 2007

This Week in Exemplary Human Behavior for 4/28/07

From time to time (as often as our stomachs will allow us to manage it) we at the Ministry will look closely into the depths of human depravity both comical and twisted, and drag up whatever we find there for consideration. The general hope is that by bringing these stories into the light of day we can make them rarer. The usual effect is, instead, we end up sad and depressed about the future of the species.

So, onward!

Dateline: Washington, DC

The Washington Madam scandal has claimed its first victim: The State Department’s senior diplomat in charge of USAID, which is devoted to stamping out sex trafficking, human exploitation, and AIDS, has resigned, having copped to using a perfectly innocent telephone service to hire nice Latin American women to come to his house and give him nice therapeutic “massages” in exchange for some untraceable cash money. Nice!!

Dateline: Crazytown

Newsflash: Michelle Malkin has finally completely lost her shit.

Dateline: The Congo and elsewhere

The New York Times has a heartwarmer on the rising use of child soldiers in the pointless conflicts of Africa, because they are loyal, pliable, and uncomplicated by higher philosophical thinking (plus they’re easy to make more of). The article also notes that, in a cunning twist, the strongmen who hire them have at this point given up even the thinniest pretenses of a “cause,” preferring to cut right to the basic raping, killing, and stealing as their main kinks.

... aaand that’s enough for this week. I think I’m going to curl up in my bed under the covers for a while and wish real hard.

Posted by Johno on 04/28/07 at 10:40 PM
Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

That’s Un-American!

Who would have thought that making quality products would lead to world-wide domination? Apparently not GM, who just slipped into second place behind Toyota. When reached for comment, GM spokesmen replied, “They cheated.”

The last American car I bought was a 1963 Cadillac, 20 years ago. Based on my experience with friends and relatives, I don’t believe that I will buy any others in the near future - the sole exception being the potential purchase of a used pickup. The reason? They suck. Just ‘cause they’re made here (which, strictly speaking, they’re aren’t always) is not reason for me to subject myself to unreliable and poorly engineered vehicles.

[Wik] Patton also posted on this very topic, but was too shy to post it at Perfidy. I will do him the favor of reproducing it here:

Hide the women and children! To the storm cellar, pronto! The Japs have sold 90,000 more cars than the, (quick - whatâ€™s a light-hearted pejorative for Detroit natives?) the Detroit guys!

â€¦

Hey, wait a minute - so what? That little statistic is even less important than the dates and times at which the Dow Jones Industrials crossed each of the 1,000 point barriers, that is, â€œnot at allâ€.

Given the fine mess thatâ€™s characterized GM these past few years, including poor results, billions of dollars in losses, junk bond ratings on its corporate debt, the jettisoning of the majority of its GMAC finance arm to Cerberus, the bankruptcy of Delphi, which it tried (and failed) to hive off as a separate, self-sustaining entity, and the battles with Jerry York, Kirk Kerkorian, and Tracinda, the fact that Toyota has passed them in sales is neither surprising nor particularly newsworthy.

Theyâ€™re rather lucky to still be ahead of Ford, itself a company that is, as Monty Python might say â€œnot at all wellâ€.

Xenophobes and Detroit residents may mark this day as one that will live in infamy. More rational sorts will simply see it as the logical end to a progression that Toyota began, 20 years ago, when they started making cars better than General Motors was able or willing to do. Given that my last four vehicles have been made by Toyota, perhaps my objectivity isnâ€™t perfect in this matter.

My post has the advantage of pithiness, but Patton got several more jokes in.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/24/07 at 11:32 AM
Filthy Lucre • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Saturday, April 21, 2007

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery…

We ought to also consider the possibility that disingenuousness is the most obsequious form of lying.

Found while catching up with my overload of simultaneously delivered Economist issues, a story entitled ”Counterfeit cars in China“, and subtitled “The sincerest form of flattery”.

Of course, there have historically been regular instances of copyright, trade secret, and patent law violations in China. (Google search links, returning 1.3M, 287K, and 981K document hits, respectively). An argument can be made that such infringement is how third-world and emerging economies grow to become full players in the global market. That argument would ring true, however offensive the concept that “all you need to do to grow is to steal and learn”.

COPYING in China goes far beyond fake DVDs, watches and handbags. â€œWe can copy everything except your mother,â€ goes a saying in Shanghai. Soy sauce with fizzy water passed off as Pepsi, fake Cisco network routers (known as â€œChisco’sâ€) and mobile phones that look like the latest offerings from Nokia can all be easily found. So, too, can fake blood plasma.

Aside from the blood plasma (which I don’t understand how one might fake), the rest of it is all old news. Counterfeiters of high-value manufactured goods should be restrained by to the barriers to entry, including “huge capital investment”.

Of all the products to copy, however, a car is surely the most complicated. Cars consist of around 6,000 precisely manufactured components made from a range of different materials. For a car to be cheap, reliable and long-lasting, says conventional industry economics, these parts need to be put together in factories with huge volumes, lots of expensive machinery and many well-trained engineers.

Turns out that in China’s case, that’s not as true as might be hoped:

So it came as a surprise when counterfeit cars started to appear in China eight years ago. Early VW look-alikes were soon followed by the infamous Chery QQ. It appeared six months ahead of the car it copied, the Chevy Spark, because a Chinese firm somehow got hold of the blueprints.

All quite troubling, and it goes beyond the Chevy/Chery, affecting many other established manufacturers.

More Perfidious Goodness...

Yes, it’s part of emerging economies’ growth path, and yes, once they get to the point where they’re creating more intellectual property than they’re stealing, balance will be restored in many areas, including balance of trade, manufacturing costs, and living standards. But that doesn’t happen overnight, and at some level, the imbalance causes pain in the trading system, yielding such things as (in the US) calls for trade protectionism.

Aside, however, from any arguments about whether, when, and how balance will be restored, it seems reasonable to expect some honor among thieves, no? Honor of the sort I’m considering would be that, if you’re going to steal, at least don’t lie about it, and if you’re going to lie about it, at least put in the effort to make the lie plausible, if not believable.

What’s triggered this mild outburst of mine on the subject? This:

Shuanghuan Automobile got into trouble for copying Audi’s famous four-ring logo a few years ago. It then copied the design of Honda’s CR-V, called it the SR-V and appears to have won the subsequent legal tussle. Last month the firm won an export licence, and it plans to start shipping another model, the CEO (pictured)â€”a sport-utility vehicle with a striking resemblance to the BMW X5â€”to Romania and Italy.

Copying DaimlerChrysler’s small two-seater Smart car seems to have become especially popular. In January Shuanghuan launched an electric version, called the Dushi Mini. It followed in the tracks of Shandong Huoyun Electromobile, a firm that makes golf buggies, which launched its own version last year and announced plans to sell the car in Europe for less than half the price of the original. After Daimler threatened to sue, the car was temporarily withdrawn. A spokesman for the Chinese firm said he had been surprised by the way his car resembled the original, explaining that the company had simply copied a toy car.

A toy car? Excuse me? Who’s their spokesman, I wonder? Tommy Flanagan? Baghdad Bob?

Growing up to achieve a seat at the adult table in international trade would seem to preclude such blatant disingenuity. In the circumstances, the spokesman could have been expected to be at least a little sheepish after such an utterance.

(also posted at issuesblog.com)

Too Goddamn Much Perfidy...

Posted by Patton on 04/21/07 at 10:18 AM
Filthy Lucre • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Plan Red

Should we need to invade Canada, we have at least one plan. Back in the interwar period, the United States maintained a series of color coded plans for wars with various potential enemies. Most well discussed of these was Plan Orange, which actually ended up being a big part of our actual war plans against Japan in the Second World War. Less well known is Plan Red, the plan for war with British Empire.

In the plan, the war was assumed to be continental. I imagine that this is because it was an Army plan rather than a Navy plan, and as such, it focused on “Crimson” which is Canada. The plan in its entirety can be found here, but the essentials are simple:

Step One, a joint Army/Navy assault on Halifax and the Maritime provinces to cut off Canada from reinforcements from Britain. Step Two, land assaults from New York and Vermont toward Montreal and Quebec City, with Quebec being the primary target. This would cut Eastern Canada off from the rest. Step Three, assaults from Niagara and Detroit into Ontario. Seizing these areas would deny the enemy their industrial facilities, staging areas for air attack, and secure control of the Great Lakes. Step Four, a thrust towards Winnipeg to cut the Trans-Canadian railway and communications between the far west and Eastern Canada. Finally, Step Five, an assault on Vancouver which would lead eventually to the occupation of British Columbia and deny Canada access to the Pacific.

This seems like a good plan, decisive strikes to disable communication, followed by occupation. Seeing as 90% of the Canadian population is within a three-day march of the American border, Canada is not exactly easy to defend. This plan, suitably updated to incorporate changes in the geo-political and military worlds, would likely have an even greater chance of success than it did in 1935. Alongside the phenomenal American military advancements over the last few decades, Canadian military strength has greatly diminished. Did you know that Canada once had the third largest Navy in the world? Canada’s one real hope in ‘35 would have been to slow down an American offensive long enough for Britain to come to her aid. Now, Britain would find it nearly impossible to come to the aid of her former colony in the face of opposition from the US Navy.

The initial invasion would almost certainly be successful. But the idea of 33 million pissed off Canucks no longer across an international frontier is not exactly heartening.

Posted by Buckethead on 04/19/07 at 04:47 PM
Unmitigated Gall • War • Permalink

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There’s Nothing More Pathetic Than an Aging Hipster

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A potential new item for Bud Lightâ€™s â€œReal Men of Geniusâ€ series?

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Sucker

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Alex, I’ll take “About damned time” for $500

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The purity of essence of our precious category tags

To Love Science is to Hate Freedom, and Vice Versa

Friday, June 01, 2007

Comparative legal analysis

Monday, April 30, 2007

Back from a short vacationâ€¦

Saturday, April 28, 2007

This Week in Exemplary Human Behavior for 4/28/07

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

That’s Un-American!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery…

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Plan Red

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A potential new item for Bud Lightâ€™s â€œReal Men of Geniusâ€ series?