March 2005

Why Is It Acceptable for Charter Cable to Lie To Me

ArchPundit March 4, 2005 0 Comment

Given Eric has been going off on grocery stores, I’ve been thinking about my testy relationship with the cable company. If Charter was simply incompetent I wouldn’t mind much, but the customer service reps actually lie to me with some regularity. The best example was when I requested an episode be put on the VOD schedule as Showtime had it listed, I was told that they didn’t decide what Showtime put on and sent me to complain to a web site that was a ticket broker. I’ll assume the ticket broker was a mistake and not a lie, but it’s hard to spin the claim that they weren’t allowed to include a show, when the show was supposed to be included other than lying and making up an answer to get rid of the customer.

Last night I was informed that if a signal was sent to the wrong box it would fry the digital box. Of course, this is absurd as sending a packet of information doesn’t send enough power to the box to fry it (perhaps screw up the settings but they can remote reset).

Is it really easier for cable companies to just make up an answer than try and fix the problem? The only way this makes sense is if everyone has given up and just tolerates it–other than those that switched to a satellite dish. But how does Charter make money?

Oh, wait, they lost like $2 Billion. IT’s quite a comeback strategery they have too!

Only an idiot would think that I would do this

ArchPundit March 4, 2005 0 Comment

Hale in Time.

As Austin Mayor points out….really?

Both Hale’s parents have come to his defense with unintended black comedy:

Hale’s mother:
“Why does everybody think that it’s Matt?” And Austin offers up a pretty good reason

Her defense is that Hale isn’t dumb. Yeah, that’s why he not only threatened a judge who ruled in his favor, but was married to an Episcopalian.

And, of course, the “he was under surveillance” line is a bit weak.

It’s certainly true the police should investigate all avenues of possibllities, but when a guy says he wants a judge dead–believe him.

Just Retire

ArchPundit March 4, 2005 0 Comment

This and the white N******s line means someone has gone past his expiration date.

Yeah, it’ll probably be a Republican pick-up as an open seat, but the guy wasn’t that great for those that remember his efforts to block environmental legislation as Senate Majority Leader.

More Coal Than You Can Stand

ArchPundit March 3, 2005 0 Comment

Ralph points out some rather bizarre rantings from Jim Muir in the Southern that really resembles pouting more than anything.

Here’s Muir’s thesis:

As The Candidate you will remember the many times Obama traipsed through Southern Illinois in his bid to become a U.S. senator. In fact, I remember last April when The Candidate Obama, accompanied by The Elected Official Dick Durbin, visited the Southern Illinois University Coal Research Park in Carterville and made promise after promise about his commitment to help Southern Illinois residents secure jobs by doing all he could to revive the dying coal industry.

Yes, it was quite a day for The Candidate Obama in Carterville, the marching bands, smiling hangers-on and glad-handing politicians.

But sadly, that was then and this is now. In other words, that was The Candidate Obama, and now The Elected Official Obama seems to have forgotten that April day last year.

Muir’s either confused or wasn’t paying attention. Let’s look back to an AP Story on April 15th of 2004.

Obama and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who traveled with his fellow Democrat, also criticized pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules that they said would favor Western-mined coal, with its relatively low sulfur content, over higher-sulfur varieties mined in the East and Midwest.

Ryan’s campaign manager, Jason Miller, said Ryan also wants the proposal changed “so that there is no advantage given to Western coal over Illinois coal.”

The EPA has received several similar comments about the proposal, said spokeswoman Bonnie Piper. A final decision will be made on the rules after the public comment period ends April 30, she said.

Now, if the good Mr. Muir had been paying attention back in April he might have noticed that Barack Obama is doing exactly what he promised to do, and he seemed to be in agreement with Jack Ryan on the issue of Clear Skies and its effects on the use of Southern Illinois coal.

The entire thesis that the Clear Skies initiative will help Southern Illinois coal is very, very wrong. Barack Obama pointed this out in April and he’s held a consistent position since. One could disagree and make an argument that the Clear Skies Initiative will not be bad for coal, but that is an argument over the merits of Obama’s argument–not one over whether he lied. Obama didn’t lie and has held a perfectly consistent position.

Now, Muir does get Obama on one fact—Illinois doesn’t have one of the highest rates of asthma in the nation.

Muir gets upset that Obama mentioned his daughter who has asthma

But, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Research the number of people afflicted by asthma is almost exclusively determined by genetic issues such as small lung volume, low birth weight, repeated childhood infections and exposure to toxins like chemicals in cigarettes while in the mother’s womb.

But what Obama has said on this is quite specific. On February 25th, in a State Journal Register story, Obama said

“I’ve got a 5-year-old daughter who’s got asthma,” he said. “Every bit of evidence out there shows that although pollutants may not cause asthma, they are certainly an important trigger.”

Obama’s statement is perfectly consistent with the Centers for Disease Control’s statements on asthma triggers.

But Muir wasn’t done, he decided to get a dig in on Chicago:

It might seem if The Elected Official Obama is concerned about his daughter’s asthma the logical thing to do would be to keep her out of Washington and move her out of Chicago — perhaps to Southern Illinois where we have Clear Skies.

This is problematic on many levels, but start with the assumption that rural areas have better rates of asthma:

Illinois overall ~11%
Using CDC data

Using self-report data which is higher for a variety of methodogical reasons.
Chicago 21.2%
Rural counties 21.2%

One may argue that both higher than should be considered accurate, but there is no reason to think one is disproportionately affected by over self-reporting. IOW, the rate appears damn close.

Adding to that, is that Southern Illinois has several air quality problems related to high mold counts, some of the worst allergy conditions in the nation, and several areas have air pollution problems from the Saint Louis Metropolitan area.

The worst monitored county in St. Louis’ air quality region is Jersey County.

That natural conditions make asthma more difficult in Southern Illinois, should be a reason to take air pollution especially serious.

Jim Muir: a columnist in need of a good editor.

Clear Skies and Illinois Coal

ArchPundit March 2, 2005 10 Comments

Rich also points out an editorial that challenges Barack Obama to support the President’s Clean Skies Initiative.

This is probably the dumbest editorial I’ve read in years. I’m not exaggerating either. The Southern’s editorial board doesn’t seem to grasp even the most basic issues present in the proposal.

The Editorial suggests Obama push for the plan because it’ll help the coal industry, and by implication Southern Illinois.

It will help the coal industry, but not he Southern Illinois coal industry and much of this follows along the same lines of Glenn Poshard’s opposition to the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.

The most basic issue comes down to what happens when a tradeable permit system goes into place for SO2–sulfur dioxide. Coal from the region is high in sulfur and so any effort to reduce sulfur content other than specific scrubber types that remove sulfur down to a certain level pretty much makes the market move away from high sulfur coal.

The advantages of a tradeable permit system is that it allows the market to reach a level of air quality by using market forces to encourage the most efficient way to get to that level. A specific amount of emssions is allowed, permits are issues/auctioned, and then one can buy permits if they need more or sell them if they don’t need to emit as much.

Those that can reduce pollution the cheapest can sell off permits and those that cannot reduce it cheaply can buy permits to a point where a wall is reached.

But if the goal of Clear Skies is to reduce SO2 emmissions by over 50%, the incentive will be to use the cleanest coal with fewest technological costs. High sulfur coal requires expensive scrubbing equipment to reduce the sulfur that simply switching to western coal can avoid. If you are economically rational, you utilize the least expensive method to reduce emissions and that is easily switching to coal that is low in sulfur. further disadvantaging coal mined in Illinois.

It’s so mindboggling simple, that it’s hard to imagine that even the Southern’s editorial board doesn’t understand that Clean Skies privileges low sulfur coal.

Mind you, there are a bunch of policy reasons you might do that, but if your goal is, as the Southern’s ed board’s goal is, to increase the market for Southern Illinois coal, forget it.

I posted a story in comments about Obama’s position over at the Capitol Fax for more background.

If you want people to use high sulfur coal mandating scrubbers that essentially reduce the amount of sulfur regardless of the type of coal burned is the best strategy as Glenn Poshard long argued. He voted against the 1990 CAA because it privileged low sulfur coal (thanks to clever tactics by Daschle). That the Southern Illinoisan doesn’t understand that is a severe indictment of any claim they have to speak for that region in an intelligent way.

UPDATE: More detail in comments. Also a good point in Capitol Fax’s comments about the issue of the wet scrubber initial cost being a barrier even though in the long run, it would probably make economic and environmental sense.

UPATE 2: Even more on the Clean Skies Act and why the administration’s claims are not just economically illiterate, but logically inconsistent.

Brady Jumps In

ArchPundit March 2, 2005 0 Comment

Via The Capitol Fax

Bloomington State Senator Bill Brady is jumping or half jumping in the Governor’s race. I’m having a hard time figuring out why a State Senator is running for Governor in his first statewide attempt, but more to the point this can only be fun. In the 2000 Republican Primary in the 15th CD, Brady and Tom Ewing’s spawn entered into a mutual suicide pact in which both tried to out Christian the other. I remember visiting home and reading the letters to the editor which were all about how often they were at Bible Study. Not surprisingly then, Tim Johnson, never one to be accused of being overly religious, pulled out a win and ultimately won the seat.

At one point, the fight turned into one over a letter that said Ewing was the only Christian.

SPRINGFIELD – Following the blowup over George W. Bush’s visit to Bob Jones University last month, religion has become an issue in Central Illinois’ hotly contested 15th Congressional District race.

On Wednesday, a supporter of state Rep. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, claimed that a letter sent out on behalf of opponent Sam Ewing was “nothing but a veiled attack on Catholics.”

The letter, signed by B.J. and Jennifer Armstrong of Bloomington, was sent to 1,100 residents of the 15th District. In it, the couple wrote, “We believe Sam is the best candidate, and more importantly, the only Christian candidate in this race.”

Mike Stokke, who is a key Brady supporter, said that smacks of anti-Catholic bias. Another candidate in the race, state Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Sidney, also decried the letter.

“The Armstrongs know Bill Brady, and they are aware of his Catholic faith,” said Stokke, a Bloomington resident who is an aide to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. “Given those facts, I must conclude that their letter is intended to exploit Bill Brady’s religion as a campaign issue.”

Brady has never been a guy that struck me much at all, but is probably a decent fit for Bloomington. I can only hope he’ll provide tons of material. I can’t imagine the scenario where he pulls it out with the current and expected pack of candidates.

Fun Supremacist Surfing

ArchPundit March 2, 2005 0 Comment

The Trib reports that some of the white supremacist message boards are filled with glee over the Lefcow killing and Bill Dennis tells an amusing story about seeking out some of that

Stormfront demonstrates some of the obnoxiousness that makes them so beloved:

It would of course be unbelievably, transcendentally, stupid for any WN to express in public the opinion that this was a good thing.

It is good to know that I am not going to have to remoderate any one.

The moderator expressed the view that saying these deaths were a good thing, was inappropriate. You mistakenly extrapolated from that and felt obliged to say that these occurrences were misguided. Saying that these events were unfortunate, in public, is also unnecessary/inappropriate, IMO.

What this clown seems to be not condoning, but condoning includes this from Kass:

They were each shot in the head, or so we’re told, and Tribune reporters learned that Humphrey, who needed canes or a walker to get around, was in the basement and the canes were upstairs, indicating she had been dragged down there at the end.

Yeah. No reason to not think that is awful.

Of course, the idiots might also think a bit about Hale’s apparent motivation for originally wanting to kill Judge Lefcow. As Eric Zorn points out, Judge Lefcow ruled in favor of him, but was overruled by the Appeals Court and was enforcing their decision.

Did I mention Hale has a law degree?

Little Matt isn’t one of the sharper knives in the drawer–which should only make you think about those who follow him. But he had to demonize her and had a fictional story about her background to help him think of her as less than human. One part of that fictional story was that Lefcow’s husband was Jewish. In fact, Lefcow was a practicing Episcopalian as Zorn and Charles Madigan point out.

IOW, Matt Hale targeted a woman who ruled in his favor and who married a WASP. What more could Matt Hale want out of this woman?

While I think it is a grave mistake to equate Hale with conservatism , I think it is important to point out where some particular people who masquerade as conservatives spend their time. If you go to Stormfront for Kids, you see that Stormfront

1) has a Kids section which is deeply depressing in itself
2) Sports a pic of a Council of Conservative Citizens event

But it also should remind you of what kind of person Hailey Barbour is. He is former RNC head and current Governor of Mississippi.

The code in the text captioning the picture is cute:

The rally raises money for buses for a local private schools,

Local segregationist academies is what they really mean. Yes, local segregated academies in 2005. One can even be seen from the road if you take 55 to New Orleans. The Governor of Mississippi attended a fundraiser to pay for school bus service for people who think their kids going to schools with black kids is wrong. Now, I’m sure Haley Barbour will give you a shuck and jive about how he’s all against killing federal judges and I’m sure he is, but he certainly hangs out with some folks who hold odious views and yet, seems to be respected by many around the country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok follows these groups and reports on their interconnections in The Intelligence Report. It’s a good resource.

From the Mother-In-Law’s College Yearbook

ArchPundit March 1, 2005 11 Comments

At Kansas Wesleyan 1965 – 66

In better Salina, Kansas news, OWP (overprivileged white person) Steve Fossett continues his trek to stroke his ego and prove he can spend more money doing silly things than anyone else.

Hale Associates Soon to Realize Three Letter Federal Agencies Don’t Fit Well Up the Anus

ArchPundit March 1, 2005 24 Comments

Should be back to normal sometime tomorrow, but in terribly sad news, it would certainly seem likely that Matt Hale’s minions have murdered the mother and husband of US Judge Joan Lefkow. Certainly it could be a sad coincidence of random crime, but most likely this is a domestic act of terrorism and it is most likely to lead to a crackdown on Hale’s associates like they never imagined. And it won’t be enough. Judge Lefkow did nothing but act as a neutral enforcer of the law and for that we should all feel grateful.

For those terrorists who attack civilians to further their political point of view–you’ll lose.

And make no mistake about it, by attacking her family this is a terrorist attack. One might be able to classify a murder of a judge as a insurgent or guerilla attack as it is on an agent of the state–still just as wrong, but a different kind of attack.

Killing innocents is nothing new to the Hale crew as Hale henchman Benjamin Smith killed Ricky Birdsong amongst others in a two state killing spree.