Postcards from Ledge

Posted: September 1, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 elections, 2012 presidential campaign, just because, Mitt Romney, New Orleans | Tags: , , , , | 41 Comments

Isaac was not Katrina in many ways.  That is not to say that getting through the past and next few days has not and will not be challenging.  I did not evacuate so I was home when the ceiling started dripping in the bathroom and the hall. I was safe in a motel in Lake Charles during Katrina with Honey (who died 9 months after Katrina), Karma (as you know she died two mornings ago in the last of Isaac’s rain bands) and Miles (who is still hogging all the breeze from the crack in my bedroom window, undoubtedly).  I am sitting at Coop’s–once more–trying to charge up the phone and borrow the internet.  I did this a lot 7 years ago. There are no clean up workers eating here this time.  There are a bunch of weary New Orleanians and a lot of gay guys celebrating Southern Decadence that are completely oblivious to the shortage of electricity, food, gas, and patience outside these precious 12 blocks.

The National Guard has been trying to hand out MRES, ice, and water at the Navy station on my block that’s no longer federal property but state.  It was dark during the storm and there were no black berets staring me down.   I am tired and the noise is every where.  Post-Katrina, everything was deathly silent.  I go home to listen to endless generator noise.  I stay in the quarter and it’s just one big party that’s unaware of anything going on outside the bubble.  That kind’ve reminds me of the RNC and the statue that the Republicans have given the electorate this year.

I’m supposed to dial 211 and get help from the endless number of not yet open non profits.  Yup, that’s his idea of hurricane recovery help.  See if any of the nonprofits that were taken down right along with you can get their acts together fast enough and their volunteers back in the office to help any one else that’s also taking it on the chin right now.  I wish I had a second house to go to.  It would be nice if the biggest decision I had was chosing a Cadillac out of the car elevator to match my Guccis daily or stressing over my horse not doing well in its dancy showy thing at the Olympics.  The rest of us just have to rely on the scraps that are thrown us.  Oh, and my guess is that the Romneys don’t give to the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, etc. or any of the myriad of charities that do help with disasters. Probably yet one of the many reasons they won’t show us their taxes.  The “you people” just don’t need to know.  They should dial for charity dollars.

Did I mention that Romney wants to privatize FEMA?  The Federal Levees worked.  The City did much better this time out.  Every government agency learned from Katrina and functioned well this time.  (That includes the NOPD which is not high on my respect list as you recall.)  The only group of people that have been a complete screw up this time is our damned privatized electric company.  You can listen into call in shows and read the comments on the media outlets here to get the story.  That’s the response Romney wants to give us.  Call the charities and hope a for profit organization won’t cut costs and people so much that you won’t be without for weeks.

Embracing a radical anti-government ideology from the most extreme elements of the Tea Party, Romney said that the victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and other communities hit by tornadoes and flooding should not receive governmental assistance. He argued it is “simply immoral” for there to be deficit spending that could harm future generations:

Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. […] We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.

I would like to argue that it is simply immoral to keep giving folks tax breaks to plant their money in the Caymans and to build the economy in other countries and to undermine the wages and earnings of US workers.  It is also immoral to hide your tax returns from the people you want to hire you to “lead” them.

I was thinking that I really have gone from disbelief at what Romney has said and done in the past to a stone cold dislike of the man.

The day Karma died I could not find the SPCA or any one to help me.  I tried to bury her and the water filled up the hole in the back yard as soon as I pushed the shovel in the ground.  I drove first to the police station who told me to call “animal control” or the SPCA.  I drove over there and left her in a blanket and bucket in front of their door.  My sweet companion of over 15 years was left on the SPCA doorstep with the hope they’d cremate her properly.  They are still not open.

Go home and dial 211 my ass.  The man should be sent to live in elsewhere, not elected President.

Monday Reads

Posted: August 27, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Mitt Romney, morning reads, New Orleans | Tags: , , , , | 55 Comments

Good Morning!

Well, TS/Hurricane Isaac is drenching Florida and headed towards the North Gulf.  The weather forecasters appear to be confused by its signals because their models have yet to indicate a consistent target.  It appears to be Bay St Louis at the moment.  Anyway, it’s a wide enough system that New Orleans is in the warning band and folks around here are nervous.  It will make landfall 7 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina changed everything here.  Folks have run a lot of gas stations out of gas and markets out of the usual hurricane supplies like ice, batteries, and strawberry poptarts (ugh!). I think the media is hoping they get a story out of us, frankly.  The mayor is asking us to shelter in place.  However, the weather channel sent us Jim Cantore.  That’s never a good sign. Hopefully, he’ll head towards Mobile some time on Tuesday.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on Aug 29, 2005.  It is estimated that the total economic impact in Louisiana and Mississippi exceeded $110 billion, earning the title of the most expensive hurricane ever in US history.

As Katrina moved through the heart of the Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and natural gas production area, it negatively impacted nearly 20% of US oil production. Hurricane Katrina, followed by Hurricane Rita in September, destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms and damaged 457 oil and gas pipelines. Oil, gasoline, and natural gas futures prices on the NYMEX soared as damage assessments were reported.

The hurricane damage inflicted by Katrina caused oil prices to increase from the mid-$60s per barrel to over $70/bbl and gasoline prices at the pump rocketed to near $5 a gallon in some areas of the US. The US government released oil from its stockpile in the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to offset price rises. In the natural gas market, prices were trading in the $9 to $10/MMBtu range at the time, but spiked to over $15/MMBtu as the full extent of the damage became apparent.

Additionally, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) was closed on August 27, 2005, reducing production by over 400,000 barrels per day.  LOOP handles 13% of the nation’s foreign oil, about 1.2 million barrels a day, and connects by pipeline to 50% of the U.S. refining capability. The port was undamaged by the storm and resumed operation within hours of electricity coming back online.

Gulf of Mexico oil production was reduced by about 1.4 million barrels per day as a result of Hurricane Katrina, equivalent to about 91% of daily Gulf of Mexico oil production. Additionally, over 8 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of natural gas production was shut in, equivalent to 83% of daily Gulf of Mexico natural gas production.

Seven years later as what will be Hurricane Isaac bears down on the Gulf Coast, the Gulf of Mexico currently accounts for about 23% of oil production and 7% of natural gas output according to the US Department of Energy. Furthermore, roughly 30% of natural gas processing plant capacity and 44% of US refining capacity is located along the US Gulf Coast.

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEMRE), 8.6% of the Gulf’s daily oil output and 1.6% of daily natural gas production was shut down as a result of Isaac approaching the Gulf of Mexico. Closing prices as of Friday, Aug 24, 2012 of NYMEX October WTI futures settled at $96.15/bbl, while September natural gas settled at $2.70/MMBtu.

When it comes to offshore oil and gas rig infrastructure in 2012 versus 2005, the biggest difference is that the rigs placed into the Gulf of Mexico in the last several years have been hardened to resist Category 4 or 5 hurricanes. However, up until now, other than Hurricane’s Gustav and Ike in 2008, there has been no real test of the endurance of newer ‘hurricane resistant’ infrastructure that has replaced much of the aging platforms in 2005.  Isaac may very well be the storm to test the fortitude of the newer offshore hardware.

It could also stir up all the BP muck on the bottom of the Gulf.

I’ve been reading through the Gawker documents and have really been struck by the amount of management fees and legal fees that Romney appears to tolerate just to avoid paying federal income taxes.  It actually seems a bit sick or compulsive or obsessive to me.  Some tax attorneys have suggested that some of his tricks are actually illegal or at least highly questionable.  I have no idea since I just know the finance end of these deals.  The legal and tax implications of these thing are not my bailiwick.  It just seems like if you’re that rich and your time is that valuable that it could be spent on more useful activities than finding aggressive tax dodges.  I wonder if the savings actually justified all the fees.  But then, I discovered that the partners actually finagled the fees to avoid taxes.

 The documents reveal another tactic used by Bain and other buyout firms to achieve the lower rate for other compensation as well, a practice known as management-fee conversions or fee waivers.

Here’s more examples from the Buzzfeed link.

Bain Capital Fund VII LP disclosed in a 2009 report that the general partner in the fund had in the past waived management fees and converted those fees into an interest in the fund called a “priority profit share.” That had the effect of turning fees that would be taxed at ordinary income rates, as high as 35 percent, into capital gains, taxed at a rate of 15 percent.

By deferring the receipt of that cash they get a second benefit by deferring the tax. While the partners are well- positioned to know what investments may be winners, the waiver is irrevocable, meaning the fees disappear if the deals don’t generate profit.

“The documents confirm that Bain Capital converted some of its management fees into carried interest; there’s no reason they would do this other than to convert high-tax ordinary income into low-taxed capital gain,” said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of Colorado. “It’s a strategy that is aggressive, and, while common in the industry, is difficult to justify as an appropriate reporting of tax obligation.”

According to the financial disclosure form Romney filed in June, Ann Romney’s blind trust owns more than $1 million in the Bain Capital Fund VII, and between $100,000 and $250,000 in the co-investment fund. The Romneys received between $200,000 and $2 million in income from those two funds in 2011. The documents published by Gawker don’t show whether the Romneys benefited from the fee waivers.

The documents also show how deeply embedded Bain has become in the offshore tax-haven world, with funds organized in the Cayman Islands. Private-equity firms organize funds in tax havens to prevent foreign investors — and non-taxable U.S. investors, like university endowments — from getting hit with U.S. income tax bills from the profits generated by their underlying portfolio companies. That provides an economic benefit to the funds and to the private-equity managers because it means that, by avoiding U.S. tax, the investors have more to invest.

What does it say about a person that seems to be obsessed with making sure they search every nook, crack, and cranny for a way to avoid paying money to their own government.  You know, the one they actually are running to lead?

Ron Paul isn’t playing nice with Mittens.  He’s not “wholeheartedly endorsing him” and it appears that “the Romney Campaign Radically Changes GOP Nominating Process After Ron Paul Takeovers”.

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, led by top Romney lawyer Ben Ginsberg, forced through a major change the GOP nominating process on Friday in response to Ron Paul supporters’ efforts to win delegates to the Republican National Committee..

The Republican National Convention Committee voted 56-40 to make it impossible for supporters of one presidential candidate to override the will of voters at a state convention, as Ron Paul supporters did in Iowa and Nevada.

The purpose of the change, Ginsberg said, was “to correct what we saw as a damaging flaw in the presidential election process in 2012.”

The rule forces statewide presidential primaries or caucuses to determine the ultimate allocation of delegates, preventing takeovers like Paul executed in Iowa by eliminating unbound delegates in statewide contests. States would be allowed to decide whether to give all their delegates to the winner of the primary or caucus, or distribute them proportionally according to the results.

“Iowa will have to change the way they do it,” said a GOP official.

A second component of the amendment would require delegates to be approved by presidential candidates, lessening the chances of technically pledged delegates voting for a different candidate.

The original amendment would have removed the carve-out for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, but Ginsberg later clarified that was an error, after sparking a panic among early states.

Virginia delegate Morton Blackwell objected that the rule would have a “damaging effect on our presidential candidate Mitt Romney.”

“There are very large numbers of people who supported other candidates, in particular Ron Paul, who will see this as an attack on their behavior,” he said, warning that they could vote for the Libertarian party.

I guess the new way to get elected is to make sure the rules let you win.  No wonder Ron Paul is acting so pissy.

“Today I was very excited call from the RNC,” Paul said “They said they changed their mind. They’re going to give me a whole hour and I can say whatever I want – tomorrow night!” (Tomorrow being Monday, the day that the RNC has no events due to Tropical Storm Isaac).

“Just kidding,” Paul concluded.

Paul directly referenced the rules change that may keep similarly insurgent delegates from succeeding in future elections. He seemed stung by the disappointments, after the concerted effort his campaign made to compromise with the Romney campaign and to keep their delegates under control.

The RNC “learned how to bend rules, break rules, and now they want to rewrite the rules,” Paul said.

“That’s what we have to stop.”

He also nodded to the view, common among Paul supporters, that votes had been miscounted or improperly counted in primary states.

“Ultimately numbers do count,” he said. “And numbers do count even when they don’t count all the votes as well. Because we do have the numbers!”

Paul may be angry that after years of effort and a number of compromises, the insiders are not letting him in. But he’s also now able to talk about the lists of topics he cares about without a second thought; it no longer matters if the Romney people think he’s too far out. He took full advantage on Sunday, filling his 67 minutes with a laundry list of historical references, bits of his stump speech, and nostalgic philosophizing.

Paul also wandered into territory that makes it clear why the Romney campaign, known for trying to control the message as much as possible, would be wary of having him speak unscripted.

Bradley Manning, Paul said, “is in the military so there are probably some debates on exactly how and what to do, but let me tell you: Bradley Manning didn’t kill anybody, Bradley Manning hasn’t caused the death of anybody, and what he has exposed, he is the equivalent to Daniel Ellsberg, who told us the truth about Vietnam.”

And: “I’m afraid that if we took a poll across the country and said ‘Should we try Assange for treason?’ that most Americans would say oh yes he’s a bad guy, he’s telling us all these secrets. But guess what, he’s an Australian citizen.”

What’s on your reading and Blogging list today?  And, if I disappear some time on Tuesday or Wednesday, UPS me a boat please.

The Greater Ethos, Karma, and Mother Nature Collude to Shut Down RNC

Posted: August 25, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: just because | Tags: , , | 40 Comments

Hurricane Isaac is headed for the Gulf.  It has managed to skirt all but the very edge of Cuba which means it will be in a better position to strengthen once it pulls past that country and the Florida Keys.  It is now bearing down on the Party of Hate, Stupidity, and No and its staged glorification of guns, suppression of women, gays and minorities, money, and singular vision of gawd. Let’s just turn the tables on Pat Robertson for a moment and dedicate this open thread to the idea that you reap what you sow or Karma Happens.

Republicans announced Saturday that they had effectively canceled the first day of its convention for safety concerns associated with an impending hurricane.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that “the Republican National Convention will convene on Monday August 27th and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, August 28th.”

That move essentially postpones the activities of the first of four scheduled days of the convention. But Priebus said in a conference call with reporters that the details of the revised schedule were not yet settled, and could be announced as soon as Sunday.
“The Republican National Convention is going to take place. We know that we will officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan,” he said.
Romney will now be formally nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate on Tuesday instead of Monday, said Russ Schriefer, a senior strategist for the Romney campaign.

“Right now, we expect that the roll call will just take place on Tuesday,” he said.

Convention organizers had pushed ahead with the gathering as planned for much of the week, even as it seemed, for some time, that Isaac was on a direct trajectory toward Tampa.

So who got shut down?  Looks like Senator Aqua Buddhas was on the list along with a list of other nutty nutty nuts. Ah, Marie Anntoinette got shut down.  I was looking forward to watching the horse dance.  Huckabee’s on the list too.  The theme was we can do better.  Right, you can do better at getting money out of the rest of us, I’m sure.  It’s our job to join with Mother Nature to stop you.

Remarks by Speaker John Boehner
Remarks by Governor Rick Scott (FL)
Remarks by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
Video
Remarks by Senator Rand Paul (KY)
Various Speakers
Remarks by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA)
To Be Announced
Remarks by Artur Davis and video
Remarks by Senate Republican Candidate Ted Cruz (TX)
Musical Act
Remarks by Governor Nikki Haley (SC)
Remarks by Mike Huckabee
Remarks by Mrs. Luce’ Vela Fortuno
Remarks by Mrs. Ann Romney

Gee, they were even going to have a roll call and nomination.  Guess that’s not gonna happen now.  Actually, I was kind’ve hoping we’d get to really see the hatefest 24/7 for awhile.  Let the public get in touch with the real Republican Agenda.  Let’s just look at a few of those items sitting out there on the platform.

The draft official platform strongly supports a “a human life amendment” to the Constitution:

“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the draft platform declares. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

Let’s be very, very clear that such an amendment—which Mitt Romney has said unequivocally he would sign—would not only criminalize abortions of any kind for any reason, but also would outlaw many forms of contraception, in-vitro fertilization, and treatment of pregnant women with life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Moreover, it would also criminalize miscarriage.

This amendment is based on the self-same premise that was soundly rejected by voters in Colorado and Mississippi. Radical anti-choice advocates figure, it seems, if you can’t win it in the states, then beat them over the head with a constitutional amendment.

Romney, who in his quest to win the nomination of a party that is oozing with misogyny has all but promised to lock pregnant women in jail cells until they give birth, is now in a real pickle. Post-Akin, he states unequivocally that he would “oh, of course, no question” allow exceptions in otherwise radical abortion bans for rape and incest, through pre-Akin he was absolutely, positively clear he would not allow such exceptions. Ryan is just Akin without the political Tourettes Syndrome: He was an original co-sponsor of the bill to redefine rape, and to let Catholic hospitals deny women care. He also is a co-sponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act.

Women’s dignity and self-determination aren’t the only things at stake here.

  • NO ABORTION IN CASES OF RAPE OR INCEST. The proposal for a “human life amendment” passed without a hitch — and without any exceptions for rape or incest. The committee didn’t stop there; they also adopted language that would ban drugs that end pregnancy after conception, which could potentially include Plan B, the “morning after pill.”
  • SALUTE TO MANDATORY ULTRASOUNDS. The GOP officially praises states’ “informed consent” laws that force women to undergo unnecessary procedures, require waiting periods and endure other measures meant to discourage them from getting an abortion. One such law receiving a “salute” was crafted by committee head McDonnell, who passed a notorious mandatory ultrasound requirement after he signed an unsuccessful bill to require an even more invasive transvaginal probe ultrasound during an abortion consultation.
  • NO LEGAL RECOGNITION OF SAME-SEX COUPLES. The committee embraced extreme anti-gay language, even rejecting a proposal to endorse civil unions for gay couples after vehement objections from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Romney adviser Jim Bopp, who called it a “counterfeit marriage.” The rejection of civil unions, along with the refusal to include a line affirming the legal equality of same-sex couples prompted the organization GOProud to declare, “Those who have engaged in this public platform fight have provided distraction from important issues and damaged Mitt Romney’s campaign.”
  • REPLICATE ARIZONA-STYLE IMMIGRATION LAWS. Kris Kobach, who wrote the now mostly invalidated immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama, pushed for language calling for a border fence, a national E-Verify system to make it harder for undocumented workers to find employment, the end of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and an end to sanctuary cities. The committee overwhelmingly approved the proposals, as well as a line chastising the Department of Justice to halt the lawsuits against draconian immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah: “State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked.”
  • AUDIT THE FED. The pet project of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to audit the Federal Reserve has now been embraced as an official Republican goal. For the first time, the platform calls for an annual audit of the Federal Reserve.
  • NO WOMEN IN COMBAT. The platform condemns “social experimentation” in the military, which covers everything from the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to allowing officers to wear their uniforms in gay pride events to letting women serve on the front lines.
  • NO STATEHOOD, MORE GUNS FOR WASHINGTON DC. FRC’s Perkins, who recently blamed President Obama and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the shooting at FRC’s Washington headquarters, requested and received a section specifically urging the DC Council to expand gun rights. The same section also opposes DC statehood, which would allow the District to govern itself and put an end to Congressional attempts to impose abortion bans on DC.
  • NO NEW TAXES, EXCEPT FOR WAR. The platform calls for a Constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority to approve any tax increase, “with exceptions for only war and national emergencies.” It would also deliberately hobble future Congresses through a cap limiting all government spending to historical average percentage of GDP — “so that future Congresses cannot balance the budget by raising taxes.”

Yeah.  It’s that bad.  So, it’s just Hurricane Season and that’s what you get when you plan a big shin dig in the Gulf during hurricane Season. But, hurricane season is worse because of Global Warming so there has to be a little karma in there somewhere.  However, somewhere down inside in me is the kid that liked to gather up lots of clean white sheets and make fluffy “clouds” on the front lawn.  My girlfriend and I liked to play “goddesses” and zap those hapless humans as Athena and Aphrodite.  It would be nice to think that up there on Mt. Olympus that they joined Demeter to avenge the natural order of things.