http://www.denverpost.com/frontpage/ci_14485472
Oh this is ridiculous. $500.00 for flip flops?
Starbucks seems to be a standard to. You know this just doesn't apply to Colorado, this is what all the states schools are doing.
And the kids need a pencil that smells why?
As school districts prepare for deep budget cuts, a Denver Post analysis of spending at the state's three largest districts found millions of dollars being spent with limited oversight on food, travel and other discretionary items.
Spending on items other than salaries and bonuses by the Jefferson County and Douglas County school districts totaled $106 million and $91 million, respectively, from July 2009 to mid-February this year.
And while the bulk of that money is spent on necessary supplies for maintenance of schools, and for direct classroom expenses (such as books, office supplies and other items), millions are spent annually on restaurants, travel and training.
In Denver Public Schools, district credit cards issued to teachers, principals and administrators were used to charge nearly $20 million in 2009. Again, much of that money, such as for additional books and supplies, was directly used to benefit classrooms.
But the analysis found so much charged in food, entertainment, travel and other discretionary items that on Friday the DPS superintendent issued new rules for credit-card holders in response to The Post's findings.
Among the expenses buried in the thousands of transactions: $270 for scented pencils for a Douglas County school, $1,228 for books at a Denver school from a company that uses color-scheme psychology, and $4,113 for doughnuts and burritos for breakfast meetings at a Denver high school.
District officials defended most of the expenses as legitimate costs in the complicated business of educating thousands of students.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/frontpage/ci_14485472#ixzz0gu0shnFL
Sunday, February 28, 2010
A fatal collision and a large pothole closed freeways
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/fatal-collision-and-pothole-close-freeways.html
That must be a hell of a pothole.
The pothole was reported on Saturday and this article was written on Sunday and Caltran has no estimate on when the freeway will reopen.
On the Santa Ana (101) Freeway, southbound lanes just north of East 1st Street were closed after a pothole was reported at 11:55 p.m. Saturday, according to the CHP. The depression measured 4 feet in diameter and was about 6 inches deep, Carter said. No injuries were reported, but 20 to 25 vehicles were stranded on the right shoulder with flat tires, Carter said.
Caltrans was working to repair the pothole, but there was no estimate of when the freeway would reopen, Carter said
That must be a hell of a pothole.
The pothole was reported on Saturday and this article was written on Sunday and Caltran has no estimate on when the freeway will reopen.
On the Santa Ana (101) Freeway, southbound lanes just north of East 1st Street were closed after a pothole was reported at 11:55 p.m. Saturday, according to the CHP. The depression measured 4 feet in diameter and was about 6 inches deep, Carter said. No injuries were reported, but 20 to 25 vehicles were stranded on the right shoulder with flat tires, Carter said.
Caltrans was working to repair the pothole, but there was no estimate of when the freeway would reopen, Carter said
Nevadans will feel impact of four-day government workweek
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/26/hitting-citizens-where-it-hurts/
Most of Nevada’s government will soon transition to a four-day workweek. But the reasons for it go beyond filling the state’s $887 million deficit.
The plan, proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons and broadly supported by legislators, will save $600,000 on energy costs, make it easier to implement a 10-hour-a-month furlough for state workers and lift their flagging morale.
But legislative sources point to another reason — even if they’re loath to admit it publicly — for this major change: The reduction in the availability of state services will make the public feel the effect of the revenue shortfall.
It’s a potentially controversial, if intriguing, strategy.
The citizen who isn’t attending college or doesn’t have a child in school or use social services, may not have felt the effects of previous rounds of cuts. But
Most of Nevada’s government will soon transition to a four-day workweek. But the reasons for it go beyond filling the state’s $887 million deficit.
The plan, proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons and broadly supported by legislators, will save $600,000 on energy costs, make it easier to implement a 10-hour-a-month furlough for state workers and lift their flagging morale.
But legislative sources point to another reason — even if they’re loath to admit it publicly — for this major change: The reduction in the availability of state services will make the public feel the effect of the revenue shortfall.
It’s a potentially controversial, if intriguing, strategy.
The citizen who isn’t attending college or doesn’t have a child in school or use social services, may not have felt the effects of previous rounds of cuts. But
Bombshell in AIG 10Q
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/a...al-Relief.html
Oh so AIG does admit, that it knew they were writing credit default swaps
for the explicit purpose of getting around capital requirements - either by banking regulators or (possibly worse) EU sovereign regulations.
Sniff, sniff is that admitted fraud I smell?
A total of $150.0 billion in net notional amount of the super senior credit default swap (CDS) portfolio of AIGFP as of December 31, 2009, represented derivatives written for financial institutions, principally in Europe, which AIG understands to have been originally written primarily for the purpose of providing regulatory capital relief rather than for arbitrage purposes. The net fair value of the net derivative asset for these CDS transactions was $116 million at December 31, 2009.
So AIG "understands" that $150 billion of credit-default swaps were written by AIGFP to European Institutions (no note by the way as to exactly what's in there - or who owns them) for the explicit purpose of getting around capital requirements - either by banking regulators or (possibly worse) EU sovereign regulations.
When did they come to "understand" this? Did they write these swaps originally knowing that their essential purpose was to evade capital requirements, or was this a "recent" revelation of some sort?
Indeed, the section goes on to say
Oh so AIG does admit, that it knew they were writing credit default swaps
for the explicit purpose of getting around capital requirements - either by banking regulators or (possibly worse) EU sovereign regulations.
Sniff, sniff is that admitted fraud I smell?
A total of $150.0 billion in net notional amount of the super senior credit default swap (CDS) portfolio of AIGFP as of December 31, 2009, represented derivatives written for financial institutions, principally in Europe, which AIG understands to have been originally written primarily for the purpose of providing regulatory capital relief rather than for arbitrage purposes. The net fair value of the net derivative asset for these CDS transactions was $116 million at December 31, 2009.
So AIG "understands" that $150 billion of credit-default swaps were written by AIGFP to European Institutions (no note by the way as to exactly what's in there - or who owns them) for the explicit purpose of getting around capital requirements - either by banking regulators or (possibly worse) EU sovereign regulations.
When did they come to "understand" this? Did they write these swaps originally knowing that their essential purpose was to evade capital requirements, or was this a "recent" revelation of some sort?
Indeed, the section goes on to say
Friday, February 26, 2010
GOP senator blocks unemployment benefits extension: ‘Tough shit’
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/gop-senator-blocks-unemployment-benefits-tough-shit/
Republican Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) on Thursday night expressed his opposition to renewing unemployment benefits on the Senate floor with an unusually harsh message for its backers: "Tough shit."
Bunning repeatedly and single-handedly objected to an effort by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to attain unanimous consent among senators for extending COBRA and other benefits to out-of-work individuals across America.
"I don't think it's fair to do what you are proposing to do," he said to Durbin. "And I'll be here as long as you're here, and as long as all those other senators are here, and I'm going to object every time."
As Politico reported:
In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up. “Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.
Republican Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) on Thursday night expressed his opposition to renewing unemployment benefits on the Senate floor with an unusually harsh message for its backers: "Tough shit."
Bunning repeatedly and single-handedly objected to an effort by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to attain unanimous consent among senators for extending COBRA and other benefits to out-of-work individuals across America.
"I don't think it's fair to do what you are proposing to do," he said to Durbin. "And I'll be here as long as you're here, and as long as all those other senators are here, and I'm going to object every time."
As Politico reported:
In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up. “Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.
More computer spying?
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2015-Oh,-The-Spying-Its-Not-Just-In-Pennsylvania.html
Houston WE have a problem, this mission needs be aborted
Dan Ackerman an administrator at Intermediate School 339, in the Bronx, and he appeared in a Frontline segment two weeks ago to demonstrate how they monitor their students' computer usage. The uncomfortable part of the segment, in which he accesses the webcams of various unknowing middle schoolers, starts at 4:36.
....
"A lot of kids are just on it to check their hair, check their make-up: the girls... They don't even realize that we are watching. I always like to mess with them and take a picture."
Two different issues here folks.
First, in a classroom there is no expectation of privacy. Zip. Zero.
But watch that clip. Note that the students are clueless to the fact that the administrator is watching everything they do.
How come? The school didn't bother to tell the students that the administrators would be watching the kids through these things whenever and wherever and would be snapping their picture for their own amusement? In the classroom or not, that's damn creepy.
Now extrapolate this to the same machine being issued to your kid, coming into your home and being in their bedroom, and if you're not creeped out enough to start calling for people's heads, you're certifiable - or a pedophile.
If - and I repeat if - those computers once at your home "check in" with the school machine, common remote-console software would permit this sort of intrusion - at the whim and under the exclusive control of the school administration, and as said "they don't even realize that we are watching."
How much more "in your face" does it have to get before parents revolt?
Houston WE have a problem, this mission needs be aborted
Dan Ackerman an administrator at Intermediate School 339, in the Bronx, and he appeared in a Frontline segment two weeks ago to demonstrate how they monitor their students' computer usage. The uncomfortable part of the segment, in which he accesses the webcams of various unknowing middle schoolers, starts at 4:36.
....
"A lot of kids are just on it to check their hair, check their make-up: the girls... They don't even realize that we are watching. I always like to mess with them and take a picture."
Two different issues here folks.
First, in a classroom there is no expectation of privacy. Zip. Zero.
But watch that clip. Note that the students are clueless to the fact that the administrator is watching everything they do.
How come? The school didn't bother to tell the students that the administrators would be watching the kids through these things whenever and wherever and would be snapping their picture for their own amusement? In the classroom or not, that's damn creepy.
Now extrapolate this to the same machine being issued to your kid, coming into your home and being in their bedroom, and if you're not creeped out enough to start calling for people's heads, you're certifiable - or a pedophile.
If - and I repeat if - those computers once at your home "check in" with the school machine, common remote-console software would permit this sort of intrusion - at the whim and under the exclusive control of the school administration, and as said "they don't even realize that we are watching."
How much more "in your face" does it have to get before parents revolt?
Colonel Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/7321934/Colonel-Gaddafi-calls-for-jihad-against-Switzerland.html
Oh look Condaleeza Rice's best buddy is now calling for a jihad against Switzerland.
Just how smart was it to make him out to be a good guy again?
Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has called for a jihad or armed struggle against Switzerland branding it an "infidel state".
He said Muslims everywhere had a duty to act against the country, which he claimed had been destroying mosques.
"Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Mohammad, and God and the Koran," he told a meeting in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
In his rambling address he added: "The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold."
Oh look Condaleeza Rice's best buddy is now calling for a jihad against Switzerland.
Just how smart was it to make him out to be a good guy again?
Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has called for a jihad or armed struggle against Switzerland branding it an "infidel state".
He said Muslims everywhere had a duty to act against the country, which he claimed had been destroying mosques.
"Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Mohammad, and God and the Koran," he told a meeting in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
In his rambling address he added: "The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold."
AIG posts $8.9 billion loss
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AIG-posts-89-billion-rb-4019897031.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
It's time to cut the apron strings on this loser
American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG - News) reported a quarterly loss of $8.9 billion on Friday and warned that it may need additional U.S. government support, even as it tries to pay back taxpayers after a $182.3 billion bailout.
AIG shares fell 14 percent in premarket trading.
The insurer said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that without additional government support, "in the future there could exist substantial doubt about AIG's ability to continue as a going concern."
AIG, which is nearly 80 percent-owned by the government, reported an adjusted loss of $7.2 billion, or $53.23 per share, compared with an adjusted loss of $38.5 billion, or $287.69 per share, a year earlier.
It's time to cut the apron strings on this loser
American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG - News) reported a quarterly loss of $8.9 billion on Friday and warned that it may need additional U.S. government support, even as it tries to pay back taxpayers after a $182.3 billion bailout.
AIG shares fell 14 percent in premarket trading.
The insurer said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that without additional government support, "in the future there could exist substantial doubt about AIG's ability to continue as a going concern."
AIG, which is nearly 80 percent-owned by the government, reported an adjusted loss of $7.2 billion, or $53.23 per share, compared with an adjusted loss of $38.5 billion, or $287.69 per share, a year earlier.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Fed to Get $200 Billion Boost
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703503804575083920751605784.html?mod=WSJ_economy_LeftTopHighlights
The Treasury said it will borrow $200 billion and leave the cash proceeds on deposit with the Federal Reserve, reviving a program that will make it easier for the Fed to raise interest rates when the time comes.
The Treasury said it will borrow $200 billion and leave the cash proceeds on deposit with the Federal Reserve, reviving a program that will make it easier for the Fed to raise interest rates when the time comes.
Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ax3yON_uNe7I
The banks should have to explain how they managed to buy protection from AIG primarily on securities that fell so sharply in value, says Daniel Calacci, a former swaps trader and marketer who’s now a structured-finance consultant in Warren, New Jersey. In some cases, banks also owned mortgage lenders, and they should be challenged to explain whether they gained any insider knowledge about the quality of the loans bundled into the CDOs, he says.
‘Too Uncanny’
“It’s almost too uncanny,” Calacci says. “If these banks had insight into the underlying loans because they had relationships with banks, originators or servicers, that’s at the least unethical.”
The identification of securities in the document, known as Schedule A, and data compiled by Bloomberg show that Goldman Sachs underwrote $17.2 billion of the $62.1 billion in CDOs that AIG insured -- more than any other investment bank. Merrill Lynch & Co., now part of Bank of America Corp., created $13.2 billion of the CDOs, and Deutsche Bank AG underwrote $9.5 billion.
These tallies suggest a possible reason why the New York Fed kept so much under wraps, Professor James Cox of Duke University School of Law says: “They may have been trying to shield Goldman -- for Goldman’s sake or out of macro concerns that another investment bank would be at risk.”
Poor Performers
Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment.
The banks should have to explain how they managed to buy protection from AIG primarily on securities that fell so sharply in value, says Daniel Calacci, a former swaps trader and marketer who’s now a structured-finance consultant in Warren, New Jersey. In some cases, banks also owned mortgage lenders, and they should be challenged to explain whether they gained any insider knowledge about the quality of the loans bundled into the CDOs, he says.
‘Too Uncanny’
“It’s almost too uncanny,” Calacci says. “If these banks had insight into the underlying loans because they had relationships with banks, originators or servicers, that’s at the least unethical.”
The identification of securities in the document, known as Schedule A, and data compiled by Bloomberg show that Goldman Sachs underwrote $17.2 billion of the $62.1 billion in CDOs that AIG insured -- more than any other investment bank. Merrill Lynch & Co., now part of Bank of America Corp., created $13.2 billion of the CDOs, and Deutsche Bank AG underwrote $9.5 billion.
These tallies suggest a possible reason why the New York Fed kept so much under wraps, Professor James Cox of Duke University School of Law says: “They may have been trying to shield Goldman -- for Goldman’s sake or out of macro concerns that another investment bank would be at risk.”
Poor Performers
Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment.
Obama may compromise on consumer agency to pass financial regulation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022405573.html
Obama once again has shown, that he is a made up of nothing more substantial than hot air
The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.
In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise with lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy, according to congressional and some administration sources.
President Obama's economic team is now open to housing the consumer regulator inside another agency, such as the Treasury Department, though they still prefer a stand-alone agency. In either case, they are insisting on a regulator with political autonomy and real teeth so it can effectively enforce rules designed to protect consumers of mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.
The administration may also have to compromise on Obama's recent proposal for a rule to limit risky activities at banks by prohibiting them from engaging in many kinds of speculative investments.
Obama once again has shown, that he is a made up of nothing more substantial than hot air
The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system.
In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise with lawmakers concerned about creating a new bureaucracy, according to congressional and some administration sources.
President Obama's economic team is now open to housing the consumer regulator inside another agency, such as the Treasury Department, though they still prefer a stand-alone agency. In either case, they are insisting on a regulator with political autonomy and real teeth so it can effectively enforce rules designed to protect consumers of mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.
The administration may also have to compromise on Obama's recent proposal for a rule to limit risky activities at banks by prohibiting them from engaging in many kinds of speculative investments.
Blackwater guards stole weapons in Kabul and went on deadly rampage
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7040078.ece
Not a pretty image when you start to put the puzzle pieces together.
These people ARE licenced to be our keepers
Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken shooting rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more.
The guards included a former US Marine with a criminal record of assault and battery and a former soldier discharged from the US Army after testing positive for cocaine, Congress heard yesterday.
Contractors outnumber full-time workers at DHS; lawmakers 'astounded'
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/...tor/index.html
Not a pretty image when you start to put the puzzle pieces together.
These people ARE licenced to be our keepers
Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken shooting rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more.
The guards included a former US Marine with a criminal record of assault and battery and a former soldier discharged from the US Army after testing positive for cocaine, Congress heard yesterday.
Contractors outnumber full-time workers at DHS; lawmakers 'astounded'
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/...tor/index.html
Shark tank cracks at the mall
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2868305/Terror-as-mall-shark-tank-cracks.html
SHOPPERS fled in terror today after a giant aquarium filled with 400 SHARKS and stingrays cracked and began gushing torrents of water.
Horrified holidaymakers were among those left fearing that they were about to be engulfed by 10MILLION gallons of water — holding 33,000 sea creatures.
Dramatic video captured people fleeing the Dubai Mall as water poured on to the floor.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2868305/Terror-as-mall-shark-tank-cracks.html#ixzz0gZHZDePT
SHOPPERS fled in terror today after a giant aquarium filled with 400 SHARKS and stingrays cracked and began gushing torrents of water.
Horrified holidaymakers were among those left fearing that they were about to be engulfed by 10MILLION gallons of water — holding 33,000 sea creatures.
Dramatic video captured people fleeing the Dubai Mall as water poured on to the floor.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2868305/Terror-as-mall-shark-tank-cracks.html#ixzz0gZHZDePT
Fed to look into insurance contracts on Greek debt
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-to...70230.html?x=0
What a joke. The FED rather than the FBI is going to "look into" what Sachs and the others have pulled.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Thursday that the central bank is looking into Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms' use of a sophisticated investment instrument to make bets that Greece will default on its debt.
Bernanke said the Fed is looking into companies' use of credit default swaps, a form of insurance against bond defaults. Bernanke made the comments at the start of a Senate Banking Committee hearing, where the Fed chief delivered his twice-a-year economic report to Congress.
"Obviously, using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is counterproductive, " Bernanke said, adding that the Securities and Exchange Commission probably will be looking into this matter as well.
What a joke. The FED rather than the FBI is going to "look into" what Sachs and the others have pulled.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Thursday that the central bank is looking into Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms' use of a sophisticated investment instrument to make bets that Greece will default on its debt.
Bernanke said the Fed is looking into companies' use of credit default swaps, a form of insurance against bond defaults. Bernanke made the comments at the start of a Senate Banking Committee hearing, where the Fed chief delivered his twice-a-year economic report to Congress.
"Obviously, using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is counterproductive, " Bernanke said, adding that the Securities and Exchange Commission probably will be looking into this matter as well.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Google execs charged in Italian court, held responsible for controversial video submission
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/83405-google-execs-charged-in-italian-court-held-responsible-for-controversial-video-submission
While I don't agree with the judge's decision in this particular case, I commend him for having his own mind of sound reasoning, rather than succumbing to the influence of prior precedents set, that corporations are all seen as non-human entities and no one person or persons can be personally held responsible for unlawful acts committed under the name of the corporation. If a corporate entity is caught in an unlawful act, whether it be fraud or the concealment of known information that contributes to the death or multiple deaths of others, it is always only given a fine, that it pays off and then proceeds back to business as usual. No human from the corporation is ever held responsible for the crime or crimes committed.
An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced three Google executives to six months in prison because of a controversial video played repeatedly on its website.
Italian authorities requested the search engine giant, also the owner of Google Video, remove a 2006 clip in which a boy with Down syndrome is being bullied at school.
Google promptly complied and helped law enforcement officials locate the video's filmers. But a group that represents Down syndrome patients ultimately said that was not enough and took the tech firm to court on the grounds it infringed on Italian privacy laws. Google argued in response that it should not be held responsible for videos posted by others on its website, just as the Post Office is not held responsible for hate mail it delivers unwittingly.
But a Milan judge disagreed. He sentenced three of the four Google executives named in the case to jail time, he told Reuters on Wednesday
While I don't agree with the judge's decision in this particular case, I commend him for having his own mind of sound reasoning, rather than succumbing to the influence of prior precedents set, that corporations are all seen as non-human entities and no one person or persons can be personally held responsible for unlawful acts committed under the name of the corporation. If a corporate entity is caught in an unlawful act, whether it be fraud or the concealment of known information that contributes to the death or multiple deaths of others, it is always only given a fine, that it pays off and then proceeds back to business as usual. No human from the corporation is ever held responsible for the crime or crimes committed.
An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced three Google executives to six months in prison because of a controversial video played repeatedly on its website.
Italian authorities requested the search engine giant, also the owner of Google Video, remove a 2006 clip in which a boy with Down syndrome is being bullied at school.
Google promptly complied and helped law enforcement officials locate the video's filmers. But a group that represents Down syndrome patients ultimately said that was not enough and took the tech firm to court on the grounds it infringed on Italian privacy laws. Google argued in response that it should not be held responsible for videos posted by others on its website, just as the Post Office is not held responsible for hate mail it delivers unwittingly.
But a Milan judge disagreed. He sentenced three of the four Google executives named in the case to jail time, he told Reuters on Wednesday
The Chemist's War
http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/pagenum/all/
The little footnote your history book left out.
The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences
It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.
Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season.
Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then,
The little footnote your history book left out.
The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences
It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.
Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season.
Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then,
The Unemployed Now Have Their Own Union
http://www.alternet.org/economy/145797/the_unemployed_now_have_their_own_union%2C_and_it%27s_catching_on_quickly
It's been only a month that a union for the unemployed has come into existence through an ingenious grassroots organizing campaign. In case you haven't heard about it, the union's name is "UR Union of the Unemployed" or its nickname, "UCubed," because of its unique method of organizing.
UCubed is the brain-child
It's been only a month that a union for the unemployed has come into existence through an ingenious grassroots organizing campaign. In case you haven't heard about it, the union's name is "UR Union of the Unemployed" or its nickname, "UCubed," because of its unique method of organizing.
UCubed is the brain-child
War game shows how attacking Iran could backfire
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/2...k=omni_popular
Here's a war game involving Iran, Israel and the U.S. that shows how unintended consequences can spin out of control:
With diplomacy failing and precious intelligence just received about two new secret Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel launches a pre-emptive strike against Tehran's nuclear complex. The strike is successful, wiping out six of Iran's key sites and setting back its suspected quest for a bomb by years.
But what happens next isn't pretty.
Here's a war game involving Iran, Israel and the U.S. that shows how unintended consequences can spin out of control:
With diplomacy failing and precious intelligence just received about two new secret Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel launches a pre-emptive strike against Tehran's nuclear complex. The strike is successful, wiping out six of Iran's key sites and setting back its suspected quest for a bomb by years.
But what happens next isn't pretty.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Rep. Ron Paul surprise winner of CPAC presidential straw poll
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/20/conservatives.meeting/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Oh hello!, Can you smell the fear?
This was absolutely not expected to happen.
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.
With participants naming "reducing the size of federal government" as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a barometer of how the GOP's conservative wing regards their potential presidential candidates.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 22 percent of the vote, ending a three-year winning streak at CPAC. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin finished third with 7 percent of the vote, followed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 6 percent and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence at 5 percent.
Oh hello!, Can you smell the fear?
This was absolutely not expected to happen.
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.
With participants naming "reducing the size of federal government" as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a barometer of how the GOP's conservative wing regards their potential presidential candidates.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 22 percent of the vote, ending a three-year winning streak at CPAC. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin finished third with 7 percent of the vote, followed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 6 percent and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence at 5 percent.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Interrogation Memo Authors Shouldn’t Be Punished, Report Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=as9d9biMquCM
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bush administration lawyers used poor judgment, though they didn’t commit professional misconduct, when they wrote memos authorizing interrogation techniques such as waterboarding for terrorism suspects, a U.S. Justice Department review found.
Jay Bybee and John Yoo, who wrote
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bush administration lawyers used poor judgment, though they didn’t commit professional misconduct, when they wrote memos authorizing interrogation techniques such as waterboarding for terrorism suspects, a U.S. Justice Department review found.
Jay Bybee and John Yoo, who wrote
Supreme Court: "Ryan Gets Nothing
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/george-ryan-84790447.html
Interesting ruling. Maybe there is hope for justice yet.
The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday dashed former Gov. George Ryan's hopes of salvaging at least part of his state pension.
In a 6-1 decision, the high court said Ryan's racketeering and fraud conviction made him ineligible for the $70,824 in annual payments a lower court said he deserved for the years not tied to his corrupt tenure as governor and secretery of state.
The 23-page decision written by Justice Bob Thomas put it in plain language, noting: "Ryan gets nothing."
The nearly $71,000 estimate is based on Ryan's 24 years as a Kankakee County official, state legislator and lieutenant governor, posts in which he was not accused of criminal wrongdoing, the Chicago Sun-Times explained.
Interesting ruling. Maybe there is hope for justice yet.
The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday dashed former Gov. George Ryan's hopes of salvaging at least part of his state pension.
In a 6-1 decision, the high court said Ryan's racketeering and fraud conviction made him ineligible for the $70,824 in annual payments a lower court said he deserved for the years not tied to his corrupt tenure as governor and secretery of state.
The 23-page decision written by Justice Bob Thomas put it in plain language, noting: "Ryan gets nothing."
The nearly $71,000 estimate is based on Ryan's 24 years as a Kankakee County official, state legislator and lieutenant governor, posts in which he was not accused of criminal wrongdoing, the Chicago Sun-Times explained.
Head Of Greek Debt Office Replaced By Former Goldman Investment Banker
Head Of Greek Debt Office Replaced By Former Goldman Investment Banker
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hea...estment-banker
Goldman's government seems to be growing
Perhaps this is the new world order.
A one world government headed by Goldman Sachs
And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday's news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the CEO of the NBG Tamvakakis), as can be seen on the org chart below. Yet was is oddest, is that Mr. Christodoulou worked not only as head of derivatives at JP Morgan but also held comparable posts at Credit Suisse, and... wait for it, Goldman Sachs... Uh, say what?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/hea...estment-banker
Goldman's government seems to be growing
Perhaps this is the new world order.
A one world government headed by Goldman Sachs
And so the tragicomic becomes surreal. Yesterday's news about the departure of the head of the debt management agency, Spyros Papanicolaou, was somewhat of a yawner, until we realized that his replacement would be none other than Petros Christodoulou, who until today was head of Private Banking and Group Treasury at the National Bank of Greece (reporting directly to the CEO of the NBG Tamvakakis), as can be seen on the org chart below. Yet was is oddest, is that Mr. Christodoulou worked not only as head of derivatives at JP Morgan but also held comparable posts at Credit Suisse, and... wait for it, Goldman Sachs... Uh, say what?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
PILOT ANGRY WITH IRS CRASHES INTO AUSTIN BUILDING
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7463-0-0-0--.html
He wasn't crazy kids, he was crushed, by a system that no matter how hard he tried to please, always seemed to end up spitting in his face.
Read his suicide letter, It's in this article.
It's not a manifesto, that's just MSM bullshit, but then what else are they good for
small plane owned by a man whose Web site indicated he was furious at the Internal Revenue Service slammed into a seven-story office building in northwest Austin that houses some of the agencies offices, injuring two people inside and leaving another person unaccounted for.
The home of the plane's owner, Joseph Andrew Stack, burned down this morning in Austin before his plane hit the building at 9430 Research Boulevard. A Web site registered to him featured a long complaint against the tax system, capitalist greed, his accountant, former President George W. Bush and other targets.
The site is titled, "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man ... take my pound of flesh and sleep well." The note and other documents indicate Stack moved from California to Austin after the dot-com bust.
Messages left with the accountant were not immediately returned.
Austin police declined to discuss the house fire and Internet manifesto.
The Piper Cherokee took off from Georgetown this morning
He wasn't crazy kids, he was crushed, by a system that no matter how hard he tried to please, always seemed to end up spitting in his face.
Read his suicide letter, It's in this article.
It's not a manifesto, that's just MSM bullshit, but then what else are they good for
small plane owned by a man whose Web site indicated he was furious at the Internal Revenue Service slammed into a seven-story office building in northwest Austin that houses some of the agencies offices, injuring two people inside and leaving another person unaccounted for.
The home of the plane's owner, Joseph Andrew Stack, burned down this morning in Austin before his plane hit the building at 9430 Research Boulevard. A Web site registered to him featured a long complaint against the tax system, capitalist greed, his accountant, former President George W. Bush and other targets.
The site is titled, "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man ... take my pound of flesh and sleep well." The note and other documents indicate Stack moved from California to Austin after the dot-com bust.
Messages left with the accountant were not immediately returned.
Austin police declined to discuss the house fire and Internet manifesto.
The Piper Cherokee took off from Georgetown this morning
School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html
According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.
If true, these allegations are about as creepy as they come. I don't know about you, but I often have the laptop in the room while I'm getting dressed, having private discussions with my family, and so on. The idea that a school district would not only spy on its students' clickstreams and emails (bad enough), but also use these machines as AV bugs
According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.
If true, these allegations are about as creepy as they come. I don't know about you, but I often have the laptop in the room while I'm getting dressed, having private discussions with my family, and so on. The idea that a school district would not only spy on its students' clickstreams and emails (bad enough), but also use these machines as AV bugs
Another federal failure
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/02/obama-stimulus-weatherization.html
And they are still running this show WHY?
The incompetence is phenomenal
Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days?
Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.
Based on the initial Obama-Biden program promise that it would create 87,000 new jobs its first year, that would be about 10 jobs for each home weatherized so far. Makes for pretty crowded doorways.
ABC News reports that the General Accountability Office will declare today that the Energy Department has fallen woefully behind -- about 98.5% behind -- the 593,000 homes it initially predicted would be weatherized in the Recovery Act's very first, very chilly year.
The Energy Department is run by Steven Chu, like President Obama a Nobel Prize winner. You'll never guess what the federal government blames for the lack of significant progress.
RED tape.
Not duct tape. Not weatherstripping
And they are still running this show WHY?
The incompetence is phenomenal
Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days?
Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.
Based on the initial Obama-Biden program promise that it would create 87,000 new jobs its first year, that would be about 10 jobs for each home weatherized so far. Makes for pretty crowded doorways.
ABC News reports that the General Accountability Office will declare today that the Energy Department has fallen woefully behind -- about 98.5% behind -- the 593,000 homes it initially predicted would be weatherized in the Recovery Act's very first, very chilly year.
The Energy Department is run by Steven Chu, like President Obama a Nobel Prize winner. You'll never guess what the federal government blames for the lack of significant progress.
RED tape.
Not duct tape. Not weatherstripping
Muni Threat: Cities Weigh Chapter 9
http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/108866/muni-threat-cities-weigh-chapter-9?sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
A DEFINITE REALITY TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH, and it's only going to get worse from here.
Just days after becoming controller of financially strapped Harrisburg, Pa., in January, Daniel Miller began uttering an obscure term that baffled most people who had never heard it and chilled those who had: Chapter 9.
The seldom-used part of U.S. bankruptcy law gives municipalities protection from creditors while developing a plan to pay off debts. Created in the wake of the Great Depression, Chapter 9 is widely considered a last resort and filings under it are more taboo than other parts of bankruptcy code because of the resulting uncertainty for everyone from municipal employees to bondholders.
The economic slump, however, is forcing debt-laden cities, towns and smaller taxing districts throughout the U.S. to consider using Chapter 9. As their revenue declines faster than expenses, some public entities are scrambling to keep making payments on municipal bonds. And that is causing experts to worry about the safety of securities traditionally considered low risk.
"People believe that municipal debt is safe based on assumptions that are no longer true," says Kenneth Buckfire, managing director and chief executive of Miller Buckfire & Co., an investment bank that has worked with corporations on restructurings and now is advising municipalities. For example, it isn't safe to assume that governments can raise taxes to cover shortfalls, he says.
A DEFINITE REALITY TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH, and it's only going to get worse from here.
Just days after becoming controller of financially strapped Harrisburg, Pa., in January, Daniel Miller began uttering an obscure term that baffled most people who had never heard it and chilled those who had: Chapter 9.
The seldom-used part of U.S. bankruptcy law gives municipalities protection from creditors while developing a plan to pay off debts. Created in the wake of the Great Depression, Chapter 9 is widely considered a last resort and filings under it are more taboo than other parts of bankruptcy code because of the resulting uncertainty for everyone from municipal employees to bondholders.
The economic slump, however, is forcing debt-laden cities, towns and smaller taxing districts throughout the U.S. to consider using Chapter 9. As their revenue declines faster than expenses, some public entities are scrambling to keep making payments on municipal bonds. And that is causing experts to worry about the safety of securities traditionally considered low risk.
"People believe that municipal debt is safe based on assumptions that are no longer true," says Kenneth Buckfire, managing director and chief executive of Miller Buckfire & Co., an investment bank that has worked with corporations on restructurings and now is advising municipalities. For example, it isn't safe to assume that governments can raise taxes to cover shortfalls, he says.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Merkel hits out at banks over Greek deals
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8481e594-1c00-11df-a5e1-00144feab49a.html
I don't know Angela, Criminal come to my mind.
The German chancellor has sharply criticised global investment banks that may have helped a number of Greek governments to disguise mounting budgetary problems over the years.
“It would be a disgrace if it turned out to be true that banks that already pushed us to the edge of the abyss were also party to falsifying Greek statistics,” Angela Merkel said during a speech in north-eastern Germany
I don't know Angela, Criminal come to my mind.
The German chancellor has sharply criticised global investment banks that may have helped a number of Greek governments to disguise mounting budgetary problems over the years.
“It would be a disgrace if it turned out to be true that banks that already pushed us to the edge of the abyss were also party to falsifying Greek statistics,” Angela Merkel said during a speech in north-eastern Germany
Food Stamps Create Jobs… in India
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=7452561
It kinda makes ya sick don't it?
The banks just takin and makin...
Off "Our" country
Michele Brown has seen Americans' struggles with jobs first hand. She lives in hard-hit Florida, spent 20 years in the real estate business and recently had her days as a nanny cut back after her boss had his own hours reduced.
Several states with high unemployment rates are outsourcing their food stamp services to call centers in India, angering many residents. Michele Brown learned about Florida's outsourcing when she called regarding a problem with her benefits.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)But nothing prepared her for what happened one day when she called a toll-free line to inquire about her food stamps.
"The woman who answered the phone -- it's not like she wasn't nice or anything -- but it was kind of evident that she wasn't in the States," Brown said.
It turns out the woman was at a JP Morgan Chase call center in India.
"That really put me over the edge," said Brown, 52, of Jupiter, Fla. "It's not right because we need the work here. People are in a bad way here."
It kinda makes ya sick don't it?
The banks just takin and makin...
Off "Our" country
Michele Brown has seen Americans' struggles with jobs first hand. She lives in hard-hit Florida, spent 20 years in the real estate business and recently had her days as a nanny cut back after her boss had his own hours reduced.
Several states with high unemployment rates are outsourcing their food stamp services to call centers in India, angering many residents. Michele Brown learned about Florida's outsourcing when she called regarding a problem with her benefits.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)But nothing prepared her for what happened one day when she called a toll-free line to inquire about her food stamps.
"The woman who answered the phone -- it's not like she wasn't nice or anything -- but it was kind of evident that she wasn't in the States," Brown said.
It turns out the woman was at a JP Morgan Chase call center in India.
"That really put me over the edge," said Brown, 52, of Jupiter, Fla. "It's not right because we need the work here. People are in a bad way here."
Pay-go gets passed, then it gets bypassed
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/81405-pay-go-gets-passed-then-it-gets-bypassed
A hard decision has to be made kids, it's impossible to keep extending unemployment and COBRA payments forever.
The system setup wasn't designed for it.
The honest truth is, people will suffer, but a rational decision on their cut off must be made, "WE" can no longer sustain the drain.
The ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda.
Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending that isn’t subject to the pay-as-you-go statute, which requires new non-discretionary spending to be offset with spending cuts or tax increases.
With current extensions of unemployment and COBRA benefits set to expire at the end of the month and the jobless rate still near 10 percent, Democratic lawmakers want to pass the extensions quickly, without having to find offsets for the costs.
A hard decision has to be made kids, it's impossible to keep extending unemployment and COBRA payments forever.
The system setup wasn't designed for it.
The honest truth is, people will suffer, but a rational decision on their cut off must be made, "WE" can no longer sustain the drain.
The ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda.
Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending that isn’t subject to the pay-as-you-go statute, which requires new non-discretionary spending to be offset with spending cuts or tax increases.
With current extensions of unemployment and COBRA benefits set to expire at the end of the month and the jobless rate still near 10 percent, Democratic lawmakers want to pass the extensions quickly, without having to find offsets for the costs.
Meeting addresses plan for massive school closings
http://www.kansascity.com/934/gallery/1753406.html
How's it going in your town? Half the schools comes to the equivalent of 30.
This is the reality of what we all have to look forward to.
It's not very pretty is it?
Dr. John Covington, superintendent of Kansas City Board of Education, addressed the attendees at Northeast Elementary Shool at 4904 Independence Avenue on Tuesday night about the proposed recommendations to close nearly half of the district's schools during a public forum, the first of four scheduled. DAVID EULITT/The Kansas City Star
Read more: Meeting addresses plan for massive school closings - Photo Gallery - KansasCity.com
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1750731.html
How's it going in your town? Half the schools comes to the equivalent of 30.
This is the reality of what we all have to look forward to.
It's not very pretty is it?
Dr. John Covington, superintendent of Kansas City Board of Education, addressed the attendees at Northeast Elementary Shool at 4904 Independence Avenue on Tuesday night about the proposed recommendations to close nearly half of the district's schools during a public forum, the first of four scheduled. DAVID EULITT/The Kansas City Star
Read more: Meeting addresses plan for massive school closings - Photo Gallery - KansasCity.com
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1750731.html
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tim Geithner and Jamie Dimon Under the Microsope
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/geithner-dimon-jpmorgan-economy-treasury-fed/2/16/2010/id/26880
The financial industry has turned into some sick sort of make your own rules up Monopoly,where anything goes.
There is no question any more that they knew what they were doing.
The only question that remains is why haven't arrests been made?
Inquiring minds are reading the Financial Times article -- Fed carries losses from Bear Stearns portfolio -- to spot lies made by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (then president of the New York Fed) and Jamie Dimon, current CEO of JPMorgan Chase (JPM).
The US Federal Reserve is sitting on significant paper losses on the real estate assets it acquired in the Bear Stearns rescue, with much of the red ink coming from debt used to back some of the most high-profile buy-out deals of the bubble years.
The financial industry has turned into some sick sort of make your own rules up Monopoly,where anything goes.
There is no question any more that they knew what they were doing.
The only question that remains is why haven't arrests been made?
Inquiring minds are reading the Financial Times article -- Fed carries losses from Bear Stearns portfolio -- to spot lies made by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (then president of the New York Fed) and Jamie Dimon, current CEO of JPMorgan Chase (JPM).
The US Federal Reserve is sitting on significant paper losses on the real estate assets it acquired in the Bear Stearns rescue, with much of the red ink coming from debt used to back some of the most high-profile buy-out deals of the bubble years.
Greece: Bomb explodes at JPMorgan branch
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Greece-Bomb-explodes-at-apf-1278864848.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
Police in the Greek capital say a bomb has exploded at the offices of American financial services firm JPMorgan Chase & Co., causing no injuries.
The blast occurred early evening Tuesday in an upscale area of central Athens, following a warning telephone call to an Athens newspaper.
The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Police in the Greek capital say a bomb has exploded at the offices of American financial services firm JPMorgan Chase & Co., causing no injuries.
The blast occurred early evening Tuesday in an upscale area of central Athens, following a warning telephone call to an Athens newspaper.
The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
The Indymac Slap in our Face
http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23088/1004815
If you don't do anything else today watch this video and pass it on!
This is insane but at least now I understand why it doesn't behoove the bank to make loan modifications for their customers
FDIC Responds To IndyMac/OneWest Video Alleging Sheila Bair Transferred Billions In Taxpayer Funds To Paulson & Co., And Others
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fdic-responds-indymaconewest-video-alleging-sheila-bair-transferred-billions-taxpayer-funds-?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+zerohedge/feed+(zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline,+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero
If you don't do anything else today watch this video and pass it on!
This is insane but at least now I understand why it doesn't behoove the bank to make loan modifications for their customers
FDIC Responds To IndyMac/OneWest Video Alleging Sheila Bair Transferred Billions In Taxpayer Funds To Paulson & Co., And Others
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fdic-responds-indymaconewest-video-alleging-sheila-bair-transferred-billions-taxpayer-funds-?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+zerohedge/feed+(zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline,+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero
U.S. Marine Walks Away From Shot to Helmet in Afghanistan .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703562404575067550355712126.html?mod=WSJ-hpp-MIDDLETopStories
Why are we there? None of this makes sense anymore
[B]"He's alive for a reason," Tim Coderre, a North Carolina narcotics detective working with the Marines as a consultant, told one of the men. "From a spiritual point of view, that doesn't happen by accident."[/B]
Why are we there? None of this makes sense anymore
[B]"He's alive for a reason," Tim Coderre, a North Carolina narcotics detective working with the Marines as a consultant, told one of the men. "From a spiritual point of view, that doesn't happen by accident."[/B]
Audit finds US census preparations wasted millions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_bi_ge/us_census_spending_waste_2
Another political waste.
The Census Bureau wasted millions of dollars in preparation for its 2010 population count, including thousands of temporary employees who picked up $300 checks without performing work and others who overbilled for travel costs.
Federal investigators caution the excessive charges could multiply once the $15 billion headcount begins in earnest next month unless the agency imposes tighter spending controls, according to excerpts of a forthcoming audit obtained by The Associated Press.
On a positive note, investigators backed the Census Bureau's decision to spend $133 million on its advertising campaign, saying it was appropriate to boost public awareness. The spending included a $2.5 million Super Bowl spot that some Republicans had criticized as wasteful.
The findings by Todd Zinser, the Commerce Department's inspector general, highlight the difficult balancing act for the Census Bureau as it takes on the Herculean task of manually counting the nation's 300 million residents amid a backdrop of record levels of government debt.
Because the population count, done every 10 years, is used to distribute U.S. House seats and billions in federal aid, many states are pushing for all-out government efforts in outreach since there is little
Another political waste.
The Census Bureau wasted millions of dollars in preparation for its 2010 population count, including thousands of temporary employees who picked up $300 checks without performing work and others who overbilled for travel costs.
Federal investigators caution the excessive charges could multiply once the $15 billion headcount begins in earnest next month unless the agency imposes tighter spending controls, according to excerpts of a forthcoming audit obtained by The Associated Press.
On a positive note, investigators backed the Census Bureau's decision to spend $133 million on its advertising campaign, saying it was appropriate to boost public awareness. The spending included a $2.5 million Super Bowl spot that some Republicans had criticized as wasteful.
The findings by Todd Zinser, the Commerce Department's inspector general, highlight the difficult balancing act for the Census Bureau as it takes on the Herculean task of manually counting the nation's 300 million residents amid a backdrop of record levels of government debt.
Because the population count, done every 10 years, is used to distribute U.S. House seats and billions in federal aid, many states are pushing for all-out government efforts in outreach since there is little
Monday, February 15, 2010
Timmy, AIG, and the NYFED
http://biggovernment.com/fgaffney/2010/02/10/federal-reserve-bank-of-new-york-subpoenaed-in-aig-fraud-case/
It's time to pay attention kids, our country deserves the truth
Here’s the latest in the question of the New York Fed, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the AIG bailout, as we’ve covered here at Big Government before (here and here). Last year, Iraq war vet Kevin Murray brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Ben Bernanke (Murray vs. Geithner, et al) for its acquisition of AIG– a scheme that made the US taxpayer the world’s largest provider of Shariah-compliant insurance products. Lawyers David Yerushalmi and The Thomas More Law Center’s Robert Muise found, in the course of discovery, that that was just the tip of the iceberg.
AIG, NYFED
Yerushalmi and Muise quickly realized that, in acquiring 77.9% of AIG, the New York Fed may have set up an illegal trust, with the knowledge that what they were to do was illegal. Tuesday, Murray’s attorneys issued a subpoena for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Here’s the latest update from David Yerushalmi:
Now that the court has allowed us to amend the complaint to add additional bad acts by the government (done and filed today) and at the same time rejected the government’s efforts to stay discovery and to end run to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and while we await the court’s ruling on our motion to force Secretary Geithner to sit for a 3-hr deposition, we have today sent out for service the following Subpoena for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
This deposition will effectively allow us to learn the government’s rationale (however lame) of the How and Why of the invalid and illegal trust used to gain control over AIG.
We are expecting a battle over this one because the real skeletons of this deal are here at the NY Fed where at the time (Sept-Dec 08) Secretary Geithner served as the president and de facto Treasury Secretary, having been tapped by Obama as the new administration awaited the inauguration in Jan 2010. To understand this, read through the attachments (Notice of Service of Subpoena Commanding Deposition Testimony and the Production of Documents, Electronically Stored Information, or Tangible Things) at the substantive information we are seeking. The rest, as they say, is just commentary.
In the meantime, America awaits a ruling on whether Treasury Secretary Geithner will have to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” in a three-hour deposition.
Here are the questions from the subpoena:
It's time to pay attention kids, our country deserves the truth
Here’s the latest in the question of the New York Fed, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the AIG bailout, as we’ve covered here at Big Government before (here and here). Last year, Iraq war vet Kevin Murray brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Ben Bernanke (Murray vs. Geithner, et al) for its acquisition of AIG– a scheme that made the US taxpayer the world’s largest provider of Shariah-compliant insurance products. Lawyers David Yerushalmi and The Thomas More Law Center’s Robert Muise found, in the course of discovery, that that was just the tip of the iceberg.
AIG, NYFED
Yerushalmi and Muise quickly realized that, in acquiring 77.9% of AIG, the New York Fed may have set up an illegal trust, with the knowledge that what they were to do was illegal. Tuesday, Murray’s attorneys issued a subpoena for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Here’s the latest update from David Yerushalmi:
Now that the court has allowed us to amend the complaint to add additional bad acts by the government (done and filed today) and at the same time rejected the government’s efforts to stay discovery and to end run to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and while we await the court’s ruling on our motion to force Secretary Geithner to sit for a 3-hr deposition, we have today sent out for service the following Subpoena for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
This deposition will effectively allow us to learn the government’s rationale (however lame) of the How and Why of the invalid and illegal trust used to gain control over AIG.
We are expecting a battle over this one because the real skeletons of this deal are here at the NY Fed where at the time (Sept-Dec 08) Secretary Geithner served as the president and de facto Treasury Secretary, having been tapped by Obama as the new administration awaited the inauguration in Jan 2010. To understand this, read through the attachments (Notice of Service of Subpoena Commanding Deposition Testimony and the Production of Documents, Electronically Stored Information, or Tangible Things) at the substantive information we are seeking. The rest, as they say, is just commentary.
In the meantime, America awaits a ruling on whether Treasury Secretary Geithner will have to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” in a three-hour deposition.
Here are the questions from the subpoena:
Police, Fire Departments Face Budget Axe
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704337004575059650511481356.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#articleTabs%3Dcomments
Common sense tells us that there is no way crime is really dropping. Not with the unemployment tolls that have taken place. What has changed though is what they now consider a persuadable crime I believe.
It's time to get real about our wants and needs. Wants can wait, while needs must be provided for.
Miami shows a prime example of administrative waste.
The question is: What exactly does a desk jockey do to deserve that kind of compensation, and what is the need for that kind of position?
The bleak arithmetic of the recession has pushed cities across the nation to make deep cuts in police, fire and emergency medical services.
Some cities are eliminating hundreds of patrol-officer and firefighter positions and taking ladder trucks and ambulances out of service. Others have announced they will no longer respond to entire categories of calls, such as burglaries, check fraud, shoplifting and traffic accidents involving minor injuries.
San Diego just auctioned off its police horses. Colorado Springs, Colo., has put its two police helicopters up for sale online. In Phoenix, Mayor Phil Gordon, a Democrat, said wearily that he may no longer be able to attach officers to federal task forces running down leads on terrorism, drug trafficking and child exploitation.
.Mr. Gordon's latest draft budget calls for laying off 236 officers. A tentative deal with the police union for a 3.2% salary cut may save some of those jobs, but even so, the expected layoffs—on top of normal attrition with no replacement hiring—will leave the Phoenix force at less than 85% its authorized strength.
Crime has been dropping, Mr. Gordon said.
Colorado Springs police no longer will deal with abandoned vehicles unless they pose a hazard. Officers are unlikely to respond to property crimes unless they have a solid lead on a suspect.
1 day ago..Barbara Lane wrote:
.Miami’s Top Salaries
Figures represent total 2008 compensation, including overtime, settlements, retroactive pay raises, deferred
compensation, health insurance, cell phone and automobile allowances. Some individuals who retired at the end of 2008 may have received unused vacation and sick time.
COUNT FIRST NAME LAST NAME TITLE DEPARTMENT NAME TOTAL EARNINGS
1 JON HART CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 308,317.88
2 FERNANDO ACOSTA SERGEANT AT ARMS MAYOR’S OFFICE 295,075.22
3 LAURA BILLBERRY DIRECTOR PUBLIC FACILITIES 291,637.81
4 JOHN TIMONEY CHIEF POLICE 290,532.66
5 JULIO MESTAS CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 288,575.59
6 JORGE VALLADARES CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 280,579.55
7 CHRISTOPHER MUSSER CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 279,551.33
8 PRISCILLA THOMPSON CITY CLERK CITY CLERK 277,172.48
9 JUAN MESTAS FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 276,364.93
10 PEDRO HERNANDEZ CITY MANAGER CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 274,980.88
11 CRAIG RADELMAN CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 274,640.02
12 RAUL FERNANDEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 273,720.12
13 MICHAEL SHELTON CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 271,806.69
14 EDGAR ACOSTA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 270,270.48
15 THOMAS FLORES FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 267,704.93
16 RICHARD WALTERMAN CAPTAIN POLICE 266,781.99
17 JOHN GONZALEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 264,856.30
18 HUGO RODRIGUEZ FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 261,448.53
19 JULIE BRU CITY ATTORNEY LAW 261,320.67
20 WILLIAM BRYSON FIRE DEPT. CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 260,557.76
21 ROBERT SIMMONS CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 260,206.82
22 ROY HAMLIN FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 257,010.41
23 VICTOR IGWE AUDITOR GENERAL INTERNAL AUDITS & REVIEWS 252,574.44
24 PETER DARLEY CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 250,192.93
25 LUIS DUTHIL CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 249,170.34
26 DANIEL MEADOWS FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 248,913.37
27 DAVID FARBER FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 248,829.11
28 RONALD KHAWLY FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 248,318.41
29 HENRY RODRIGUEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 246,985.86
30 DAVID MORA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 244,874.94
31 FERNANDO FERNANDEZ JR. FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 244,564.68
32 MAURICE KEMP FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 243,384.06
33 FRANK MOORE FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 241,626.76
34 WILLIAM LEWYCKY FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 239,827.75
35 LORAN DOUGHERTY FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 238,242.05
36 MICHAEL BRATZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 236,601.90
37 MARIA CHIARO DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY LAW 234,486.35
38 EDWARD PIDERMANN FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 234,075.98
39 PHILIP LEDEA FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 233,702.77
40 LARRY SPRING CFO CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 233,525.45
41 JOSEPH ZAHRALBAN CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 232,106.89
42 J. GUARDARRAMA FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 231,868.76
43 M. JONES CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 231,739.16
44 CHARLES MAREE FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 231,528.13
45 ALLEN JOYCE FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 230,423.41
46 ROBERT “EVANS, JR.” FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 229,622.92
47 RAFAEL DIAZ ASST. CITY ATTORNEY LAW 229,083.54
48 REGINALD DUREN FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 228,840.75
49 WALTER GRANT CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 28,490.64
COUNT FIRST NAME LAST NAME TITLE DEPARTMENT NAME TOTAL EARNINGS
50 WARREN BITTNER DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY LAW 224,892.67
51 JORGE BARRETO CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 224,486.80
52 RALPH PARKER CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 224,255.74
53 RICARDO SANDA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 223,918.41
54 BRUCE OESTREICH CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 223,619.86
55 MICHAEL WINCHESTER CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 222,921.24
56 EDDY RODRIGUEZ FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 222,589.30
57 RICARDO ROQUE LIEUTENANT POLICE 222,214.45
58 THOMAS GABRIEL CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 221,707.94
59 JOSE ECHAGARRUA LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 220,635.08
60 ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 220,488.36
61 ELOY GARCIA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 220,274.91
62 CARLOS GARCIA LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 219,870.02
63 JUAN MEIZOSO FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 219,467.53
64 JOE BURNS CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 218,892.85
65 BRENDA HOPPE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 218,113.05
66 DAVID DUENAS JR. CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 217,974.10
67 WILLIAM CHAPMAN LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 217,837.55
68 FRANK MAINADE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 217,186.11
69 JAMES PACE CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 215,597.73
70 ROGER HERNSTADT ASST. CITY MANAGER CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 215,538.27
71 ROBERTO HERNANDEZ LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 215,014.08
72 JOE CABRERA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 214,973.50
73 JOSEPH FERNANDEZ FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 214,769.31
74 CRAIG DUNN FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 214,596.93
75 GARY DAGNAN LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 212,977.30
76 RICHARD HERRIN CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 212,317.92
77 RUBEN BARGUEIRAS FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 212,223.39
78 RICHARD “TIERNEY, JR.” LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 211,439.78
79 EMILIO SANCHEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 211,431.10
80 EARL ALLEN JR. LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 210,611.30
81 CHARLES COLLIER LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 210,483.10
82 BARRY GONZALEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 210,211.25
83 JAMES PAUGH LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 209,677.14
84 JEFFREY FITZGERALD CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 208,491.22
85 DAVID WALSH CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 208,428.88
86 SCOTT DEAN LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 208,359.31
87 JORGE DU QUESNE CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 207,659.71
88 GEORGE LAWRENCE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 207,442.68
89 CARLOS PEREZ LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 205,760.67
90 EDWARD JARRELL JR. CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 205,024.13
91 LESS REDDICK LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 204,120.67
92 MARIO PATTERSON LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 204,054.87
93 GUILLERMO ANIDO ASST. CITY MANAGER CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 204,018.50
94 ALBERTO LAGEYRE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 203,410.60
95 MICHAEL COLOMBO MAJOR POLICE 201,630.12
96 HUGO GORT CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 201,153.27
97 WILLIAM SAVOY LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 200,858.67
TOTAL 22,760,335.77
Miami, with a population of 404,048 and a median income just over $26,000 per year, continues to compensate dozens of employees at pay rates far greater than comparable cities. Much of the expense is related to the city’s lax management of its fire department, where salaries negotiated by the fi refi ghters’
union are generous, and where vacancies and strict staffi ng rules have pushed overtime pay through the roof.
In calendar year 2008, a total of 97 city employees received more than $200,000 in compensation, costing taxpayers more than $22.76 million, according to documents prepared by the city’s budget office and department of employee relations. Interestingly, 84 percent of those individuals were middle- to high level
supervisors at the fi re department. "Gravy Train" www.BiscayneTimes.com
Common sense tells us that there is no way crime is really dropping. Not with the unemployment tolls that have taken place. What has changed though is what they now consider a persuadable crime I believe.
It's time to get real about our wants and needs. Wants can wait, while needs must be provided for.
Miami shows a prime example of administrative waste.
The question is: What exactly does a desk jockey do to deserve that kind of compensation, and what is the need for that kind of position?
The bleak arithmetic of the recession has pushed cities across the nation to make deep cuts in police, fire and emergency medical services.
Some cities are eliminating hundreds of patrol-officer and firefighter positions and taking ladder trucks and ambulances out of service. Others have announced they will no longer respond to entire categories of calls, such as burglaries, check fraud, shoplifting and traffic accidents involving minor injuries.
San Diego just auctioned off its police horses. Colorado Springs, Colo., has put its two police helicopters up for sale online. In Phoenix, Mayor Phil Gordon, a Democrat, said wearily that he may no longer be able to attach officers to federal task forces running down leads on terrorism, drug trafficking and child exploitation.
.Mr. Gordon's latest draft budget calls for laying off 236 officers. A tentative deal with the police union for a 3.2% salary cut may save some of those jobs, but even so, the expected layoffs—on top of normal attrition with no replacement hiring—will leave the Phoenix force at less than 85% its authorized strength.
Crime has been dropping, Mr. Gordon said.
Colorado Springs police no longer will deal with abandoned vehicles unless they pose a hazard. Officers are unlikely to respond to property crimes unless they have a solid lead on a suspect.
1 day ago..Barbara Lane wrote:
.Miami’s Top Salaries
Figures represent total 2008 compensation, including overtime, settlements, retroactive pay raises, deferred
compensation, health insurance, cell phone and automobile allowances. Some individuals who retired at the end of 2008 may have received unused vacation and sick time.
COUNT FIRST NAME LAST NAME TITLE DEPARTMENT NAME TOTAL EARNINGS
1 JON HART CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 308,317.88
2 FERNANDO ACOSTA SERGEANT AT ARMS MAYOR’S OFFICE 295,075.22
3 LAURA BILLBERRY DIRECTOR PUBLIC FACILITIES 291,637.81
4 JOHN TIMONEY CHIEF POLICE 290,532.66
5 JULIO MESTAS CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 288,575.59
6 JORGE VALLADARES CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 280,579.55
7 CHRISTOPHER MUSSER CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 279,551.33
8 PRISCILLA THOMPSON CITY CLERK CITY CLERK 277,172.48
9 JUAN MESTAS FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 276,364.93
10 PEDRO HERNANDEZ CITY MANAGER CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 274,980.88
11 CRAIG RADELMAN CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 274,640.02
12 RAUL FERNANDEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 273,720.12
13 MICHAEL SHELTON CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 271,806.69
14 EDGAR ACOSTA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 270,270.48
15 THOMAS FLORES FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 267,704.93
16 RICHARD WALTERMAN CAPTAIN POLICE 266,781.99
17 JOHN GONZALEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 264,856.30
18 HUGO RODRIGUEZ FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 261,448.53
19 JULIE BRU CITY ATTORNEY LAW 261,320.67
20 WILLIAM BRYSON FIRE DEPT. CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 260,557.76
21 ROBERT SIMMONS CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 260,206.82
22 ROY HAMLIN FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 257,010.41
23 VICTOR IGWE AUDITOR GENERAL INTERNAL AUDITS & REVIEWS 252,574.44
24 PETER DARLEY CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 250,192.93
25 LUIS DUTHIL CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 249,170.34
26 DANIEL MEADOWS FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 248,913.37
27 DAVID FARBER FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 248,829.11
28 RONALD KHAWLY FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 248,318.41
29 HENRY RODRIGUEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 246,985.86
30 DAVID MORA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 244,874.94
31 FERNANDO FERNANDEZ JR. FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 244,564.68
32 MAURICE KEMP FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 243,384.06
33 FRANK MOORE FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 241,626.76
34 WILLIAM LEWYCKY FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 239,827.75
35 LORAN DOUGHERTY FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 238,242.05
36 MICHAEL BRATZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 236,601.90
37 MARIA CHIARO DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY LAW 234,486.35
38 EDWARD PIDERMANN FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 234,075.98
39 PHILIP LEDEA FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 233,702.77
40 LARRY SPRING CFO CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 233,525.45
41 JOSEPH ZAHRALBAN CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 232,106.89
42 J. GUARDARRAMA FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 231,868.76
43 M. JONES CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 231,739.16
44 CHARLES MAREE FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 231,528.13
45 ALLEN JOYCE FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 230,423.41
46 ROBERT “EVANS, JR.” FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 229,622.92
47 RAFAEL DIAZ ASST. CITY ATTORNEY LAW 229,083.54
48 REGINALD DUREN FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 228,840.75
49 WALTER GRANT CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 28,490.64
COUNT FIRST NAME LAST NAME TITLE DEPARTMENT NAME TOTAL EARNINGS
50 WARREN BITTNER DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY LAW 224,892.67
51 JORGE BARRETO CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 224,486.80
52 RALPH PARKER CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 224,255.74
53 RICARDO SANDA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 223,918.41
54 BRUCE OESTREICH CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 223,619.86
55 MICHAEL WINCHESTER CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 222,921.24
56 EDDY RODRIGUEZ FIRE OFFICER FIRE RESCUE 222,589.30
57 RICARDO ROQUE LIEUTENANT POLICE 222,214.45
58 THOMAS GABRIEL CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 221,707.94
59 JOSE ECHAGARRUA LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 220,635.08
60 ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 220,488.36
61 ELOY GARCIA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 220,274.91
62 CARLOS GARCIA LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 219,870.02
63 JUAN MEIZOSO FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 219,467.53
64 JOE BURNS CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 218,892.85
65 BRENDA HOPPE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 218,113.05
66 DAVID DUENAS JR. CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 217,974.10
67 WILLIAM CHAPMAN LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 217,837.55
68 FRANK MAINADE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 217,186.11
69 JAMES PACE CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 215,597.73
70 ROGER HERNSTADT ASST. CITY MANAGER CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 215,538.27
71 ROBERTO HERNANDEZ LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 215,014.08
72 JOE CABRERA CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 214,973.50
73 JOSEPH FERNANDEZ FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 214,769.31
74 CRAIG DUNN FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 214,596.93
75 GARY DAGNAN LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 212,977.30
76 RICHARD HERRIN CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 212,317.92
77 RUBEN BARGUEIRAS FIRE CHIEF FIRE RESCUE 212,223.39
78 RICHARD “TIERNEY, JR.” LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 211,439.78
79 EMILIO SANCHEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 211,431.10
80 EARL ALLEN JR. LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 210,611.30
81 CHARLES COLLIER LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 210,483.10
82 BARRY GONZALEZ CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 210,211.25
83 JAMES PAUGH LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 209,677.14
84 JEFFREY FITZGERALD CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 208,491.22
85 DAVID WALSH CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 208,428.88
86 SCOTT DEAN LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 208,359.31
87 JORGE DU QUESNE CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 207,659.71
88 GEORGE LAWRENCE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 207,442.68
89 CARLOS PEREZ LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 205,760.67
90 EDWARD JARRELL JR. CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 205,024.13
91 LESS REDDICK LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 204,120.67
92 MARIO PATTERSON LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 204,054.87
93 GUILLERMO ANIDO ASST. CITY MANAGER CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE 204,018.50
94 ALBERTO LAGEYRE LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 203,410.60
95 MICHAEL COLOMBO MAJOR POLICE 201,630.12
96 HUGO GORT CAPTAIN FIRE RESCUE 201,153.27
97 WILLIAM SAVOY LIEUTENANT FIRE RESCUE 200,858.67
TOTAL 22,760,335.77
Miami, with a population of 404,048 and a median income just over $26,000 per year, continues to compensate dozens of employees at pay rates far greater than comparable cities. Much of the expense is related to the city’s lax management of its fire department, where salaries negotiated by the fi refi ghters’
union are generous, and where vacancies and strict staffi ng rules have pushed overtime pay through the roof.
In calendar year 2008, a total of 97 city employees received more than $200,000 in compensation, costing taxpayers more than $22.76 million, according to documents prepared by the city’s budget office and department of employee relations. Interestingly, 84 percent of those individuals were middle- to high level
supervisors at the fi re department. "Gravy Train" www.BiscayneTimes.com
Sunday, February 14, 2010
What’s Sustainable About This Budget?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/economy/14view.html?em
Would that be further investing in the down fall of the US, Mr. President by making sure our back has been broken from the continued burden of mounting debt?
“Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt,” the president said in his State of the Union address. “Let’s meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here.”
The troubling feature of Mr. Obama’s budget is that it fails to return the federal government to manageable budget deficits, even as the wars wind down and the economy recovers from the recession. According to the administration’s own numbers, the budget deficit under the president’s proposed policies will never fall below 3.6 percent of G.D.P. By 2020, the end of the planning horizon, it will be 4.2 percent and rising.
As a result, the government’s debts will grow faster than the economy. The administration projects that the debt-to-G.D.P. ratio will rise in each of the next 10 years. By 2020, the government’s debts will equal 77.2 percent of G.D.P. This level of indebtedness has not been seen since 1950, in the aftermath of the borrowing to finance World War II.
Making matters worse, these bleak budget projections are based on relatively optimistic economic assumptions.
Would that be further investing in the down fall of the US, Mr. President by making sure our back has been broken from the continued burden of mounting debt?
“Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt,” the president said in his State of the Union address. “Let’s meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here.”
The troubling feature of Mr. Obama’s budget is that it fails to return the federal government to manageable budget deficits, even as the wars wind down and the economy recovers from the recession. According to the administration’s own numbers, the budget deficit under the president’s proposed policies will never fall below 3.6 percent of G.D.P. By 2020, the end of the planning horizon, it will be 4.2 percent and rising.
As a result, the government’s debts will grow faster than the economy. The administration projects that the debt-to-G.D.P. ratio will rise in each of the next 10 years. By 2020, the government’s debts will equal 77.2 percent of G.D.P. This level of indebtedness has not been seen since 1950, in the aftermath of the borrowing to finance World War II.
Making matters worse, these bleak budget projections are based on relatively optimistic economic assumptions.
Wall St. Helped Greece to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/global/14debt.html?ref=business
Makes you wonder what else has been hidden from view, and what rock needs to be picked up to find it.
Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.
Gary D. Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs, went to Athens to pitch complex products to defer debt. Such deals let Greece continue deficit spending, like a consumer with a second mortgage.
As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.
Even as the crisis was nearing the flashpoint, banks were searching for ways to help Greece forestall the day of reckoning. In early November — three months before Athens became the epicenter of global financial anxiety — a team from Goldman Sachs arrived in the ancient city with a very modern proposition for a government struggling to pay its bills, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting.
The bankers, led by Goldman’s president, Gary D. Cohn, held out a financing instrument that would have pushed debt from Greece’s health care system far into the future, much as when strapped homeowners take out second mortgages to pay off their credit cards.
It had worked before. In 2001, just after Greece was admitted to Europe’s monetary union, Goldman helped the government quietly borrow billions, people familiar with the transaction said. That deal, hidden from public view because it was treated as a currency trade rather than a loan, helped Athens to meet Europe’s deficit rules while continuing to spend beyond its means.
Athens did not pursue the latest Goldman proposal
Makes you wonder what else has been hidden from view, and what rock needs to be picked up to find it.
Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.
Gary D. Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs, went to Athens to pitch complex products to defer debt. Such deals let Greece continue deficit spending, like a consumer with a second mortgage.
As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.
Even as the crisis was nearing the flashpoint, banks were searching for ways to help Greece forestall the day of reckoning. In early November — three months before Athens became the epicenter of global financial anxiety — a team from Goldman Sachs arrived in the ancient city with a very modern proposition for a government struggling to pay its bills, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting.
The bankers, led by Goldman’s president, Gary D. Cohn, held out a financing instrument that would have pushed debt from Greece’s health care system far into the future, much as when strapped homeowners take out second mortgages to pay off their credit cards.
It had worked before. In 2001, just after Greece was admitted to Europe’s monetary union, Goldman helped the government quietly borrow billions, people familiar with the transaction said. That deal, hidden from public view because it was treated as a currency trade rather than a loan, helped Athens to meet Europe’s deficit rules while continuing to spend beyond its means.
Athens did not pursue the latest Goldman proposal
Friday, February 12, 2010
The "Hill" is the problem
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1962-Partisan-Attacks-WILL-NOT-Solve-The-Problem.html
Turn the page Ann for the wide screen shot, it adds so much more to the detail of the over all quality of the picture.
Ann Coulter, one of the most-partisan commentators out there in the media, had this to say recently:
How about just punishing the guilty? The Democrats can't do that because the list of Wall Street's biggest offenders may turn out to be eerily similar to the list of Obama's biggest campaign contributors.
How about punishing the guilty Ann? How about punishing one JOHN JACKASS MCCAIN, who Henry Paulson personally credits for being the reason TARP passed?
"As he was falling behind in the polls it would have been very easy for him to demagogue that issue, playing the populist card," he said. "And if he had come out against what he were trying to do we wouldn't have got it I believe. We wouldn't have had the TARP legislation passed and we would have been left defenseless."
Oh wait! Henry Paulson was a Republican Treasury Secretary too!
Employees from Goldman Sachs gave more to the Obama campaign than any other organization except the University of California -- with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase quickly following in sixth and seventh place.
Absolutely correct. Goldman gave money to the winner. Big stinking surprise - NOT.
Whatever Obama has in mind for punishing the financial industry, I promise you, he won't punish his friends. After JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a $17 million bonus this week, and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got a $9 million bonus, Obama said he didn't begrudge them their bonuses, saying, "I know both those guys."
Well that may well be true, but can you point to anything that Republicans did in their eight years in office prior to President Obama that actually reined in the outrageous fraud and abuse served up upon the world's investors - not to mention everyday Americans - by Wall Street?
Let's see.... I think I'll list a few things that the Rethuglicans have done to our nation, since Ann has done such a great job of bagging on the Democraps.
"Bankruptcy Reform" - but only for "the little people" - that is, you and I.
Turn the page Ann for the wide screen shot, it adds so much more to the detail of the over all quality of the picture.
Ann Coulter, one of the most-partisan commentators out there in the media, had this to say recently:
How about just punishing the guilty? The Democrats can't do that because the list of Wall Street's biggest offenders may turn out to be eerily similar to the list of Obama's biggest campaign contributors.
How about punishing the guilty Ann? How about punishing one JOHN JACKASS MCCAIN, who Henry Paulson personally credits for being the reason TARP passed?
"As he was falling behind in the polls it would have been very easy for him to demagogue that issue, playing the populist card," he said. "And if he had come out against what he were trying to do we wouldn't have got it I believe. We wouldn't have had the TARP legislation passed and we would have been left defenseless."
Oh wait! Henry Paulson was a Republican Treasury Secretary too!
Employees from Goldman Sachs gave more to the Obama campaign than any other organization except the University of California -- with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase quickly following in sixth and seventh place.
Absolutely correct. Goldman gave money to the winner. Big stinking surprise - NOT.
Whatever Obama has in mind for punishing the financial industry, I promise you, he won't punish his friends. After JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a $17 million bonus this week, and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got a $9 million bonus, Obama said he didn't begrudge them their bonuses, saying, "I know both those guys."
Well that may well be true, but can you point to anything that Republicans did in their eight years in office prior to President Obama that actually reined in the outrageous fraud and abuse served up upon the world's investors - not to mention everyday Americans - by Wall Street?
Let's see.... I think I'll list a few things that the Rethuglicans have done to our nation, since Ann has done such a great job of bagging on the Democraps.
"Bankruptcy Reform" - but only for "the little people" - that is, you and I.
Goldman Sachs faces 'Robin Hood tax' vote-rigging claims
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5593036834815438356
Why is it when there is corruption or coniving going on, one always fines Goldman Sachs name.
Either they really are corrupt or it's a strickingly remarkable coiencedence....everytime.
Goldman Sachs is investigating claims that one of its computers was used to rig a public vote on the introduction of a so-called “Robin Hood tax” on bankers.
The Robin Hood Tax campaign alleged that a Goldman computer was one of two computers that allegedly “spammed” the internet poll with more than 4,600 “no” votes in less than 20 minutes on Thursday.
Technical staff for the Robinhoodtax.org.uk website said the “no” counter increased at a “dramatic rate” from 3.41pm.
The number of “no” votes jumped from 1,400 to 6,000 before campaigners – who are calling for the introduction of 0.05pc tax on banking transactions – tightened the site’s security.
Robin Hood’s security team claimed it traced the erroneous votes to two computers, one of which is allegedly registered as belonging to Goldman.
A spokesman for Goldman said the bank had “just received this information and is investigating fully”.
Why is it when there is corruption or coniving going on, one always fines Goldman Sachs name.
Either they really are corrupt or it's a strickingly remarkable coiencedence....everytime.
Goldman Sachs is investigating claims that one of its computers was used to rig a public vote on the introduction of a so-called “Robin Hood tax” on bankers.
The Robin Hood Tax campaign alleged that a Goldman computer was one of two computers that allegedly “spammed” the internet poll with more than 4,600 “no” votes in less than 20 minutes on Thursday.
Technical staff for the Robinhoodtax.org.uk website said the “no” counter increased at a “dramatic rate” from 3.41pm.
The number of “no” votes jumped from 1,400 to 6,000 before campaigners – who are calling for the introduction of 0.05pc tax on banking transactions – tightened the site’s security.
Robin Hood’s security team claimed it traced the erroneous votes to two computers, one of which is allegedly registered as belonging to Goldman.
A spokesman for Goldman said the bank had “just received this information and is investigating fully”.
N.J. Gov. Christie Freezes Spending
http://wcbstv.com/local/governor.christie.freezes.2.1487727.html
Why are the democrats furious?
There is nothing else that can be done, EXCEPT, to stop spending and cut out every ounce of fat that can be cut.
It's time to grow up kids,and learn the lesson of "You can't spend what you don't have just coz you want to"
With State's Budget In 'Shambles,' New Governor Slices Into School Surpluses, NJ Transit Subsidies; Dems Furious
Why are the democrats furious?
There is nothing else that can be done, EXCEPT, to stop spending and cut out every ounce of fat that can be cut.
It's time to grow up kids,and learn the lesson of "You can't spend what you don't have just coz you want to"
With State's Budget In 'Shambles,' New Governor Slices Into School Surpluses, NJ Transit Subsidies; Dems Furious
This is Main Street
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=125123&catid=8
One can only hope the the banker will choke on their bonuses.
An action that would be well deserved.
Tampa, Florida - Looking more like a grandpa than a wanted bank robber, 73-year-old James Bruce toddled front and center at Orient Road Jail.
Bruce was arrested on Thursday after detectives said he was robbing banks to pay his mortgage.
According to a criminal report, Bruce walked into three different banks in south Tampa. Each time, investigators allege, he would request $600 in $100-dollar bills then pass a handwritten note to the teller, "No alarms and wait 4 minutes."
After the arrest, police confirmed that Bruce admitted to the robberies post-miranda.
And this is Main Street to
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/phoenix/new_details_naked_suspect_airport_021110
We are learning more about a man who caused a security scare at Sky Harbor Airport last week.
Surveillance video shows the man storming into the airport with a knife, then stripping off all his clothes.
Police say the man was upset because he had just lost his job and was having trouble paying his bills. He originally told cops that he was bi-polar and hadn't taken his medicine.
One can only hope the the banker will choke on their bonuses.
An action that would be well deserved.
Tampa, Florida - Looking more like a grandpa than a wanted bank robber, 73-year-old James Bruce toddled front and center at Orient Road Jail.
Bruce was arrested on Thursday after detectives said he was robbing banks to pay his mortgage.
According to a criminal report, Bruce walked into three different banks in south Tampa. Each time, investigators allege, he would request $600 in $100-dollar bills then pass a handwritten note to the teller, "No alarms and wait 4 minutes."
After the arrest, police confirmed that Bruce admitted to the robberies post-miranda.
And this is Main Street to
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/phoenix/new_details_naked_suspect_airport_021110
We are learning more about a man who caused a security scare at Sky Harbor Airport last week.
Surveillance video shows the man storming into the airport with a knife, then stripping off all his clothes.
Police say the man was upset because he had just lost his job and was having trouble paying his bills. He originally told cops that he was bi-polar and hadn't taken his medicine.
Remember this kids?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/diagnostic-statistical-manual-proposals
It's now time to be very afraid
Childhood temper tantrums, teenage irritability and binge eating may soon rate as psychiatric disorders in the US, according to proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of the psychiatric profession
This child is arrested not once but twice, she's 6 years old and in the first grade.
A spoiled child is large possibility, but a mentally ill one is not.
This is the type of "CHANGE" you can believe in kids and it's not a good one.
This type of behavior opens your child up to the world of psychotropic drug judgements forced upon them in an order to ensure their behavior is controlled.
If such action is then forced upon your child they will be labeled "Mentally ill"
It's time to make your voicce heard.
http://www.wpbf.com/mostpopular/22526263/detail.html
Girl, 6, Handcuffed, Committed Because Of Classroom Behavior
It's now time to be very afraid
Childhood temper tantrums, teenage irritability and binge eating may soon rate as psychiatric disorders in the US, according to proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of the psychiatric profession
This child is arrested not once but twice, she's 6 years old and in the first grade.
A spoiled child is large possibility, but a mentally ill one is not.
This is the type of "CHANGE" you can believe in kids and it's not a good one.
This type of behavior opens your child up to the world of psychotropic drug judgements forced upon them in an order to ensure their behavior is controlled.
If such action is then forced upon your child they will be labeled "Mentally ill"
It's time to make your voicce heard.
http://www.wpbf.com/mostpopular/22526263/detail.html
Girl, 6, Handcuffed, Committed Because Of Classroom Behavior
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Angela Merkel dashes Greek hopes of rescue bid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/feb/11/germany-greece-merkel-bailout-euro
Angela, could you please get a message to Barry,
WE "The People" wish you would take notice of the fact that Germany will not finance another country's lifestyle off of the sweat of their own taxpayers brow.
WE would like to be treated accordingly and really consider it not much to ask considering the financial state of out country.
"Germany cannot justify its taxpayers having to finance the lovely lives of the Greeks," said a senior diplomat.
Angela, could you please get a message to Barry,
WE "The People" wish you would take notice of the fact that Germany will not finance another country's lifestyle off of the sweat of their own taxpayers brow.
WE would like to be treated accordingly and really consider it not much to ask considering the financial state of out country.
"Germany cannot justify its taxpayers having to finance the lovely lives of the Greeks," said a senior diplomat.
Children's tantrums may be re-classed as psychiatric disorders
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/diagnostic-statistical-manual-proposals
It's now time to be very afraid
Childhood temper tantrums, teenage irritability and binge eating may soon rate as psychiatric disorders in the US, according to proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of the psychiatric profession.
The proposals are the product of a 10-year effort to update the handbook, which influences the vast network of American healthcare providers, insurance companies, courts, prisons and universities. At stake are billions of dollars in insurance payments, pharmaceutical sales and medical fees. The proposed revisions, published online today , will be subject to public comment until late April
It's now time to be very afraid
Childhood temper tantrums, teenage irritability and binge eating may soon rate as psychiatric disorders in the US, according to proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of the psychiatric profession.
The proposals are the product of a 10-year effort to update the handbook, which influences the vast network of American healthcare providers, insurance companies, courts, prisons and universities. At stake are billions of dollars in insurance payments, pharmaceutical sales and medical fees. The proposed revisions, published online today , will be subject to public comment until late April
TARP Panel: Small Banks Are Facing Loan Woes
http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/108819/tarp-panel-small-banks-are-facing-loan-woes?sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
Wall Street banks aren't the only ones with problems that needed to be addressed.
Nearly 3,000 small U.S. banks could be forced to dramatically curtail their lending because of losses on commercial real-estate loans, a congressional inquiry concluded
"The banks that are on the front lines of small-business lending are about to get hit by a tidal wave of commercial-loan failures," said Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard University who heads the TARP oversight panel.
Wall Street banks aren't the only ones with problems that needed to be addressed.
Nearly 3,000 small U.S. banks could be forced to dramatically curtail their lending because of losses on commercial real-estate loans, a congressional inquiry concluded
"The banks that are on the front lines of small-business lending are about to get hit by a tidal wave of commercial-loan failures," said Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard University who heads the TARP oversight panel.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
'No Bailout' Clause? The EU's Greek Rescue Problems
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/No-Bailout-Clause-The-EUs-cnbc-3965800392.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=
The Greece government sounds just like the American government, they don't take deficit cuts seriously either.
There's chatter in the financial community that a bailout package for Greece will arrive from the European Extraordinary Summit on Thursday. But there is little certainty in Brussels about what will be delivered, or if a move would have any legal basis.
The success of the summit will depend on what the markets call a bailout, said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
"Would a simple promise to help in case Greece needs, a promise for a debt guarantee, be seen as a bailout? Well, that is possible," Gros said. "But if the markets really want to hear a detailed plan saying 'we'll give Greece credit today,' that will be much more difficult."
There's a sense in Brussels that it is still is too early to present a complete and detailed bailout plan for Greece, according to Paul de Grauwe, an economics professor at Leuven University who also works as a policy advisor for the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
"It doesn't make sense for the EU leaders to come up with a detailed plan as there's no default yet," De Grauwe said.
"Another problem with having a bailout plan now is that, before the EU spends its money saving Greece, the Greek people have to understand how serious the situation is," Gros added. "Otherwise there will be no change of behavior and therefore this will be just money thrown away, as they will simply come back later for more."
The Greece government sounds just like the American government, they don't take deficit cuts seriously either.
There's chatter in the financial community that a bailout package for Greece will arrive from the European Extraordinary Summit on Thursday. But there is little certainty in Brussels about what will be delivered, or if a move would have any legal basis.
The success of the summit will depend on what the markets call a bailout, said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
"Would a simple promise to help in case Greece needs, a promise for a debt guarantee, be seen as a bailout? Well, that is possible," Gros said. "But if the markets really want to hear a detailed plan saying 'we'll give Greece credit today,' that will be much more difficult."
There's a sense in Brussels that it is still is too early to present a complete and detailed bailout plan for Greece, according to Paul de Grauwe, an economics professor at Leuven University who also works as a policy advisor for the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
"It doesn't make sense for the EU leaders to come up with a detailed plan as there's no default yet," De Grauwe said.
"Another problem with having a bailout plan now is that, before the EU spends its money saving Greece, the Greek people have to understand how serious the situation is," Gros added. "Otherwise there will be no change of behavior and therefore this will be just money thrown away, as they will simply come back later for more."
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Senate's Gridlock Fuels Frustration
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704182004575055721489671474.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5
You pay lavish expenses for them to do nothing, and they actually believe that they deserve it to.
The Senate's plodding pace has always distressed those in Washington eager to get things done quickly. Now, with Democrats and Republicans stalemated on everything from major legislation to agency appointments, some are asking whether the institution is broken
You pay lavish expenses for them to do nothing, and they actually believe that they deserve it to.
The Senate's plodding pace has always distressed those in Washington eager to get things done quickly. Now, with Democrats and Republicans stalemated on everything from major legislation to agency appointments, some are asking whether the institution is broken
A Mountain of a Problem Rises in Nation's Capital .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704182004575055601529152426.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_3
You gotta wonder if God is showing Congress what a real snow job is lol, or maybe he wants to talk to Obama about global warming, in any case what ever it is, it's a real attention getter, that's for sure.
God's either really got a sick sense of humor or payback is a bitch lol
All plows can do here is push snow from one spot to another, displacing it into shoulder-high escarpments, walling off parked cars, confounding pedestrians and blocking drivers' lines of sight.
William Howland has his own plan. In Lot 25, a vacant yard bordered by the Anacostia River, a derelict hospital and a congressional cemetery, Mr. Howland, the head of the D.C. Department of Public Works, is building a snow mountain. Around 15 dump trucks an hour arrive and unload their cargo, a gray-white mass of snow, sand, grit and ice. Earth-movers pile it into an enormous bank that snakes its way around the yard. This is just the start of his 200-truck, round-the-clock operation.
"We'll pile it as high as we can," Mr. Howland said. "Pretty soon will be able to ski down it."
For Washington, the winter of 2010, which blanketed the capital with about 45 inches before Tuesday, seems likely to break the record 54.5 inches set a decade after record-keeping began in 1888. "I don't know any staff member that's been around that remembers snowfalls of this magnitude," Mr. Howland said.
The bigger Washington's bureaucracy becomes, the worse the consequences of shutting down. Some 230,000 federal employees have been off work since the once-in-a-century blizzard dumped about 30 inches of snow on the capital last weekend
You gotta wonder if God is showing Congress what a real snow job is lol, or maybe he wants to talk to Obama about global warming, in any case what ever it is, it's a real attention getter, that's for sure.
God's either really got a sick sense of humor or payback is a bitch lol
All plows can do here is push snow from one spot to another, displacing it into shoulder-high escarpments, walling off parked cars, confounding pedestrians and blocking drivers' lines of sight.
William Howland has his own plan. In Lot 25, a vacant yard bordered by the Anacostia River, a derelict hospital and a congressional cemetery, Mr. Howland, the head of the D.C. Department of Public Works, is building a snow mountain. Around 15 dump trucks an hour arrive and unload their cargo, a gray-white mass of snow, sand, grit and ice. Earth-movers pile it into an enormous bank that snakes its way around the yard. This is just the start of his 200-truck, round-the-clock operation.
"We'll pile it as high as we can," Mr. Howland said. "Pretty soon will be able to ski down it."
For Washington, the winter of 2010, which blanketed the capital with about 45 inches before Tuesday, seems likely to break the record 54.5 inches set a decade after record-keeping began in 1888. "I don't know any staff member that's been around that remembers snowfalls of this magnitude," Mr. Howland said.
The bigger Washington's bureaucracy becomes, the worse the consequences of shutting down. Some 230,000 federal employees have been off work since the once-in-a-century blizzard dumped about 30 inches of snow on the capital last weekend
Pension income falls 70pc in a decade
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/7196222/Pension-income-falls-70pc-in-a-decade.html
This works in dollars to not just pounds.
Falling stockmarkets and annuity rates have decimated pension income over the past 10 years, according to Moneyfacts. In its quarterly insight into personal pension payouts it revealed that the average personal pension pot has dropped by a staggering 60 per cent over the last decade.
According to the survey, someone who had paid £100 gross per month into a balanced managed fund for the preceding 20 years would have built up a pension fund of £40,749 if they retired now, compared with £103,914 if they had retired a decade ago.
The situation facing many pension savers would have been even more desperate had it not been for
This works in dollars to not just pounds.
Falling stockmarkets and annuity rates have decimated pension income over the past 10 years, according to Moneyfacts. In its quarterly insight into personal pension payouts it revealed that the average personal pension pot has dropped by a staggering 60 per cent over the last decade.
According to the survey, someone who had paid £100 gross per month into a balanced managed fund for the preceding 20 years would have built up a pension fund of £40,749 if they retired now, compared with £103,914 if they had retired a decade ago.
The situation facing many pension savers would have been even more desperate had it not been for
Monday, February 8, 2010
States Try to Tax More Services as Coffers Deflate
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704829704575049861057266800.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news
One way or another they are going to take what they need from you to survive.
Will plumbers, lawyers and hot-air balloon operators be forced to pitch in to solve state and local government revenue shortfalls?
Sales taxes today mainly, though not exclusively, hit sales of tangible goods like cars and couches. Faced with the worst budget crisis in a generation, many states are looking to expand sales taxes to services, such as lawn care or accountants' advice. The goal, legislators say, is to broaden the tax base to cover a broader swath of the economy as traditional sources of tax revenue decline.
Although in early stages, service taxes are being considered by legislators around the country. In Kentucky, representatives have introduced a measure to extend sales taxes to some high-end services like limousines and balloon rides. In North Carolina, the legislature last year considered, but didn't pass, a proposal to tax services such as car repairs and lawn care.
In Maine, the legislature last year passed a law that would lower income taxes for most residents but extend sales taxes to services such as car repairs and dry cleaning. It faces a voter referendum in June.
Many states already tax some services
One way or another they are going to take what they need from you to survive.
Will plumbers, lawyers and hot-air balloon operators be forced to pitch in to solve state and local government revenue shortfalls?
Sales taxes today mainly, though not exclusively, hit sales of tangible goods like cars and couches. Faced with the worst budget crisis in a generation, many states are looking to expand sales taxes to services, such as lawn care or accountants' advice. The goal, legislators say, is to broaden the tax base to cover a broader swath of the economy as traditional sources of tax revenue decline.
Although in early stages, service taxes are being considered by legislators around the country. In Kentucky, representatives have introduced a measure to extend sales taxes to some high-end services like limousines and balloon rides. In North Carolina, the legislature last year considered, but didn't pass, a proposal to tax services such as car repairs and lawn care.
In Maine, the legislature last year passed a law that would lower income taxes for most residents but extend sales taxes to services such as car repairs and dry cleaning. It faces a voter referendum in June.
Many states already tax some services
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Pentagon’s mad science arm
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-looks-to-breed-immortal-synthetic-organisms-molecular-kill-switch-included/
A kill switch, and what happens if it somehow breeds with something that doesn't have a kill switch
Shit happens, think about it
And in keeping with the tax payer bitch and the rapidly growing pace of our National debt, I ask the question: Is this a want or a need? Because "WE" can't afford anymore wants on a whim
The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.
As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”
Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-looks-to-breed-immortal-synthetic-organisms-molecular-kill-switch-included/#ixzz0epMq0aKp
A kill switch, and what happens if it somehow breeds with something that doesn't have a kill switch
Shit happens, think about it
And in keeping with the tax payer bitch and the rapidly growing pace of our National debt, I ask the question: Is this a want or a need? Because "WE" can't afford anymore wants on a whim
The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.
As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”
Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-looks-to-breed-immortal-synthetic-organisms-molecular-kill-switch-included/#ixzz0epMq0aKp
Friday, February 5, 2010
International Criminal Court complaint filed against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales
http://www.redress.cc/global/redress20100206
Sanity breathes
International Criminal Court complaint filed against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales
Request for international arrest warrants
6 February 2010
A leading US professor of law has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court prosecutor against former US President George W. Bush and a number of his senior lieutenants alleging crimes against humanity for their policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” and requesting that the ICC prosecutor obtain international arrest warrants against Mr Bush and his co-accused.
Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, USA, has filed a complaint with the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against US citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.
“Extraordinary rendition” is a euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitutes crimes against humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of actions considered as crimes under the ICC statute within the respective territories of many ICC member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their ICC statutory crimes under Rome Statute Article 12(2)(a) that affords the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute for ICC statutory crimes committed in ICC member states.
The complaint requests:
That the ICC prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and
That the ICC Prosecutor also formally “submit to the [ICC] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute Article 15(3).
For similar reasons, the highest level officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up complaint with the ICC if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition, which the Obama administration has continued to implement.
Sanity breathes
International Criminal Court complaint filed against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice and Gonzales
Request for international arrest warrants
6 February 2010
A leading US professor of law has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court prosecutor against former US President George W. Bush and a number of his senior lieutenants alleging crimes against humanity for their policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” and requesting that the ICC prosecutor obtain international arrest warrants against Mr Bush and his co-accused.
Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, USA, has filed a complaint with the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against US citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings.
“Extraordinary rendition” is a euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitutes crimes against humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless, the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of actions considered as crimes under the ICC statute within the respective territories of many ICC member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their ICC statutory crimes under Rome Statute Article 12(2)(a) that affords the ICC jurisdiction to prosecute for ICC statutory crimes committed in ICC member states.
The complaint requests:
That the ICC prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and
That the ICC Prosecutor also formally “submit to the [ICC] Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute Article 15(3).
For similar reasons, the highest level officials of the Obama administration risk the filing of a follow-up complaint with the ICC if they do not immediately terminate the Accused’s criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition, which the Obama administration has continued to implement.
It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7298-0-13-13--.html
A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.
And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt.
So why doesn't the U.S. government just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of money to pay off the debt?
Well, for one very simple reason.
That is not the way our system works.
You see, for more dollars to enter the system, the U.S. government has to go into more debt.
The U.S. government does not issue U.S. currency - the Federal Reserve does.
The Federal Reserve is a private bank owned and operated for profit by a very powerful group of elite international bankers.
If you will pull a dollar bill out and take a look at it, you will notice that it says "Federal Reserve Note" at the top.
A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.
And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt.
So why doesn't the U.S. government just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of money to pay off the debt?
Well, for one very simple reason.
That is not the way our system works.
You see, for more dollars to enter the system, the U.S. government has to go into more debt.
The U.S. government does not issue U.S. currency - the Federal Reserve does.
The Federal Reserve is a private bank owned and operated for profit by a very powerful group of elite international bankers.
If you will pull a dollar bill out and take a look at it, you will notice that it says "Federal Reserve Note" at the top.
BAE Settles Corruption Charges
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/business/global/06bribe.html?ref=global
Busted for corruption, admits it, pays fine, back to normal business.
Wanna bet the US still does business with them?
Because their so trustworthy right?
Europe’s biggest military contractor BAE Systems has reached a settlement with Britain and the United States that will see it pay fines of about $450 million and draws a line under a long-running corruption investigation.
Busted for corruption, admits it, pays fine, back to normal business.
Wanna bet the US still does business with them?
Because their so trustworthy right?
Europe’s biggest military contractor BAE Systems has reached a settlement with Britain and the United States that will see it pay fines of about $450 million and draws a line under a long-running corruption investigation.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The realities of the wrongs
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1935-Who-Remembers-This......html
No one is going to save us people, they can't because they really don't know how.
There's to many things wrong that they just can't make disappear.
To those who think that "it's all going to be ok" let me point out a few things I've said repeatedly since this entire mess began and The Ticker began publication.
•We're screwed - they're screwed worse.
No one is going to save us people, they can't because they really don't know how.
There's to many things wrong that they just can't make disappear.
To those who think that "it's all going to be ok" let me point out a few things I've said repeatedly since this entire mess began and The Ticker began publication.
•We're screwed - they're screwed worse.
Schwarzenegger's dropping two state holidays is legal, California judge rules
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/104/story/83672.html?storylink=omni_popular
California is doing what they need to, to survive as a state, you can bet this will be a future trend coming to your state soon.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that the Schwarzenegger administration acted legally when it enforced a new law that eliminated two former state holidays — including Lincoln's Birthday next week.
The state attorneys' union had sued the governor's Department of Personnel Administration for carrying out a law passed nearly a year ago eliminating Lincoln's Birthday, Feb. 12, and Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, as paid holidays for state employees.
The change cut the number of paid state holidays from 14 to 12.
"We agree with today's ruling," said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Rachel Arrezola. "It doesn't make sense for state employee unions to fight to go from 12 holidays to 14 in today's economy, when the rest of state government and the private sector is cutting back."
California is doing what they need to, to survive as a state, you can bet this will be a future trend coming to your state soon.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that the Schwarzenegger administration acted legally when it enforced a new law that eliminated two former state holidays — including Lincoln's Birthday next week.
The state attorneys' union had sued the governor's Department of Personnel Administration for carrying out a law passed nearly a year ago eliminating Lincoln's Birthday, Feb. 12, and Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, as paid holidays for state employees.
The change cut the number of paid state holidays from 14 to 12.
"We agree with today's ruling," said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Rachel Arrezola. "It doesn't make sense for state employee unions to fight to go from 12 holidays to 14 in today's economy, when the rest of state government and the private sector is cutting back."
Interactive Map: TARP money by state
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/data/story/548426.html
A cool little map showing state by state distribution and how many institutions received the TARP bailout funding
A cool little map showing state by state distribution and how many institutions received the TARP bailout funding
New York AG files charges against BofA, ex-CEO Lewis and ex-CFO Price
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/83700.html
The SEC thinks that a fine of 150 million will make the stench of FRAUD disappear.
Because that's the way big business boo boos always get made better.
It's called a kiss off
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today announced that his office is filing civil charges against former Bank of America Corp. chief executive Ken Lewis, former chief financial officer Joe Price and the Charlotte bank.
The charges are the latest legal fallout from a long-running investigation of the bank's Jan. 1 acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.
In a news conference this morning, Cuomo said his office is charging the bank with securities fraud because it "understated" Merrill fourth-quarter 2008 losses to investors in order to win approval of the deal at a December 5, 2008 shareholder vote. It then turned around and "overstated" its ability to legally escape the deal in order to obtain $20 billion in government bailout funds, Cuomo said. Merrill also paid out $3.6 billion in bonuses to its employees in December of 2008.
The Securities and Exchange Commission this morning also said it filed a motion seeking court approval of a proposed settlement in which Bank of America would pay $150 million and strengthen corporate governance practices to settle charges that the company did not properly disclose bonuses and losses as part of its Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition
The SEC thinks that a fine of 150 million will make the stench of FRAUD disappear.
Because that's the way big business boo boos always get made better.
It's called a kiss off
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today announced that his office is filing civil charges against former Bank of America Corp. chief executive Ken Lewis, former chief financial officer Joe Price and the Charlotte bank.
The charges are the latest legal fallout from a long-running investigation of the bank's Jan. 1 acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.
In a news conference this morning, Cuomo said his office is charging the bank with securities fraud because it "understated" Merrill fourth-quarter 2008 losses to investors in order to win approval of the deal at a December 5, 2008 shareholder vote. It then turned around and "overstated" its ability to legally escape the deal in order to obtain $20 billion in government bailout funds, Cuomo said. Merrill also paid out $3.6 billion in bonuses to its employees in December of 2008.
The Securities and Exchange Commission this morning also said it filed a motion seeking court approval of a proposed settlement in which Bank of America would pay $150 million and strengthen corporate governance practices to settle charges that the company did not properly disclose bonuses and losses as part of its Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition
Italy Seizes Bank of America, Dexia Assets Amid Probe
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWJC2mYeMKqg&pos=5
Oh look Italy doesn't want to give the Wall Street gone wild boys a bonus.
It looks like maybe they want their money back from the rigged hand the banks were dealing out.
The name of the game is called fraud, and "The World" was their casino.
It's time to give them the bonuses they really deserve, an all expense paid vacation to a penal institution.
Move over Bernie it looks like your going to have some company!
Italy’s financial police are seizing 73.3 million euros ($102 million) of assets from Bank of America Corp. and a unit of Dexia SA as part of a probe into an alleged derivatives fraud in the region of Apulia.
Police are investigating losses on derivatives linked to the sale of 870 million euros of bonds sold by the regional government in 2003 and 2004, according to an e-mail from the prosecutor’s office in Bari today. The banks misled the municipality, located in the heel of Italy, on the economic advantages of the transaction and concealed their fees, the prosecutor said.
The region, also known as Puglia, joins more than 519 Italian municipalities that face 990 million euros in derivatives losses, according to data compiled by the Bank of Italy. In Milan, prosecutors seized assets from four banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG in April and requested they stand trial for alleged fraud. Hearings started this month.
“Italy, like other countries, is full of these examples,” said Dario Loiacono, a banking lawyer in Milan who isn’t involved in the case
Oh look Italy doesn't want to give the Wall Street gone wild boys a bonus.
It looks like maybe they want their money back from the rigged hand the banks were dealing out.
The name of the game is called fraud, and "The World" was their casino.
It's time to give them the bonuses they really deserve, an all expense paid vacation to a penal institution.
Move over Bernie it looks like your going to have some company!
Italy’s financial police are seizing 73.3 million euros ($102 million) of assets from Bank of America Corp. and a unit of Dexia SA as part of a probe into an alleged derivatives fraud in the region of Apulia.
Police are investigating losses on derivatives linked to the sale of 870 million euros of bonds sold by the regional government in 2003 and 2004, according to an e-mail from the prosecutor’s office in Bari today. The banks misled the municipality, located in the heel of Italy, on the economic advantages of the transaction and concealed their fees, the prosecutor said.
The region, also known as Puglia, joins more than 519 Italian municipalities that face 990 million euros in derivatives losses, according to data compiled by the Bank of Italy. In Milan, prosecutors seized assets from four banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG in April and requested they stand trial for alleged fraud. Hearings started this month.
“Italy, like other countries, is full of these examples,” said Dario Loiacono, a banking lawyer in Milan who isn’t involved in the case
U.S. Report Details Money Laundering
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108758/u-s-report-details-money-laundering?sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=
Is there any part of the financial system that doesn't need fixing?, because if there is I can't see it.
A suitcase containing $1 million in shrink-wrapped bills, hand-carried into New York by the former president of Gabon for his daughter to buy a Manhattan apartment. Purchases of a stretch Hummer H2 armored limousine and C-130 Hercules military transport planes for a civil war in Angola. And a shell company named Sweet Pink used to funnel millions of dollars into the United States from Equatorial Guinea.
These and other deals and money transfers took place in recent years because of inadequate controls on money laundering at large American banks and unregulated American lawyers, real estate agents and lobbyists, according to a Senate report released late Wednesday.
The 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will conduct a hearing on Thursday, sheds new light on how banks like Citigroup, Wachovia and Bank of America unwittingly shifted hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of African politicians, their relatives and associates.
The banks ended up closing or restricting the accounts and cooperated with the subcommittee, offering comments on individual transactions.
In all cases, the Senate report says, the banks ignored controls intended to prevent money laundering and related screens on PEP, meaning politically exposed persons — high-risk clients from corrupt countries.
The report recommends strengthening regulations against money laundering at banks and revoking exemptions for lawyers and other third parties from restrictions on money laundering in the USA Patriot Act. It recommends that Congress pass laws requiring people who form corporations to disclose the true owners.
Is there any part of the financial system that doesn't need fixing?, because if there is I can't see it.
A suitcase containing $1 million in shrink-wrapped bills, hand-carried into New York by the former president of Gabon for his daughter to buy a Manhattan apartment. Purchases of a stretch Hummer H2 armored limousine and C-130 Hercules military transport planes for a civil war in Angola. And a shell company named Sweet Pink used to funnel millions of dollars into the United States from Equatorial Guinea.
These and other deals and money transfers took place in recent years because of inadequate controls on money laundering at large American banks and unregulated American lawyers, real estate agents and lobbyists, according to a Senate report released late Wednesday.
The 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will conduct a hearing on Thursday, sheds new light on how banks like Citigroup, Wachovia and Bank of America unwittingly shifted hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of African politicians, their relatives and associates.
The banks ended up closing or restricting the accounts and cooperated with the subcommittee, offering comments on individual transactions.
In all cases, the Senate report says, the banks ignored controls intended to prevent money laundering and related screens on PEP, meaning politically exposed persons — high-risk clients from corrupt countries.
The report recommends strengthening regulations against money laundering at banks and revoking exemptions for lawyers and other third parties from restrictions on money laundering in the USA Patriot Act. It recommends that Congress pass laws requiring people who form corporations to disclose the true owners.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
U.S. May Lose 824,000 Jobs as Employment Data Revised: Analysis
http://www.bloomberg.com/insight/birth-death-model.html
Oops due to a technical error that we've never run into before, we are forced to show
a slight error in the employment report that runs from April 2008- March 2009.
So we are revising( there's that word again)the data to show the true figure ( or at least as close to the truth as we think you'll accept) with the addition of another 824,000 lost positions.
Don't blame us it was a technical glitch, and while your at it, please don't ask
what the revised totals for April 2009- March 2010, please be patient, you'll find that out in 2011.
We don't want to ruin the surprise!
The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time.
Click here for a Bloomberg Multimedia interactive visual analysis of the economy’s job losses.
Oops due to a technical error that we've never run into before, we are forced to show
a slight error in the employment report that runs from April 2008- March 2009.
So we are revising( there's that word again)the data to show the true figure ( or at least as close to the truth as we think you'll accept) with the addition of another 824,000 lost positions.
Don't blame us it was a technical glitch, and while your at it, please don't ask
what the revised totals for April 2009- March 2010, please be patient, you'll find that out in 2011.
We don't want to ruin the surprise!
The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time.
Click here for a Bloomberg Multimedia interactive visual analysis of the economy’s job losses.
What's a Degree Really Worth? .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703822404575019082819966538.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_personalfinance
Do you ever wonder how many lies are sold as the truth on the legacy of a footnote?
Do you ever wonder how many lies are sold as the truth on the legacy of a footnote?
IRS acquiring shotguns?
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=8d3b076bd4de14bbda5aba699e80621d&tab=core&_cview=1&cck=1&au=&ck=
What's up with that? And WHY do they feel the need for them?
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
Submit quotes including 11% Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET) and shipping to Washington DC.
What's up with that? And WHY do they feel the need for them?
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
Submit quotes including 11% Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET) and shipping to Washington DC.
Katie takes a paycut?
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashkcc.htm
What exactly does she do to deserve 14 million dollars a year?
Nothing that I can see,except to spread more of the bogus propaganda of the elite.
Investigative journalism is definitely not her forte.
Had it been, "the banks" crime wave would have been outed years ago and would not been allowed to reach the level of destruction that it has on "OUR" financial fitness
as a country.
Katie and her kind can only be seen as traitors to their own profession as well as to "the people" of their own country for either their lack of awareness or their stance of not giving a damn.
What exactly does she do to deserve 14 million dollars a year?
Nothing that I can see,except to spread more of the bogus propaganda of the elite.
Investigative journalism is definitely not her forte.
Had it been, "the banks" crime wave would have been outed years ago and would not been allowed to reach the level of destruction that it has on "OUR" financial fitness
as a country.
Katie and her kind can only be seen as traitors to their own profession as well as to "the people" of their own country for either their lack of awareness or their stance of not giving a damn.
Neil Barofsky Says Handcuffs Are Coming
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/neil-barofsky-promises-handcuffs-police.html
Dylan Ratigan interviews Neil Barofsky and asks the right questions that inquiring minds really do deserve an answer to.
Book em Dano! No that job was given to the DoJ, the question is WHY?
Is it so that they can sweep the dirt back under the rug that Mr. Barofsky digs up?
Unfortunately me does think so.
Mish has a little potpourri going on, look how much Phoenix taxpayers get stuck for,
in just paying for titles alone.
Talk about outrageous.
This isn't just Phoenix the problem is everywhere. What is it that those titles do to actually deserve that kind of salary?
Inquiring minds note that Neil Barofsky, special inspector for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), claims Bailouts created more risk in system.
Dylan Ratigan interviews Neil Barofsky and asks the right questions that inquiring minds really do deserve an answer to.
Book em Dano! No that job was given to the DoJ, the question is WHY?
Is it so that they can sweep the dirt back under the rug that Mr. Barofsky digs up?
Unfortunately me does think so.
Mish has a little potpourri going on, look how much Phoenix taxpayers get stuck for,
in just paying for titles alone.
Talk about outrageous.
This isn't just Phoenix the problem is everywhere. What is it that those titles do to actually deserve that kind of salary?
Inquiring minds note that Neil Barofsky, special inspector for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), claims Bailouts created more risk in system.
Pay czar: AIG bonuses are 'outrageous' but legal
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pay-czar-AIG-bonuses-are-apf-2452378554.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
Yeah yeah, here we go again. Blood suckers got to eat to right?
Executives in AIG's financial products division are getting $100 million richer, and the White House pay czar calls the bonuses "outrageous."
However, Kenneth Feinberg said the payments are contractual obligations entered into years ago.
Yeah yeah, here we go again. Blood suckers got to eat to right?
Executives in AIG's financial products division are getting $100 million richer, and the White House pay czar calls the bonuses "outrageous."
However, Kenneth Feinberg said the payments are contractual obligations entered into years ago.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
For the greater good of "OUR" country
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/u.s.-economy-%22de-evolving%22-an-industrialist%27s-plan-to-revive-american-manufacturing-416990.html?tickers=tlt,uup,TM,xli,F,%5EDJI,%5EGSPC&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
Ameerica will survive if more people like Lynn Tilton will care enough to bring our foundation back.
Without it "WE" won't survive
U.S. Economy "De-evolving": An Industrialist's Plan to Revive American Manufacturing
U.S. Manufacturing grew in January at its fastest pace in more than five years. Yet, manufacturing makes up only 12% of the U.S. economy - down from its post World War II peak of 28% percent in 1953.
That lack of an industrial base has put the American economy and worker in jeopardy, says distressed investor Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners. "The reality is, in recent times, every great empire has been built on a manufacturing economy," notes Tilton. "The fall of every empire has been the failure to remember that one fundamental fact."
Tilton's point is simple: the country cannot thrive as simply a service-based economy. As Tilton explains to Aaron and Henry in the accompanying clip, there isn't enough demand for services and those related jobs to keep the U.S. competitive on a global scale. We should also not over look the fact some people are better at building and making things then working on spreadsheets in a cubicle.
Tilton speaks from hands-on experience, not theory. Her firm either lends to or has controlling interest in more than 70 companies with assets of over $7 billion, including Heritage Aviation, MD Helicopters, Global Automotive Systems, Vulcan Engineering and Amweld Building Products
Ameerica will survive if more people like Lynn Tilton will care enough to bring our foundation back.
Without it "WE" won't survive
U.S. Economy "De-evolving": An Industrialist's Plan to Revive American Manufacturing
U.S. Manufacturing grew in January at its fastest pace in more than five years. Yet, manufacturing makes up only 12% of the U.S. economy - down from its post World War II peak of 28% percent in 1953.
That lack of an industrial base has put the American economy and worker in jeopardy, says distressed investor Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners. "The reality is, in recent times, every great empire has been built on a manufacturing economy," notes Tilton. "The fall of every empire has been the failure to remember that one fundamental fact."
Tilton's point is simple: the country cannot thrive as simply a service-based economy. As Tilton explains to Aaron and Henry in the accompanying clip, there isn't enough demand for services and those related jobs to keep the U.S. competitive on a global scale. We should also not over look the fact some people are better at building and making things then working on spreadsheets in a cubicle.
Tilton speaks from hands-on experience, not theory. Her firm either lends to or has controlling interest in more than 70 companies with assets of over $7 billion, including Heritage Aviation, MD Helicopters, Global Automotive Systems, Vulcan Engineering and Amweld Building Products
What is this and where did they get the money from?
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1927-Where-Did-They-Get-The-Money-BlackRock.html
We counted over 1,800 13Gs that Blackrock dumped on Friday, which explains why EDGAR might have been a tad bit pokey. The stream started at just after 2 p.m. est and didn’t let up until just after 4:30, when the last one, which reported a 6.5% stake in Vodafone came in. For those less familiar with the 13G, since we don’t often write about these filings, it’s a requirement when ownership exceeds 5% of the outstanding shares. With few rare exceptions, these filings represented new positions for Blackrock since we only counted 11 amended 13Gs, which in itself seems very surprising, given the long list of stocks.
Let me see if I get this right. 1,800 companies (remember, the Russell 2,000 has 2,000 companies in total in it, the S&P 500 has 500 in it, etc) would comprise a very significant chunk of the entirety of the US stock market. Indeed, the Wilshire 5,000 is widely considered to be "the entire market" (and it more-or-less is.)
Blackrock took a position in that significant chunk to the tune of 5% or more, thus triggering the filing requirement for each of those firms.
Where did Blackrock get the money?
Blackrock has just $3.96 billion in cash on hand according to the most currently numbers on Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 alone has a market cap of some $13 trillion dollars.
To take a 5% stake in the S&P 500 alone would require $650 billion, or some one hundred and sixty-four times as much money as Blackrock possesses, and yet that would account for less than one third of the filings!
You can't margin (leverage) yourself 164 times legally in any form or fashion in The United States, and such a margin game, assuming you came up with some inventive way to do it, would make all of the firms that blew up in 2008 and 2009 look like pikers (Fannie/Freddie were 80:1 at the time they went boom, as was, roughly, AIG.)
Something "funny" is going on here folks, and it demands an inquiry - and answer.
We counted over 1,800 13Gs that Blackrock dumped on Friday, which explains why EDGAR might have been a tad bit pokey. The stream started at just after 2 p.m. est and didn’t let up until just after 4:30, when the last one, which reported a 6.5% stake in Vodafone came in. For those less familiar with the 13G, since we don’t often write about these filings, it’s a requirement when ownership exceeds 5% of the outstanding shares. With few rare exceptions, these filings represented new positions for Blackrock since we only counted 11 amended 13Gs, which in itself seems very surprising, given the long list of stocks.
Let me see if I get this right. 1,800 companies (remember, the Russell 2,000 has 2,000 companies in total in it, the S&P 500 has 500 in it, etc) would comprise a very significant chunk of the entirety of the US stock market. Indeed, the Wilshire 5,000 is widely considered to be "the entire market" (and it more-or-less is.)
Blackrock took a position in that significant chunk to the tune of 5% or more, thus triggering the filing requirement for each of those firms.
Where did Blackrock get the money?
Blackrock has just $3.96 billion in cash on hand according to the most currently numbers on Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 alone has a market cap of some $13 trillion dollars.
To take a 5% stake in the S&P 500 alone would require $650 billion, or some one hundred and sixty-four times as much money as Blackrock possesses, and yet that would account for less than one third of the filings!
You can't margin (leverage) yourself 164 times legally in any form or fashion in The United States, and such a margin game, assuming you came up with some inventive way to do it, would make all of the firms that blew up in 2008 and 2009 look like pikers (Fannie/Freddie were 80:1 at the time they went boom, as was, roughly, AIG.)
Something "funny" is going on here folks, and it demands an inquiry - and answer.
The Republicans have learned nothing
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1925-The-Republicans-Learned-Nothing.....html
No the republicans haven't learned either Karl, but you did give me an idea worthy of pondering upon.
Perhaps it's time for "The People" to hire their own lobbyists and PR firm to get "OUR" message out.
We could have a "money bomb" like the one that supported Ron Paul for his run for the presidency to pay for them, and thanks to the supreme court's decision, "WE" now know that "WE" can actually be heard.
Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and "WE" are in one of those times.
"The Peoples Voice" demands to be heard and should never be stifled.
... from Massachusetts.
This will be their Waterloo:
Nine months after he penned a memo laying out the arguments for health care legislation's destruction, Republican message guru Frank Luntz has put together a playbook to help derail financial regulatory reform.
In a 17-page memo titled, "The Language of Financial Reform," Luntz urged opponents of reform to frame the final product as filled with bank bailouts, lobbyist loopholes, and additional layers of complicated government bureaucracy.
"If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that in many ways led to the economic crash must never be repeated," Luntz wrote. "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."
Uh huh.
So the bad decisions and harmful practices of Washington bureaucrats were all Democrats?
I think not.
Bankruptcy "reform", that left the common man chained to his debts, while big banks and other corporations use the bankruptcy court as a "get out of debt free" pass issuance device? That was a Republican bill.
Removal of the leverage limits from the investment banks, without which the housing bubble would have been stopped dead in 2004? That was a Republican (Paulson) going to a Republican SEC.
A Department of Justice that sued states to prevent them from enforcing anti-predatory lending laws and those that curbed (or outright banned) stated income and other "liars" products? That was a Republican Administration that did that, at the direction of George W. Bush.
Let's not kid ourselves: The looting is bipartisan and so is the responsibility.
But "killing financial regulatory reform" is one of the dumbest things that The Republicans could ever do.
No the republicans haven't learned either Karl, but you did give me an idea worthy of pondering upon.
Perhaps it's time for "The People" to hire their own lobbyists and PR firm to get "OUR" message out.
We could have a "money bomb" like the one that supported Ron Paul for his run for the presidency to pay for them, and thanks to the supreme court's decision, "WE" now know that "WE" can actually be heard.
Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, and "WE" are in one of those times.
"The Peoples Voice" demands to be heard and should never be stifled.
... from Massachusetts.
This will be their Waterloo:
Nine months after he penned a memo laying out the arguments for health care legislation's destruction, Republican message guru Frank Luntz has put together a playbook to help derail financial regulatory reform.
In a 17-page memo titled, "The Language of Financial Reform," Luntz urged opponents of reform to frame the final product as filled with bank bailouts, lobbyist loopholes, and additional layers of complicated government bureaucracy.
"If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that in many ways led to the economic crash must never be repeated," Luntz wrote. "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."
Uh huh.
So the bad decisions and harmful practices of Washington bureaucrats were all Democrats?
I think not.
Bankruptcy "reform", that left the common man chained to his debts, while big banks and other corporations use the bankruptcy court as a "get out of debt free" pass issuance device? That was a Republican bill.
Removal of the leverage limits from the investment banks, without which the housing bubble would have been stopped dead in 2004? That was a Republican (Paulson) going to a Republican SEC.
A Department of Justice that sued states to prevent them from enforcing anti-predatory lending laws and those that curbed (or outright banned) stated income and other "liars" products? That was a Republican Administration that did that, at the direction of George W. Bush.
Let's not kid ourselves: The looting is bipartisan and so is the responsibility.
But "killing financial regulatory reform" is one of the dumbest things that The Republicans could ever do.
Island residents sue U.S., saying military made them sick
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/01/vieques.illness/index.html?hpt=C1
Should sovereign immunity mean that our government can inflict any damage it wants to on it's people with no recourse?
Because that's what they're saying to Puerto Rico.
And if they can do it to them they can can do it to you to......Think about it!
Dr. John Wargo, a Yale professor who studies the effects of toxic exposures on human health, says he believes that people on the island are sick because of the Navy's bombing range.
Vieques ... is probably one of the most highly contaminated sites in the world.
"Vieques, in my experience of studying toxic substances, is probably one of the most highly contaminated sites in the world," he said. "This results from the longevity of the chemical release, the bombs, the artillery shells, chemical weapons, biological weapons, fuels, diesel fuels, jet fuels, flame retardants. These have all been released on the island, some at great intensity."
The U.S. government's response to their lawsuit is to invoke sovereign immunity, arguing that residents have no right to sue it. The government also disputes that the Navy's activities on Vieques made islanders ill, citing a 2003 study by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found no link.
Should sovereign immunity mean that our government can inflict any damage it wants to on it's people with no recourse?
Because that's what they're saying to Puerto Rico.
And if they can do it to them they can can do it to you to......Think about it!
Dr. John Wargo, a Yale professor who studies the effects of toxic exposures on human health, says he believes that people on the island are sick because of the Navy's bombing range.
Vieques ... is probably one of the most highly contaminated sites in the world.
"Vieques, in my experience of studying toxic substances, is probably one of the most highly contaminated sites in the world," he said. "This results from the longevity of the chemical release, the bombs, the artillery shells, chemical weapons, biological weapons, fuels, diesel fuels, jet fuels, flame retardants. These have all been released on the island, some at great intensity."
The U.S. government's response to their lawsuit is to invoke sovereign immunity, arguing that residents have no right to sue it. The government also disputes that the Navy's activities on Vieques made islanders ill, citing a 2003 study by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found no link.
The Depressing News About Antidepressants
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232781
Oh the little things they forget to tell you and who benefits from the why.
Studies suggest that the popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo. In fact, they may be worse.
As more and more scientists who study depression and the drugs that treat it are concluding, that suggests that antidepressants are basically expensive Tic Tacs.
Hence the moral dilemma. The placebo effect—that is, a medical benefit you get from an inert pill or other sham treatment—rests on the holy trinity of belief, expectation, and hope. But telling someone with depression who is being helped by antidepressants, or who (like my friend) hopes to be helped, threatens to topple the whole house of cards. Explain that it's all in their heads, that the reason they're benefiting is the same reason why Disney's Dumbo could initially fly only with a feather clutched in his trunk—believing makes it so—and the magic dissipates like fairy dust in a windstorm. So rather than tell my friend all this, I chickened out. Sure, I said, there's lots of research showing that a new kind of antidepressant might help you. Come, let me show you the studies on PubMed.
It seems I am not alone in having moral qualms about blowing the whistle on antidepressants. That first analysis, in 1998, examined 38 manufacturer-sponsored studies involving just over 3,000 depressed patients. The authors, psychology researchers Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein of the University of Connecticut, saw—as everyone else had—that patients did improve, often substantially, on SSRIs, tricyclics, and even MAO inhibitors, a class of antidepressants that dates from the 1950s. This improvement, demonstrated in scores of clinical trials, is the basis for the ubiquitous claim that antidepressants work. But when Kirsch compared the improvement in patients taking the drugs with the improvement in those taking dummy pills—clinical trials typically compare an experimental drug with a placebo—he saw that the difference was minuscule. Patients on a placebo improved about 75 percent as much as those on drugs. Put another way, three quarters of the benefit from antidepressants seems to be a placebo effect. "We wondered, what's going on?" recalls Kirsch, who is now at the University of Hull in England. "These are supposed to be wonder drugs and have huge effects."
The study's impact? The number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005.
Oh the little things they forget to tell you and who benefits from the why.
Studies suggest that the popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo. In fact, they may be worse.
As more and more scientists who study depression and the drugs that treat it are concluding, that suggests that antidepressants are basically expensive Tic Tacs.
Hence the moral dilemma. The placebo effect—that is, a medical benefit you get from an inert pill or other sham treatment—rests on the holy trinity of belief, expectation, and hope. But telling someone with depression who is being helped by antidepressants, or who (like my friend) hopes to be helped, threatens to topple the whole house of cards. Explain that it's all in their heads, that the reason they're benefiting is the same reason why Disney's Dumbo could initially fly only with a feather clutched in his trunk—believing makes it so—and the magic dissipates like fairy dust in a windstorm. So rather than tell my friend all this, I chickened out. Sure, I said, there's lots of research showing that a new kind of antidepressant might help you. Come, let me show you the studies on PubMed.
It seems I am not alone in having moral qualms about blowing the whistle on antidepressants. That first analysis, in 1998, examined 38 manufacturer-sponsored studies involving just over 3,000 depressed patients. The authors, psychology researchers Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein of the University of Connecticut, saw—as everyone else had—that patients did improve, often substantially, on SSRIs, tricyclics, and even MAO inhibitors, a class of antidepressants that dates from the 1950s. This improvement, demonstrated in scores of clinical trials, is the basis for the ubiquitous claim that antidepressants work. But when Kirsch compared the improvement in patients taking the drugs with the improvement in those taking dummy pills—clinical trials typically compare an experimental drug with a placebo—he saw that the difference was minuscule. Patients on a placebo improved about 75 percent as much as those on drugs. Put another way, three quarters of the benefit from antidepressants seems to be a placebo effect. "We wondered, what's going on?" recalls Kirsch, who is now at the University of Hull in England. "These are supposed to be wonder drugs and have huge effects."
The study's impact? The number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005.
Deficit Balloons Into National-Security Threat
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108736/deficit-balloons-into-national-security-threat?sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=
It's time to comb the rat's nest out of our hair kids.
Washington can seem to cut their spending period, let alone where it counts.
Ask yourself this, are the enormous sums paid to private military contracts now, worth the price of no military later?
Because that is what it's going to come down to eventually if not sooner. We won't be able to afford to pay for our soldiers up keep. You know, that basic part of bodies that you have to have to makeup a military and they don't work for free, and even if they did they would require basic support like food, shelter...ect.
The federal budget deficit has long since graduated from nuisance to headache to pressing national concern. Now, however, it has become so large and persistent that it is time to start thinking of it as something else entirely: a national-security threat.
The budget plan released Monday illustrates why this escalation is warranted. The numbers are mind-numbing: a $1.6 trillion deficit this year, $1.3 trillion next year, $8.5 trillion for the next 10 years combined—and that assumes Congress enacts President Barack Obama's proposals to start bringing it down, and that the proposals work.
These numbers are often discussed as an economic and domestic problem. But it's time to start thinking of the ramifications for America's ability to continue playing its traditional global role.
The U.S. government this year will borrow one of every three dollars it spends, with many of those funds coming from foreign countries. That weakens America's standing and its freedom to act; strengthens China and other world powers; puts long-term defense spending at risk; undermines the power of the American system as a model for developing countries; and reduces the aura of power that has been a great intangible asset for presidents for more than a century.
"We've reached a point now where there's an intimate link between our solvency and our national security," says Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior national-security adviser in both the first and second Bush presidencies
It's time to comb the rat's nest out of our hair kids.
Washington can seem to cut their spending period, let alone where it counts.
Ask yourself this, are the enormous sums paid to private military contracts now, worth the price of no military later?
Because that is what it's going to come down to eventually if not sooner. We won't be able to afford to pay for our soldiers up keep. You know, that basic part of bodies that you have to have to makeup a military and they don't work for free, and even if they did they would require basic support like food, shelter...ect.
The federal budget deficit has long since graduated from nuisance to headache to pressing national concern. Now, however, it has become so large and persistent that it is time to start thinking of it as something else entirely: a national-security threat.
The budget plan released Monday illustrates why this escalation is warranted. The numbers are mind-numbing: a $1.6 trillion deficit this year, $1.3 trillion next year, $8.5 trillion for the next 10 years combined—and that assumes Congress enacts President Barack Obama's proposals to start bringing it down, and that the proposals work.
These numbers are often discussed as an economic and domestic problem. But it's time to start thinking of the ramifications for America's ability to continue playing its traditional global role.
The U.S. government this year will borrow one of every three dollars it spends, with many of those funds coming from foreign countries. That weakens America's standing and its freedom to act; strengthens China and other world powers; puts long-term defense spending at risk; undermines the power of the American system as a model for developing countries; and reduces the aura of power that has been a great intangible asset for presidents for more than a century.
"We've reached a point now where there's an intimate link between our solvency and our national security," says Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior national-security adviser in both the first and second Bush presidencies
Obama boosts budget for State Dept.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/02/obama-boosts-budget-for-state/
Oh the excessive wastes of the war and how much we pay for our government to exceed them.
And what exactly does this mean? Funds for the "multilateral bank contributions"
handled by the Treasury Dept?
which also includes funds for multilateral bank contributions handled by the Treasury Department
Global health and development aid overseas will go up significantly in the fiscal year beginning in October, while the biggest decreases will affect the fight against HIV/AIDS and migration and refugee assistance.
The State Department budget request, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, totals $52.8 billion, Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew told reporters. Aid and civilian contributions to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq represents 20 percent of the entire budget, he added.
"Overall, the State Department budget funds over two-thirds of the 3,000 civilian personnel in these three frontline states. These critical civilian deployments are essential to the success of our strategies and to the reduction of U.S. troop levels," Mr. Lew said.
"Of the $4.9 billion increase [over 2010], $3.6 billion is for programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq," he said, adding that Mr. Obama's $4.5 billion supplemental request for this year will also go to those three countries.
The State Department budget is the main part of the $58.5 billion international affairs budget, which also includes funds for multilateral bank contributions handled by the Treasury Department, as well as independent agencies, such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Peace Corps.
Oh the excessive wastes of the war and how much we pay for our government to exceed them.
And what exactly does this mean? Funds for the "multilateral bank contributions"
handled by the Treasury Dept?
which also includes funds for multilateral bank contributions handled by the Treasury Department
Global health and development aid overseas will go up significantly in the fiscal year beginning in October, while the biggest decreases will affect the fight against HIV/AIDS and migration and refugee assistance.
The State Department budget request, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, totals $52.8 billion, Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew told reporters. Aid and civilian contributions to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq represents 20 percent of the entire budget, he added.
"Overall, the State Department budget funds over two-thirds of the 3,000 civilian personnel in these three frontline states. These critical civilian deployments are essential to the success of our strategies and to the reduction of U.S. troop levels," Mr. Lew said.
"Of the $4.9 billion increase [over 2010], $3.6 billion is for programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq," he said, adding that Mr. Obama's $4.5 billion supplemental request for this year will also go to those three countries.
The State Department budget is the main part of the $58.5 billion international affairs budget, which also includes funds for multilateral bank contributions handled by the Treasury Department, as well as independent agencies, such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Peace Corps.
Largest-ever federal payroll to hit 2.15 million
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/02/burgeoning-federal-payroll-signals-return-of-big-g/?page=2
How big is to big, and how can we really afford this?
It would seem the only job market still hiring would be the Federal government.
How does one rightfully justify this growth number in federal employees when the States of the nation are flat broke and culling public service jobs with a vengeance just trying to keep their heads above water?
While Obama hires employees to oversee federal contracts over seas, the people at home are left to survive without adequate police and fire protection for their various localities. Libraries are cut and parks are shut, for the lack of tax revenue to allow them to stay open and run. City energy bills are being pared by cutting out necessary street lighting put in place to ensure people's safety.
These are just some of the sacrifices being made by the average city, The question is,
if WE" can no longer afford to operate our cities, then how can "WE" afford to sustain the size of the government, let alone continue to watch it grow?
If "OUR" cities must amputate off it's various appendages without anesthetic, then isn't it about time that "WE" demand that the government do the same thing
After years of decline at the end of the Cold War, the Defense Department is restaffing. Mr. Obama estimated that the Pentagon will have 720,000 employees this year and 757,000 employees next year - up from a low of 649,000 in 2003.
The data also show that the Department of Homeland Security will grow by 7,000 a year in 2010 and 2011, and the Veterans Affairs Department will grow by 12,000 in 2010 and an additional 4,000 in 2011.
Peter R. Orszag, Mr. Obama's budget director, also said more people have been hired to oversee outside contracts.
"Over the past eight or nine years, those contracts have doubled in size. The acquisition work force has stayed constant. It's not too hard to figure out that oversight of those contracts has not kept pace with what it should be," Mr. Orszag said.
Even as the total number of federal employees rises, the ratio of employees to Americans has declined steadily, from one employee for every 78 residents in 1953 to one employee for every 110 residents in 1988 to one employee for every 155 residents in 2008.
How big is to big, and how can we really afford this?
It would seem the only job market still hiring would be the Federal government.
How does one rightfully justify this growth number in federal employees when the States of the nation are flat broke and culling public service jobs with a vengeance just trying to keep their heads above water?
While Obama hires employees to oversee federal contracts over seas, the people at home are left to survive without adequate police and fire protection for their various localities. Libraries are cut and parks are shut, for the lack of tax revenue to allow them to stay open and run. City energy bills are being pared by cutting out necessary street lighting put in place to ensure people's safety.
These are just some of the sacrifices being made by the average city, The question is,
if WE" can no longer afford to operate our cities, then how can "WE" afford to sustain the size of the government, let alone continue to watch it grow?
If "OUR" cities must amputate off it's various appendages without anesthetic, then isn't it about time that "WE" demand that the government do the same thing
After years of decline at the end of the Cold War, the Defense Department is restaffing. Mr. Obama estimated that the Pentagon will have 720,000 employees this year and 757,000 employees next year - up from a low of 649,000 in 2003.
The data also show that the Department of Homeland Security will grow by 7,000 a year in 2010 and 2011, and the Veterans Affairs Department will grow by 12,000 in 2010 and an additional 4,000 in 2011.
Peter R. Orszag, Mr. Obama's budget director, also said more people have been hired to oversee outside contracts.
"Over the past eight or nine years, those contracts have doubled in size. The acquisition work force has stayed constant. It's not too hard to figure out that oversight of those contracts has not kept pace with what it should be," Mr. Orszag said.
Even as the total number of federal employees rises, the ratio of employees to Americans has declined steadily, from one employee for every 78 residents in 1953 to one employee for every 110 residents in 1988 to one employee for every 155 residents in 2008.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)