Ave Atque Vale, Debora

Just got the news that Debora Jeane Palfrey has been found dead, an apparent suicide victim.

On the one hand, Dan Moldea is not surprised, as he says she told him she’d rather kill herself than go back to jail. On the other hand Paul Joseph Watson of Alex Jones’ Infowars is also not surprised, as she is on record as early as 1991 and as recently as last July stating that no one should believe it if she was reported to have killed herself. (I lean towards this, myself — if she was going to off herself in frustration, wouldn’t she have arranged to out some more former high-powered clients first? And not just in a suicide note the contents of which she would know full well would never be disclosed.)

Hail and farewell, Debora. At least you’re no longer in pain.

ILWU Calls Strike to Protest the War

All the ports on the U.S. West Coast are shut down today by a strike called to protest the war in Iraq.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said some 10,000 workers joined the protest. The union says that many of the big shipping companies are profiting from the war.
 

“Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America,” said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”

More like this, please.

Econohacks

In this USA Today article on Federal, local and state governments undergoing a strongish hiring phase, most of the people interviewed think it’s grand, especially as the new hires will help offset the job losses in the private sector. (Yeah, it’s probably deficit spending, but this form of “priming the pump” deficit spending makes more stimulus sense than, say, engaging in a horrifically expensive five-plus-year war and occupation with no intention of ending it.)

But there was one person who didn’t think so:

“More hiring has nothing to do with good government or economic policy,” says economist Kenneth Brown, research director at the Rio Grande Foundation in Albuquerque. “It has everything to do with government being slow to react to economic change.”

Um, did that quoted paragraph make sense to you? Or does it sound like somebody’s assuming facts not in evidence? Yeah, I thought so, too.

So what the heck is the “Rio Grande Foundation”? Well, judging from the all-gummint-bad tone of Mr. Brown’s remarks, I guessed it was probably some hard-right “glibertarian” sheltered workshop like the Mises Institute, and I was right. Just check out their funders — and even better, the interlocking (some might say incestuous) web of relationships and line-blurrings between grant-givers and grant-takers, here, here and here.

How nutty are these people? They think Heather Wilson is a tax-and-spend liberal. Seriously:

Steven Moore, one of the founders of the Club for Growth, is president of the conservative publication National Review. It’s interesting that a hit piece on Rep. Wilson written by Paul J. Gessing and entitled, “Heather Wilson, Tax-and-Spend Republican: Meet One of the Last People Who Should Replace Retiring Sen. Pete Domenici,” was published on the National Review website yesterday. Paul J. Gessing is president of the Rio Grande Foundation, a New Mexico right-wing think tank. The infamous John Dendahl, who ran a disastrous campaign against Gov. Bill Richardson last time out, is the foundation’s former president.

How disastrous was the 2006 gubernatorial campaign of John Dendahl, the former head of the New Mexico Republican Party from 1994 to 2003? Jim Scarantino, who writes for local Albuquerque weekly Alibi.com, once called him a “suicide bomber” — and he likes Dendahl. It was such an asswhupping that Dendahl, after an invective-filled farewell to the voters of New Mexico, packed up and left for Colorado, where he’s been fairly quiet since.

Spam Warning

I just got email from “Internal Revenue Service”. The message told me the fastest way to get my tax rebate is direct deposit to my checking/savings account. It included a link to a form I need to fill out for the direct deposit.

Of course, the email is not from the IRS. It’s a phishing expedition by somebody who wants my account information.

If you get a similar message, don’t click the link. Report the message to your email provider as spam.

Thursday Morning News Roundup

— Big Media may try to pretend McSame’s a ‘maverick’, but the American people know he’s Bush’s pool boy: NBC/WSJ poll: Bush a liability for McCain. Well, duh.

— BSP catches The Moustache of Understanding actually talking sense.

— More on the North Carolina robocall scandal.

— Oh, and speaking of robocalls, Tim Walz has been the target of a few lately. Hint: What do Tom DeLay, Malcolm Wallop, and Exxon have in common?