Reason Morning Links: O'Connor Backs Kagan, Moratorium on Drilling, Apple Tops in Tech

• GOP calling for investigation into Pennsylvania Democratic Senate hopeful Sestak's suggestion that White House offered him a job in exchange for not challenging Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.).
• Sandra Day O'Connor voices support for Elena Kagan nomination.
• Apple tops Microsoft to become America's top tech company.
• White House to announce six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.
• End to Don't Ask/Don't Tell could face vote in Congress today.

Comments

[TickleStick]

E. coli outbreak in Minnesota tied to raw milk
Four Minnesotans, including a toddler, have gotten sick. Three of the four E. coli cases are linked to unpasteurized milk produced at the Hartmann Dairy Farm in Gibbon, Minn.

http://www.startribune.com/lif.....DCinchO7DU

[cynical]

Goodness! Well, I guess we should ban raw milk, just like we did for all the other foods tied to E Coli outbreaks.

[Kathleen Sebelius]

Consider it done.

[ed]

Why isn't the President up there, doing something about that raw milk?

[Barack Obama]

Kill the damn bacteria!

[J sub D]

Four Minnesotans, including a toddler, have gotten sick.

Four people got sick? OMG! What should we do?*

* Other than get a life.

[creech]

Irridiate?

[Zeb]

Or allow people to take informed risks and deal with the consequences themselves.

[Timon19]

To use only market capitalization to determine "top tech company" is a bit...errr...incomplete.

Not that I have any love for Microsoft, but they're so dominant in the enterprise market (vs. Apple being dominant in highly proprietary consumer distraction devices) that this really isn't even that great of a comparison. The way the media continues to slavishly suck the wang of Steve Jobs is more than a bit unseemly.

[Corduroy]

It just means that it's time to short Apple stock.

[Mo]

Market cap matters much less than earnings and ROE. I'd be concerned at what happens when Jobs stepped down as CEO.

Of course, I wouldn't call Microsoft dominant in the enterprise market. Oracle, SAP and IBM aren't slouches in the enterprise market.

[Timon19]

I guess I meant in OS and basic productivity applications (Office Suite). You're right in that there are a lot of players in various aspects of the enterprise market, but for the main ways an enterprise grunt uses their workstation, Microsoft pretty much dominates.

[BakedPenguin]

Market cap matters much less than earnings and ROE.

And cash flow. Don't forget cash flow, Mo.

[Mo]

Don't you mean free cash flow? Though I prefer operating cash flow and subtract out CapEx for a better look. Financing, acquisitions/divestitures and changes in marketable securities muddy true cash flow performance.

[TickleStick]

EBITA

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization

[BakedPenguin]

Good points. It's been a while since I did anything related to finance. At the time, I was looking mainly at retail, so receivables & inventory told me most of what I wanted to know.

[Rod Blagojevich]

GOP calling for investigation into Pennsylvania Democratic Senate hopeful Sestak's suggestion that White House offered him a job...

Oh, I'm sure there's nothing to that.

[Corduroy]

I'm not getting the whole Sestak thing. Who the hell cares whether or not the administration offered him a job to not run?

It's not like that sort of thing hasn't been happening for the last 200 years or so.

There are far more clear cut examples of corruption out there to go after.

[kinnath]

It's merely a crime. That doesn't make it particularly interesting does it.

[Corduroy]

Compared to selling a Senate seat to the highest bidder, it's certainly a lesser crime.

Here's the code in question:

"Whoever solicits or receives, either as a political contribution, or for personal emolument, any money or thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. Whoever solicits or receives any thing of value in consideration of aiding a person to obtain employment under the United States either by referring his name to an executive department or agency of the United States or by requiring the payment of a fee because such person has secured such employment shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. This section shall not apply to such services rendered by an employment agency pursuant to the written request of an executive department or agency of the United States."

If they merely offered him a job, which if he accepted would require him to drop out, it's a pretty thin argument. If they said, "Concede and we will reward you with a job" then it's clear cut. Any politician with a lick of sense would never commit the latter offense, and I would be willing to bet that you would need audiotape to provide sufficient proof in court.

So, in light of this, it just seems to me that the Republican Party is fishing for media time on it.

[John Thacker]

Well, it's not likely to be anything you can prove as illegal, no. It's certainly an inevitable part of politics.

However, it may be something that the voters find unseemly, and it has the fun for the Republicans of guaranteeing that at least one Democrat comes off looking like a liar.

[Rahm Emanuel]

It's okay when WE do it!

[Alcee Lamar Hastings]

We make the rules, crackers.

[kinnath]

Barak Obama marketed himself as a different kind of politician. Whether the crime in question is a big one or a little one, it runs counter to the Obama's marketing.

And of course, all it takes is the allegation of the first little crime to get a special prosecutor started rumaging through someone's dirty laundry.

This has the potential to hurt Obama in a really fundamental way.

[Barack Obama]

Do you really want to hurt me?

[Ernie the Bear]

kinnath|5.27.10 @ 10:26AM|#

Barak Obama marketed himself as a different kind of politician. Whether the crime in question is a big one or a little one, it runs counter to the Obama's marketing.

If you need to find someone to send to DC to get rid of government corruption, well, the first place you're gonna look is Chicago. That's the nation's #1 supplier of 'clean' politicians.

[kinnath]

This was pointed out more than once in a hit&run; thread.

[DJF]

Chicago politicians have the support of 220% of dead voters.

[WTF]

"Merely offering" is itself the crime in question - regardless of whether he accepts.

[CaptainSmartass]

I fail to see any crime here. Offering someone a job in the government while they're running for political office doesn't seem to come anywhere close to what's described in the text above.

[WTF]

The allegation is not that they merely offered him a job. The allegation is that it was a quid pro quo - that they offered him a job in the administration if he would not run against Arlen Specter.

18 U.S.C. ? 210:

Offer to procure appointive public office.

Whoever pays or offers or promises any money or thing of value, to any person, firm, or corporation in consideration of the use or promise
to use any influence to procure any appointive office or place under the United States for any person, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Cordury also quoted ? 211, above. The "thing of value in consideration" would be Sestak dropping out of the primary. Consideration does not have to be cash; it can be a person performing or refraining from performing act - a quid pro quo.

I'm not saying a crime definitely occurred; only that if the facts turn out to be that someone in the administration did offer him a job in the administration in exchange for him dropping out of the race, it could very well be considered a violation of these statutes. But that's what special investigators and courts are for.

[The Gobbler]

"Compared to selling a Senate seat to the highest bidder, it's certainly a lesser crime."

Once again, the soft bigotry of low expectation rears it's ugly, racist head.

[Tulpa]

If what the White House did is that innocent, why have they been dodging questions about it for three months now? And still today the Teleprompter-in-Chief told us that they will make a statement on this issue "in the very near future".

[Dain Tee]

It's not like that sort of thing hasn't been happening for the last 200 years or so.

So much for "change", huh?

[not the real jb]

It's political. The rep waiting until Sestak won the primary so that an investigation would be a win-win. Either they catch the administration doing something illegal, or they catch the dem nominee lying. Either way is a good thing for them

[WTF]

And Dems would never do such a thing, I'm sure.

[R C Dean]

Sandra Day O'Connor voices support for Elena Kagan nomination.

Squishy liberal crypto-affirmative action East Coast elite female ex-Justice supports squishy liberal East Coast elite female marginally qualified nominee?! Shocking.

[John]

In fairness O'Connor grew up on a ranch in Arizona, went to Stanford and was a legislator in Arizona before becoming a justice. I don't think it is quite fair to call her an East Coast elite female. O'Conner is actually one of the few Justices of late who lived anything approaching a normal life.

[Clarence Thomas]

Are you saying I didn't?

[John]

One of the few. Not the only one.

[Alvindos]

Get the best vps hosting with the ultimate web hosting provider UCVHOST Provides hosting with 24/7 live chat support at cheapest prices,best vps hosting with 99.9% uptime.

[ed hardy]

People still read newspapers in California? Huh?

[Jun Joo]

LOL, I dont think I would "back" Kagan on pretty much anything. LOL

Lou
http://www.online-privacy.de.tc

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Cryptic.

[Maverick]

Everyone has a type. Hey, anon bot?

[?]

"Lou"

Costello?

Is it Kagan or is it Costello? Without a DNA test it's impossible to know.

[robc]

Couple of interesting links:

Obama wants more stimulus

census fraud

[robc]

"I am totally convinced that the Census work could be very easily done by the US Postal Service. When I was trying to look for an address or had a question about a building, I would ask the postman on the beat. They knew the history of the route and can expand in detail who moved in or out etc."

QFMFT

[ACORN Rep]

Tell me, smart guy, how much mail do homeless people get? Of course the mailman knows where Donald Trump's mansion and Bill Gates's palace is, but what about the real Americans you see laying on the sidewalk and begging for cigarettes? The census exists to help people like that, not the exploiters who make us eat corn syrup and genetixally engineered hot dogs.

[FCC Rep]

It's OK, Man. We track 'em by their cell phones.

[Mike M.]

At Crazy Barry's every month is Christmastime.

Crazy Barry: he and his cabinet members are insaaaane!

[John]

http://www.claremont.org/publi.....detail.asp

This is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. I highly recommend it.

[PapayaSF]

Seconded. I liked the phase "clouding the skies with criss-crossing dollars" as a description of the liberal tactic of simultaneously taxing and subsidizing people to convince them they are getting a free lunch.

[P Brooks]

Republicans have been pounding Democrats on the deficit issue ? a line of attack that infuriates Democrats, who quickly note that former President George W. Bush entered office with a federal surplus and left with a substantial debt that the Obama administration inherited and then added to with its own economic recovery initiatives.

"We know the financial hole that this president found himself in November of 2008," Mr. Reid said. "And we know that the experts told us that the only money left in the world was in Washington and we had to spend some of it to stop a worldwide depression."
NYT

WHUUUUUUUT?

You should start looking for some better "experts", Harry.

[John]

They just had to spend two trillion dollars to bailout Goldman Sachs and delay the day of reckoning for state and local employees. I am sure it hurt them more than it did you P. Brooks.

[P Brooks]

It just means that it's time to short Apple stock.

I'm not gonna fall for that one; I thought AAPL was overvalued at twenty.

[Corduroy]

Really, where's Apple going to go from here? They can't expand into the business market, they're too closed, and if Microsoft is giving up market share in businesses, it's usually to Linux and/or Google.

Google is gunning for Apple. Jobs knows that if he doesn't lock in customers by owning their data and making them completely dependent on Apple in order to keep what they already own, he loses.

[Shorted]

@ 251.1 we will see where it goes.

[PapayaSF]

I would not bet against Apple. Businesses are already giving up Blackberrys for iPhones. With the iPad they've turned the stillborn tablet category into a big deal. They're also building a huge data center for some reason. They're certainly on a roll.

[Fist of Etiquette]

White House to announce six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

Decisions made for purely politcal reasons are always good for the country. So, does this mean they can start drilling in the more shallow and manageable waters closer to shore?

[Atanarjuat]

I wonder if the thousands laid off as a result of this decree will be subtracted from the total number of jobs "created or saved" by the administration.

Probably a pretty obvious point, but judging by the general political climate here in Florida, there won't be near-shore drilling any time soon. Personally, my opinion did a 180. I was always worried about the harm a spill would do to our tourist-based economy, but after Deepwater Horizon it seems hypocritical to only want the risk born by those in other parts of the world.

[John]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/n.....NPgDlay9BI

According to the NYPOST, they have managed to cap the well. Thank God.

[Barack Obama]

Thank you, thank you, hold your applause please. It wasn't easy, but I told you I'd get it done sooner or later!

[The Gobbler]

+ 5,000 gal.

[SugarFree]

Despite my heartbreak at a night post about Steve Smith, I have heeded Matt Welch's call.

The Steve Smith story is coming. Fair warning.

[Rich]

SF, if it's gonna be anything like the Supreme Court ritual, *please* give us a countdown.

[Rich]

OHHHH ......

[The Art-P.O.G.]

The Supreme Court ritual story was amazing.

[The Ghost of Richard Nixon]

"No administration should be allowed to assume what they do and say is legal because they say it's legal"

(expletive deleted) you!

[SugarFree]

Steve Smith topped the rise and surveyed the valley below. It was a verdant and fertile land. His land. It fed him with its berries and roots, it housed him in the womby vaultages of its caves, it bathe him in it cool streams. Steve Smith loved his land and it returned that love a thousand-fold. Steve Smith protected his forest and those who ventured into it.

Steve Smith snapped from his reverie as his sharp senses detected a distressed cry. There! A hiker in trouble! Steve Smith quickly tore off the clothes he wore to pass unnoticed in the human world. His body was strong, muscled yet lithe. Steve Smith hopped from boulder to boulder gracefully until he reached the bottom of the cliff face. Steve Smith's powerful legs became a blur as he ran through a meadow for the tree line. The cry was steady now. Steve Smith ran faster.

Steve Smith found her near a dead fall, leg broken and twisted under her. She had been trying to cross the deadfall and slipped. Steve Smith had seen this before and tried to clear dead falls on his land. Steve Smith was ashamed. Steve Smith had spent too much time in the human world and this poor girl was paying for his sloth. Steve Smith silently vowed to work on clearing the deadfall, once the hiker was safe.

Silent as a ghost, she did not hear him until his shadow covered her. "Oh, thank God!" I thought I was all alone out here." she said. Steve Smith spoke soothing words to calm her as he kneeled beside her. "GRR! ARG-GUH! GUR! GUR!" She screamed and fainted. The pain, Steve Smith thought, it must have become unbearable.

Steve Smith saw that her unbroken leg was trapped by the thick branches of the dead fall. Steve Smith took hold of the trunk of the fallen Birch. Steve Smith's might shifted it easily, sinews standing out like the steel cables of the St. Johns Bridge. Steve Smith then gently lifted the hiker, taking care to not do more damage to her broken leg. There was a Ranger station not far, one of the few friendly to the misunderstood forest ape. Steve Smith set off into sideways light of afternoon. It would be dark soon.

Steve Smith glided over the forest floor, moving quickly, yet carefully. The hiker moaned occasionally and even gripped his chest fur once or twice. She was angelic in the dappled forest light. Steve Smith reached the Ranger's cabin just as the sun dipped below the crest of the mountain.

Steve Smith pounded on the cabin door, the door cracked under his blows. The door opened quickly. The Ranger stood in the doorway, backlit by the welcoming fire within.

"Steve Smith? Who do you have there?" he asked.

"GUR! RHAGG! DROOOOO! GARG!" Steve Smith said.

"A hiker?" the Ranger replied, "You just found her in the woods?"

"GRRRG! HRACK! GK!"

"Her leg is broken? Get her inside," the Ranger said.

Steve Smith stooped low to cross the threshold. Despite the last few years, human spaces were still not comfortable for Steve Smith. Steve Smith laid the hiker down on the bed and moved out of the way. The hiker began to wake under the ministrations of the Ranger.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she managed weakly.

"You're in a Ranger station, ma'am," the Ranger said. "Emergency services will be here soon."

"I had the strangest nightmare in the woods," the hiker said, barely above a whisper, "something was there?"

Steve Smith stepped toward the bed and the hiker could see him for the first time. "AH, GOD! THAT'S HIM! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" the hiker screamed. The Ranger held her on the bed. "That's just Steve Smith, he protects the forest." The hiker made a strangled noise and fainted again.

"I guess you better go, Steve Smith," the Ranger said. There was a sadness in his voice at Steve Smith's plight.

As Steve Smith walked out the cabin and into the rising mist of his forest, Steve Steve wiped away a single tear savagely.

[Citizen Nothing]

God bless that misunderstood hominid!

[Michael Bay]

I want to make a movie about Steve Smith. It will, of course, have lots and lots of explosions.

[Kevin Smith]

Any way to work in Jay and Silent Bob?

[Josh Whedon]

No! I must have this character! He must be part of the Whedonverse!

[Bruce Campbell]

I'd like to put the Steve Smith character in the next Evil Dead movie, if I ever film it.

[Death Panelist]

I'll never understand the need to humanize soulless animals. Read your Book of Genesis, people.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Bravo, SugarFree. Bravo.

[The Gobbler]

Where the fuck is the raping? That Ranger was a sitting duck.

[J sub D]

GOP calling for investigation into Pennsylvania Democratic Senate hopeful Sestak's suggestion that White House offered him a job in exchange for not challenging Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.).

I worked for Joe Sestak in the early '80s (USS Hoel, DDG-13). While he's an arrogant asshole, he never lied to me. Take that for what it's worth.

[John]

Who has a reason to lie? Why would Sestek have made up the story? What would it have gotten him? In contrast, the Whitehouse has every reason to lie if it is true. I really can't see how Sestek is lying.

[J sub D]

What I was imperfectly trying to convey is that I really, really don't like Joe Sestak as a naval officer, a person, or a politician.

That said, after two years of working for him (surface navy, that's about 320 days a year), I have no reason at all to doubt his honesty.

He can put that in a campaign ad if he wants.

[John]

I understood what you were saying. And I doubt I would like Sestek either. My point was that not only is he not known to be a liar, he also has no reason to lie here. I would be very surprised if it turns out that the White House is telling the truth.

[The Gobbler]

I would be very surprised if it turns out that the White House is ever telling the truth.

FIFY

[GoNavy]

(surface navy, that's about 320 days a year),

Ah, the easy life.

GoNavy (ss)

[Tulpa]

He was trying to position himself as an anti-establishment candidate in the primary. This story enhances that narrative -- the one honest liberal that can't be bought by the Washington compromisers!

[P Brooks]

Arlen Sphincter is a great American, who has dedicated his life to serving this great nation! We cannot afford to lose a man of his stature.

[sage]

I rectum you're right.

[Warty]

On having a strip club next to a church:
Gillespie: "That makes Sunday a lot easier."
Humorless cunt: "Not in my community."

I also like "Cleveland hasn't been a joke for a long time". OK, council dude. Keep telling yourself that.

[Warty]

Shit, wrong thread.

[Rich]

How about some metal to atone for that egregious error? Please ...

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Far Beyond Metal.

[Rich]

"Don't you fuck with metal!" 😉

[Warty]

Appropriately-titled metal for the Cleveland Ciry Council

[Cleveland Ciry Council]

Over the top!

[Uncovered libertarian news]

What if they gave a real live drug war and nobody libertarian showed up to comment or cover or blog (or even have a draw ganja day contest):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....illed-coke

The death toll from fierce street battles in downtown West Kingston has risen to 44 {that's alotta SWAT teams}and is expected to climb further as Jamaican security forces continue efforts to flush out the alleged drugs baron Christopher "Dudus" Coke.

[Corduroy]

With a name like "Dudus", he's got to be cool.

[John]

Is there a better name for a drug dealer than Dudus Coke?

[Ska]

In a Jamaican accent to boot.

[Chris]

Wait, why would a person named Christopher Coke need a nickname?

[John]

Because as cool as "Christopher Coke" is, "Dudus Coke" is even cooler.

[Timon19]

In other news, Time has done a "50 Worst Inventions" feature. Of course, DDT makes it in there.

http://www.time.com/time/speci.....47,00.html

[Corduroy]

Any list that includes the Microsoft "Clippy" and Agent Orange must be well thought out and serious.

[Corduroy]

Asbestos is an invention?

Time - Proving that they hire the mentally challenged over and over again.

[SugarFree]

"We were really looking for more of a 'duh, duh' sort of idiot."

[John]

MY God that is a stupid list. Thalidimide didn't make the list but New Coke did. I guess making sweet soda is worse than causing babies to be born radically deformed. And of course no mention of the millions of lives that DDT saved.

And also note no weapons made the list. As much as I will defend firearms, I think maybe the world would be a better place if no one had invented mustard gas. You could maybe make an argument that the A bomb saved us having to invade Japan and made war so horrible that we haven't had a world war since its invention. But I can't think of a single good thing about chemical weapons.

[Warty]

I'll try. Gas is used as an area denial weapon like landmines, but at least it doesn't blow off kids' legs 50 years after the war is over.

[John]

Nice try. And landmines are another obvious omission on the list.

[The Gobbler]

Yeah, it just burns up their lungs and blinds them. I'm cool with that.

[?]

Fifty years after it's dispersed?

[cynical]

Making use of its unique material properties could be considered an invention.

[mosquito]

At least TIME Magazine understands my woes!

[Ho Chi Minh]

Hear, hear!

[R C Dean]

I don't think it is quite fair to call her an East Coast elite female.

Spiritually, at least. But point taken.

[John]

Definitely in spirit. As weak of a justice as O'Conner was, she seems to be a pretty nice person. And more importantly, she seems to be a normal person who has some idea about how normal people live. In an age where the Court is dominated by devout members of the Conlaw priesthood who graduated from New York Prep School through the Ivy leagues through Harvard or Yale, that is refreshing.

[Mike M.]

The head of the Minerals Management Service, some Harvard woman named Elizabeth Birnbaum, has just been designated the Gulf oil spill scapegoat and fired. And I had never even heard of the Minerals Management Service until now.

[R C Dean]

MMS is famous for corruption, I do recall that.

[John]

They were taking tickets to sporting events and meals from the companies they were regulating. Remember that the next time a liberal tells you that all we need is more and more enlightened regulators.

[The Gobbler]

MMS = Meth, Money and Sluts

[TS]

found regulators in the agency's Colorado office received improper gifts from energy industry representatives and engaged in illegal drug use and inappropriate sexual relations with them.

Why isn't there ever any corruption where I work? I want to get in on some of that.

[John]

No shit.

[The Gobbler]

Well she essentially disappeared when this shit hit the fan.

[?]

O'Conner just wants a little stink finger.

[Invisible Finger]

White House to announce six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

I guess that's better than drilling a hole to put the spilled oil in.