Tropical Storm Agatha blows a hole in Guatemala City

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/01/storm-agatha-hole-guatemala

The picture is unbelievably scary


Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America yesterday, bringing torrential rain that killed more than 100 people and opened a 60m-deep sinkhole in Guatemala City which reportedly swallowed up a three-storey building.

The first named storm of the 2010 Pacific season dumped more than a metre of rain in parts of Guatemala, also hitting El Salvador and Honduras. At least 113 people were reported killed, with around 50 missing in Guatemala alone as rescue workers searched through the rubble.

The 30m-diameter sinkhole opened up in a northern district of Guatemala City, with residents blaming the rains and substandard drainage systems. Local reports said one man was killed when the building was swallowed. In 2007, three people died when a similar sinkhole appeared in the same area.

Top Kill failure

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3_O8dvwm028&pos=1

Day 40 back to square 1

-- BP Plc began working on a new plan to cap a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico after a three-day effort to stop the flow with a blast of pressurized fluids was unsuccessful.

The company started using high-horsepower pumps on May 26 to ram a mixture of mud-like drilling fluid and rubber scrap into the oil and gas that’s been gushing for more than five weeks, a process known as “top kill.”

At a press conference yesterday, Doug Suttles, the BP executive in charge of the spill response, said the top kill strategy didn’t work. BP will now try a containment device known as a lower-marine riser package cap, Suttles said.

Is Warren worried?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Warren-Buffett-Forced-to-cnbc-3064696935.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

Just how obvious is it that the financial community is a tight knit little family?
Like the blue blood lines old, their incestuous ties have bred in the fate of hemophilia.
How much sway does a major shareholder have by the way? Is it enough to have made Moody bow to Berkshire's will?

Warren Buffett Forced to Testify Before Financial Crisis Commission

Warren Buffett's appearance next week before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is a "command performance," after he was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing focusing on the credit rating agencies.

Berkshire Hathaway is Moody's largest shareholder, although Buffett's company has been reducing those holdings in recent months. Several Moody's executives, including its current CEO, will also be answering questions.

Fortune's Carol Loomis reports tonight (Thursday) that the Commission had to resort to what Gary Cohen, the FCIC's general counsel, called a "compulsory process" after Buffett turned down several invitations to be questioned.

There was no one in charge

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704113504575264721101985024.html?mod=

A riveting read

A Wall Street Journal examination of what happened aboard the Deepwater Horizon just before and after the explosions suggests the rig was unprepared for that kind of disaster and was overwhelmed when it occurred. The events on the bridge raise questions about whether the U.S. has sufficient safety rules for such complex drilling operations in very deep water.

US Debt Clock

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

A little visual reminder of just how out of control the spending is in our country.

Greed's Face

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3070/glpoilboom.gif


People are gonna say this is God's wrath
But it's not
It's just man's greed.
There is a significant change in the volume of oil flowing now from the photo.
An explosion happened, and it now raises concerns over how stable the sea floor is.
Apparently it is possible, as well as looking rather probable, for the gusher to turn into a huge sinkhole.
My mind can't even comprehend how fucked we all are if it does.
And just for a little added side factor of fun
Hurricane season is knocking at the door
We are in dire need of a miracle

Tylenol recall

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/25/news/companies/tylenol_recall_adverse_consumer_complaints/index.htm

I just can't get past the low level of quality control.
It's everywhere I turn.
Politicians,Banks,Oil spills,Pharma, Autos,Insurance, ect....ect......
It would seem nothing is working properly anymore

The Food and Drug Administration is looking into reports of at least 775 serious side effects from drugs recalled by McNeil, a division of Johnson & Johnson, according to a source close to a Congressional investigation.

Included in the reports were 30 deaths, nearly all of which were found to not be tied to McNeil's recall of Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl drugs from Jan. 1, 2008 through April 30, 2010, according to another source close to the investigation.


The FDA is also investigating reports of several hundred serious side effects -- or "adverse events" -- and seven deaths since May 1, when McNeil recalled 50 children's versions of these non-prescription medicines because of serious quality and safety concerns.

Obama administration backs Vatican in pedophile case

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.48ccbdeaaf685b4c112dc4554a808ca0.961&show_article=1

Holy Hypocrites
All take and no give

The Obama administration in a brief to the Supreme Court has backed the Vatican's claim of immunity from lawsuits arising from cases of sexual abuse by priests in the United States.
The Supreme Court is considering an appeal by the Vatican of an appellate court ruling that lifted its immunity in the case of an alleged pedophile priest from Oregon.

In a filing on Friday, the solicitor general's office argued that the Ninth Circuit court of appeals erred in allowing the lawsuit brought by a man who claims he was sexually abused in the 1960s by the Oregon priest.

The unnamed plaintiff, who cited the Holy See and several other parties as defendants, argued the Vatican should be held responsible for transferring the priest to Oregon and letting him serve there despite previous accusations he had abused children in Chicago and in Ireland

But the Vatican plans to argue that Catholic dioceses are run as separate entities from the Holy See, and that the only authority that the pontiff has over bishops around the world is a religious one, according to Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's US attorney.

In recent months, large-scale pedophilia scandals have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in a number of countries, including Austria, Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI's native Germany and the United States.

Senior clerics have been accused of protecting the priests involved by moving them to other parishes -- where they sometimes offended again -- instead of handing them over to civil authorities for prosecution.

The pope, who has himself faced allegations implicating him in the scandal, has repeatedly said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse should answer for their crimes in courts of law.

Clarke and Dawe ask the million dollar questions

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/05/20/2905304.htm


John Clarke and Bryan Dawe calculate the cost of the European debt crisis

You wanna bet Germany already got wind of these facts?
And you thought you were the only one thinking about how they were going to pay the bailout back.

Keeping Pace With the Global Economy

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/todd-harrison-random-thoughts-bkx-global/5/25/2010/id/28467

Obama tells military: prepare for North Korea aggression

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64N0ZT20100524

Strong backing plans, no mention of war games here.
War games are make believe, strong backing plans are not.
Our military is already in a natural position to engage.

President Barack Obama has directed the U.S. military to coordinate with South Korea to "ensure readiness" and deter future aggression from North Korea, the White House said on Monday.

The United States gave strong backing to plans by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to punish North Korea for sinking one of its naval ships, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Major Change Down Below...

http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/05/major-change-down-below.html

No comment needed

I've put everything back into proper chronological order, and have begun adding images and video for documentary purposes.

I've been watching the live Spillcam, and discussing it with folks, here all day long. About 5pm last night, we all started taking note of gas bubbling out of the seabed floor. It started earlier than that, actually-- see pic a few posts down. About 1am this morning, the eruptions began to increase in spew volume.


The First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH).



At about 8am, CDT, as I watched, things started changing rapidly. Where the water around the two major gush points used to be very clear, it is now super turbid, and detritus is flying everywhere in a chaotic manner. seabed venting is obvious to see when ROV cameras pan around.

Yet-to-be-confirmed rumors are that the casing wall has finally worn through, about 300 feet below seabed, at an annulus (coupling), and the gas and oil are now finding a new way out to the seabed.

Not good news, as it will make the Top-Kill/Junk Shot nearly ineffectual... At the least, it means that more pressure and mud/cement is going to be required.

We'll see.

See for yourself, here: via BP Live Spillcam

Screengrab of the early Morning Chaos Event. Everthing went up all at once. ROV was perfectly stationary. EVERYTHING went "BOOM" and black:

Stealth IRS campaign mandates millions of new 1099 tax forms

http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-8872-0-32-32--.html


Small business, you need to take a read.
It's hard to believe this was in the Health Care Bill isn't it?
Nancy Pelosi's "Oh you'll have to pass it, to find out what's in it."
Well surprise surprise,
Now we at least know why the IRS had to hire all those new employees.

The massive expansion of requirements for businesses to file 1099 tax forms that was hidden in the 2,409-page health reform bill took many by surprise when it came to light last month. But it's just one piece of a years-long legislative stealth campaign to create ways for the federal government to track down unreported income.

The result: A blizzard of new tax forms that the Internal Revenue Service will begin rolling out next year.

BP faces removal from oil clean-up operation

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7134583.ece

How many more rigs are out there, with all the craftsmanship of this one?
How many accidents like this are out there waiting to happen, all because someone shot the odds.


BP will be taken off the Gulf clean-up operation if the US government decides that its performance is not good enough, Ken Salazar, the US Interior Secretary, said yesterday.

“I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading,” Mr Salazar said after visiting BP’s US headquarters in Houston. “We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed.”

President Barack Obama’s administration is facing growing public and political pressure to take full charge of the oil spill containment operation as criticism of BP grows. “If we find they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately,” Mr Salazar said, but he did not specify at what point this would occur or what might be the trigger for it. He added that BP had agreed to pay clean-up costs beyond the $75 million liability limit set by current US law.

BP was also accused yesterday of agreeing to keep a test valve on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which later exploded, despite knowing that it would increase the risk of accidents.

The rig’s owner, Transocean, wrote to BP in 2004 to confirm an agreement that Transocean would keep the test valve on the safety device known as a “blowout preventer” rather than replacing it with a permanent and more effective “variable bore ram” that could have halted the oil flow, according to a letter leaked to the Washington Post.

A representative of BP reportedly signed a copy of the letter,

Stirring the pot

Smells like provocation to me kids.

Clinton: Koreas security situation 'precarious'
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100524/D9FT51NG0.html

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship has created a "highly precarious" security situation in the region and that the Obama administration is working to prevent an escalation of tension that could lead to conflict.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing shortly after the White House issued a statement offering Washington's full and unequivocal support for Seoul, Clinton said all of North Korea's neighbors, including its chief ally China, understand the seriousness of the matter and want to "contain" it.

"We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation," Clinton said. "This is a highly precarious situation that the North Koreans have caused in the region."

US plans naval exercises with South Korea:Pentagon
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.425f30f7af55f75115ed7394018dccda.481&show_article=1

Goldman Sachs and the Obama government

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/46267

Who really runs America?

This essay shows the pervasive influence of Goldman Sachs and its units (like the Goldman-Robert Rubin-funded Hamilton Project embedded in the Brookings Institution) in the Obama government. These names are in addition to those compiled on an older such list and published here at FDL. In the future, I will combine the names here and those on the earlier article but I urge readers to look at the earlier list too (links below). Combined, this is the largest and most comprehensive list of such ties yet published.

For readability and clarity, I have NOT included many of the details and links that are found in the earlier article so as to make this one less repetitive and easier to read. So, if you want more documentation, please look at my earlier diary here at Firedoglake called "A List of Goldman Sachs People in the Obama Government: Names Attached To The Giant Squid’s Tentacles" published on April 27, 2010

Tar balls found on Key West shores

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/reuters/MTFH33602_2010-05-18_09-43-33_N1880093.htm

One has to wonder exactly how would the officials know how much of an impact has been really made since the majority of the oil gusher's leak remains below the surface and can't be seen.

The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday that state park rangers at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park on the island of Key West, Florida, found tar balls washing ashore throughout the day, marking the first appearance of oil debris reported in Florida since BP's deepsea well rupture on April 20.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has previously said the southern edge of the spill could make its way into the so-called Loop Current current, which could carry oil eastward toward the Florida Keys, out of the Gulf and up the East Coast of the United States.

Samples of the tar balls were collected and will be shipped to a laboratory for analysis to determine the origin of the source, the Coast Guard said.

Officials have stressed the spill has so far had minimal impact on the shoreline and wildlife along the Gulf Coast, but oil debris and tar balls had been reported earlier in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Congress blocks indiscriminate IMF aid for Europe

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance...id-for-europe/


Europe may have to clean up its own mess after all. The US Senate has voted 94:0 to block use of taxpayers’ money for IMF rescues that make no economic sense or bail-outs for countries like Greece that far are beyond the point of no return.

“This amendment will help prevent American taxpayer dollars from underwriting dysfunctional governments abroad,” said Texas Senator John Cornyn, the chief sponsor. “American taxpayers have seen more bailouts than they can stomach, and the last thing they should have to worry about are their hard-earned tax dollars being used to rescue a foreign government. Greece is not by any stretch of the imagination too big to fail.”

Co-sponsor David Vitter from Louisiana said America had run out of money. “Our country already owes trillions of dollars in debt. We simply can’t afford to take on other countries’ debt in addition to our own.”

It is unclear where this leaves the EU’s $1 trillion “shock and uh” package. Urlich Leuchtmann from Commerzbank said the IMF share of $320bn was the only genuine money on the table, the rest being largely euro smoke and mirrors, or plain bluff.

The measure is an amendment to the US financial overhaul law. Backed by both parties, it can hardly be ignored by the Obama administration whatever Tim Geithner may or may not want to do. The bill has to go to Conference for reconciliation with the House, but the point is made.

It instructs the US representative at the IMF to determine whether a country with a public debt above 100 per cent of GDP can be expected to repay IMF loans. If this cannot be certified, the US must oppose the rescue package.

Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=axH24KWxjVDE&pos=10

No nothing to see here because the Justice Dept made a deal, to only prosecute the peons rather than the banks
This makes it rather obvious just WHO destroyed the World's financial system and how they ALL did it.
The question is why is the Mafia prosecuted while "the banks" are allowed to consider it business as usual and get away with it?
Why are they given AMNESTY? Because they OWN the government


May 18 (Bloomberg) -- A telephone call between a financial adviser in Beverly Hills and a trader in New York was all it took to fleece taxpayers on a water-and-sewer financing deal in West Virginia. The secret conversation was part of a conspiracy stretching across the U.S. by Wall Street banks in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.

The call came less than two hours before bids were due for contracts to manage $90 million raised with the sale of West Virginia bonds. On one end of the line was Steven Goldberg, a trader with Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. On the other was Zevi Wolmark, of advisory firm CDR Financial Products Inc. Goldberg arranged to pay a kickback to CDR to land the deal, according to government records filed in connection with a U.S. Justice Department indictment of CDR and Wolmark.

[B]They rigged bids on auctions for so-called guaranteed investment contracts, known as GICs, according to a Justice Department list that was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24 and then put under seal. Those contracts hold tens of billions of taxpayer money[/B].

[B]Amnesty Agreement

In exchange, the government promised in an amnesty agreement not to prosecute the bank[/B]

Scientists find vast unreported oil leak from Deepwater Horizon

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7127904.ece

300 feet thick


A plume of oil 10 miles (16km) long, three miles wide and 300ft thick is pouring into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

The plume is one of a number that scientists have found gushing into the sea a mile underwater, increasing concerns that the size of the spill could be thousands of times larger than has been previously calculated, according to The New York Times.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, from the University of Georgia, who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather information from the spill. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column,” Dr Joye told the newspaper.

After studying footage of the gushing oil scientists on board the

BP's Own Probe Finds Safety Issues on Atlantis Rig

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704614204575246481681620318.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories


Ok so they KNOW
The question is why don't they care?
Because they're "To big to jail"
And with decisions like these and those made for Deep Horizon
Why do they still have a Corporate charter?
These people have no business being in this business.
The rule has to be: SAFETY FIRST!
NO EXCEPTIONS


BP production member Barry C. Duff said in an August 2008 email to two colleagues that "hundreds if not thousands" of subsea documents had not been finalized, and warned having the wrong documents on board the Atlantis "could lead to catastrophic operator errors."

Crew Argued Over Drilling Plan Before Rig Explosion

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704414504575244812908538510.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

An over whelming sense of fear, is still the predominant taste in my mouth after having read that there was a disagreement upon the proper procedure for shutting down the well.
Somewhere in my mind there was a certain sense of security, (that now is no longer there), that proper procedures were in place for everything built, that if not followed could cause catastrophic calamity to either the environment or that of man kind itself. I now, no longer hold that sense of security, and I'm having an exceptionally hard time trying not to envision this same scenario occurring over the proper procedures of constructing a nuclear power plant.
BP's employee argued it wasn't proper procedure, the dude ought to know it's his job
And the smell of caution is already there over the gas levels
And you know you jerry rigged the fail safe
Who decided to go ahead and shoot those odds?
To take nothing else into concern but completion of the job?
A corporate suit did.



Talk about a head game...this is the big one.
What else has been compromised?
For Profit




In his sworn statement, he described the meeting as including ranking personnel from BP, Transocean and Halliburton Co., a contractor that dealt with cementing the well.

According to Mr. Williams's account, Transocean's rig manager, Jimmy Wayne Harrell, was discussing the plans for the next few hours' work, including taking out the drilling mud and running a test to make sure gas wasn't seeping into the well. Mr. Harrell explained in the meeting that he had received the plans from BP.

Then, according to Mr. Williams's statement, the top-ranked BP employee assigned to the rig, Donald Vidrine, disagreed and said "that was not the correct procedure."

Scientists: Underwater plume of oil headed out to sea

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-15-gulf-oil-spill_N.htm

What will the consequences be this time as the penalty for another case of
"Hurry up and do something even if it's wrong"
Why does this situation remind me of the "Banking fix"
Possibly because, with money being used as a dispersant, it to has hid the toxic sludge from coming to the surface, but the problem is still there out of sight and it's volume grows.

In the first on-site measurements of the oil spreading below the surface, researchers found the plume of crude stretches 15 to 20 miles southwest from the site of the damaged wellhead and is about 5 miles wide, said Vernon Asper, a University of Southern Mississippi marine scientist leading the research.

The plume is compact, much thicker than the lighter remnants reaching the surface and suspended in about 3,000 feet of ocean, he said. A deepwater current is dragging it out to sea. The underwater oil cloud is not connected to the surface slick — now the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

"This [underwater] plume is some of the heavier products of the oil that won't reach the surface," Asper said in a radio-telephone interview from aboard the R/V Pelican, a 116-foot research ship at the site of the spill. "We think this oil is going to stay down there. It doesn't look like it's coming to the surface."

The company has already dropped more than 560,000 gallons of dispersants on the surface slick and 28,700 gallons at the subsea wellhead, BP spokesman John Crabtree said.

The use of chemical dispersants at such depths has been controversial because it's never been used at such depths. Dispersants injected into the spewing wellhead is likely keeping the underwater plume suspended in 3,000 feet of water, said Mandy Joye, a marine sciences professor at the University of Georgia.

That keeps the oil from bubbling to the surface and potentially reaching fragile coastal marshes. But it's also creating a massive, toxic plume of oxygen-less oily water stretching through the deeper reaches of the Gulf of Mexico, Joye said.


The underwater plume, invisible to satellite imagery or aerial photographs, can also get stirred up and tossed into shallower waters if a hurricane passes over it, Joye said. The Atlantic hurricane season, which includes the Gulf, starts June 1.

"It is a good thing the oil is not damaging the coast line," Joye said. "But to say everything is fine because it's not hitting the coast is missing a very important part of this equation

Gulf Oil disaster

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html


Greed and corruption are out of control.
And here's your sign.
Please don't ignore it this time.
"WE" deserve better
Demand it!
This did not have to happen.
And God Help "US" that it has
Pray for a miracle
Because "WE" need one now

Remember this:Sex For Oil Scandal At Interior Department

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/10/national/main4436263.shtml

This was your sign
And it WAS ignored!

The allegations of bad behavior involve 13 government employees in Denver and Washington, reports CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. Those accused are workers who sell U.S. mineral rights to oil companies. Such sales are one of the government's biggest sources of revenue besides taxes.

The findings are the latest sign of trouble at the Minerals Management Service, which has already been accused of mismanaging the collection of fees from oil companies and writing faulty contracts for drilling on government land and offshore. The charges also come as lawmakers and both presidential candidates weigh giving oil companies more access to federal lands, which would bring in more money to the federal government.

"The government employees who oversee off-shore oil drilling are literally and figuratively in bed with big oil," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

"This all shows the oil industry holds shocking sway over the administration and even key federal employees," Nelson added. "This is why we must not allow big oil's agenda to be jammed through Congress."

While most government royalties for drilling on federal lands are paid in cash, the government in recent years has been receiving a greater share of its oil and gas royalties in actual product. More of that oil is also being sold on the open market, versus being deposited in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation's emergency oil stockpile. Congress earlier this year passed a law halting deposits of oil to the reserve to alleviate high gasoline prices.

BP's cost responsibility

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aN5Ah2PAtMaY

Here's BP's last quarterly report, it's obvious that they are doing quite well.
Administration officials said the company will pay as much as possible
The question is: Who makes the decision that "as much as possible" has been met?
And is BP's corporate survival a concerning factor in that "as much as possible" decision?
In other words is there a fail safe in place, that can automatically be used to ensure BP's survival, or does "as much as possible" actually mean till BP breathes no more?
And if there is why should they be allowed to live?


April 27 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc, the energy company battling a 1,000-barrel-a-day leak in the Gulf of Mexico, said profit more than doubled in the first quarter on higher oil prices.

Net income jumped to $6.08 billion, or 32 cents a share, from $2.56 billion, or 14 cents, a year earlier, London-based BP said today in a statement. Excluding gains or losses from holding inventories and one-time items, earnings beat analyst estimates.

“BP has reported a very strong set of earnings,” said Peter Hitchens, an analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co. in London. “There was a strong performance from the underlying operating divisions, especially with exploration and production. The refining and marketing business came in slightly ahead

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7717695/Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-slick-new-Nasa-image-shows-it-looking-like-a-swan.html
Also on Wednesday, President Barack Obama asked Congress for at least $129m (£87m) in new emergency funding to cope with wide-ranging fallout from the massive oil spill.

Administration officials said they couldn't forecast total costs from the cleanup of the massive spill and a multitude of economic damages to the Gulf region, but the changes they're seeking in the legislative package suggest a multibillion-dollar response.

The administration wants to increase from $1 billion to $1.5 billion the amount that could be spent from an emergency cleanup fund paid with industry fees, and raise a $75 million liability limit BP would bear for costs not directly connected to cleaning up the spill, such as lost wages and tourism.

Administration officials said the company will pay as much as possible.

Some of the new proposed spending, including money for the Interior Department to conduct inspections for proposed offshore drilling leases, cannot be charged to BP.

White House energy adviser Carol Browner said: "We take BP at their word. They say they intend to pay for all costs. And when we hear 'all' we take it to mean all."

BP were unavailable to comment, but the company has said it will pay cleanup costs and "legitimate claims”.

The Second Debt Storm

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109547/the-second-debt-storm?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

Oh look someone finally asked the $64,000 question.
And the world's taxpayers seems to be the answer

Who will bail out the countries that bailed out the world's corporations?


The financial crisis never really went away.

The debt mountain that brought down some of the world's biggest banks and dragged the international financial system to the brink of disaster has simply shifted to governments. Now, it's threatening countries around the globe and if left unchecked could rip the very fabric of Europe's economic system and wreck economic recoveries in the U.S., China and Latin America

Goldman Joins Race to Save Chicago Bank

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703950804575242772016889464.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Lol is this Goldman's attempt at philanthrope?......LOL yeah right...like that's believable on any level at this point.
So what's the catch.......political persuasion?
Or is there something more serious hidden that the average person can't see upfront?
Enquiring minds definitely want to know, or at least I do anyway


ShoreBank's Distress Galvanizes Wall Street; Blankfein Works Phones to Raise the $125 Million


Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has jumped into an effort to save a Chicago bank whose efforts to expand lending in poor communities have high-profile supporters in Washington and Chicago.

Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has discussed the Wall Street bank making an investment in ShoreBank Corp. with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, according to people familiar with the situation. He has also telephoned other bank executives as ShoreBank tries to raise $125 million it needs to forestall a possible takeover by the FDIC, people familiar with the discussions say.

Congress Reins In Its Perks for Travel

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703950804575242751142413016.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

Ask yourself what is the purpose of Nancy going to Afghanistan?
What was the purpose of her and so many others going to Copenhagen?
Why is the Senate allowed to utilize Air Force 2 at all?
The costs for it are outrageous and yet Nancy leaves it on the table for abuse.
The UK audited their MP's and sorely didn't like what they found.
I believe the Senate and the House are due for the same type of audit.
Because lets face it
"WE" can't afford these spoiled children anymore.
And NO WHERE is there a law that says "WE" have to


House leaders are revamping the rules for lawmakers and aides who travel overseas on official government business, forbidding them to fly in business class on shorter trips, use taxpayer funds to buy gifts or pocket unspent cash, among other changes.

The new travel rules, proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, also strengthen accountability and oversight for taxpayer-funded trips. But the rules don't require lawmakers to disclose some of the biggest costs of such trips, including travel by military plane, which can double or triple the total costs.

Nancy Pelosi in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 9.
.The changes are the first significant made to the House's travel rules in more than 30 years. They come after The Wall Street Journal published a series of articles documenting the perks of congressional travel and uncovering abuses by lawmakers of both parties, including the use of taxpayer money for alcohol, sight-seeing and other personal expenses on official overseas trips.

The new travel rules come at a time when lawmakers are seeking to respond to growing anti-Washington sentiment and rising concern among voters over government spending and perks ahead of mid-term elections later this year.

Oilspill footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=did-S6XbpMM&feature=player_embedded


This was shot 4 days ago
So today it's only that much worse
At 2 minutes in you see ground zero
And you can only surmise
That the Gulf Coast will be destroyed by it
And so is wherever the Gulf stream takes it

It hurts my heart to think that this disaster did not have to happen.
That profit was placed above all else of importance,
Greed kills
Here's your sign
This was premeditated murder
There were NO fail safes

Obama asks Congress for 205 million for Israel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/13/obama-asks-congress-to-ap_n_575691.html

Check please
Put it on my tab

The Obama administration is asking Congress to approve $205 million to help Israel speed up deployment of a new short-range rocket defense system called the "Iron Dome," the White House said Thursday.

The funds are in addition to the $3 billion Obama requested in the 2001 budget, which are part of a larger 10-year, $30 billion 2007 military aid agreement.

Israel's "Iron Dome" system is meant to intercept rockets from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Though it could be years before it is fully operational along those two borders, the missile defense system was expected to be deployed at a few initial locations sometime this year. The Obama administration decided to help fund the effort after being impressed with the system's effectiveness and determining that an infusion of funds now from Washington could allow deployment to unfold more quickly, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private thinking.

Underwater video of the oil spill

Underwater video of the oil spill

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/may/13/video-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill

It's time to call for some real scientific help kids, coz We're in big trouble.


Size of Oil Spill Underestimated, Scientists Say
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14oil.html


Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day. Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom.


But scientists and environmental groups are raising sharp questions about that estimate, declaring that the leak must be far larger.
They also criticize BP for refusing to use well-known scientific techniques that would give a more precise figure.

The criticism escalated on Thursday, a day after the release of a video that showed a huge black plume of oil gushing from the broken well at a seemingly high rate. BP has repeatedly claimed that measuring the plume would be impossible.

U.S. Decision to Approve Killing of Cleric Causes Unease

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/14awlaki.html?hp

Now think drones flying over the Mexican borders
If sh*t happens there is no one there to question you about it
Coz no one knows about it anyway
Think rendition flights
Sh*t does happen

The Obama administration’s decision to authorize the killing by the Central Intelligence Agency of a terrorism suspect who is an American citizen has set off a debate over the legal and political limits of drone missile strikes, a mainstay of the campaign against terrorism.


The notion that the government can, in effect, execute one of its own citizens far from a combat zone, with no judicial process and based on secret intelligence, makes some legal authorities deeply uneasy.

To eavesdrop on the terrorism suspect who was added to the target list, the American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is hiding in Yemen, intelligence agencies would have to get a court warrant. But designating him for death, as C.I.A. officials did early this year with the National Security Council’s approval, required no judicial review.

“Congress has protected Awlaki’s cellphone calls,” said Vicki Divoll, a former C.I.A. lawyer who now teaches at the United States Naval Academy. “But it has not provided any protections for his life. That makes no sense.”

Salazar names 2 to oversee agency restructuring

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Salazar-names-2-to-oversee-apf-213479452.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=

This is the Senate's brain on drugs.
And the scope of the decisions they make while on it
75 million will not even touch the Gulf clean up, let alone the lost income from polluting water. to the Gulf states.

The Senate, meanwhile, defeated a move by three drilling opponents to raise liability limits for oil spills from $75 million to $10 billion. Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Bill Nelson of Florida said they would try again after their proposal was blocked by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a drilling supporter.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she was disappointed that Senate Republicans "once again put Big Oil profits" over taxpayer interests. "This is a simple issue of fairness: If an oil company causes a spill, they should have to pay to clean it up," Murray said.

The Obama administration has said it would like to see the liability limit increased, but has not set a specific figure.

Pentagon rethinking value of major counterinsurgencies

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/12/94058/pentagon-rethinking-value-of-major.html#storylink=omni_popular




Nearly a decade after the United States began to focus its military training and equipment purchases almost exclusively on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military strategists are quietly shifting gears, saying that large-scale counterinsurgency efforts cost too much and last too long.

The domestic economic crisis and the Obama administration's commitment to withdraw from Iraq and begin drawing down in Afghanistan next year are factors in the change. The biggest spur, however, is a growing recognition that large-scale counterinsurgency battles have high casualty rates for troops and civilians, eat up equipment that must be replaced and rarely end in clear victory or defeat.
The economic downturn is driving much of the change within the Pentagon. Military spending has risen steadily since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

When former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived at the Pentagon in 2001, the Defense Department budget was $291.1 billion, or $357.72 billion in today's dollars. The current budget is $708 billion for defense costs and funding the wars.

Pentagon planners say budget cuts are inevitable, and that the change in strategy will help make them.

"We now have to figure out what works. We used to have a practically unlimited budget. Not anymore," said a senior military officer, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly. "There is no more room to experiment."

After most major conflicts in U.S. history, defense spending has dropped to prewar levels within two years, accounting for inflation, said James Quinlivan, a military analyst at the RAND Corp. The ends of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't likely to make spending drop that quickly, Quinlivan said

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/12/94058/pentagon-rethinking-value-of-major.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0nqSJ2kFe



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/12/94058/pentagon-rethinking-value-of-major.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0nqRxhbg0

Oil spill: Altered diagrams don't match device

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/12/94067/oil-spill-bp-had-wrong-diagram.html#ixzz0nqLtvp9G

This is unforgivable,people died because of this, let alone the economic repercussions as well as environmental, to the coast and it to can be attributed to concern for non projected cost overrun, rather than human or environmental safety.
Because it all about the profit on the bottom line.
And it only takes paying a fine to make your mistakes go away.


WASHINGTON — In the days after an oil well spun out of control in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers tried to activate a huge piece of underwater safety equipment but failed because the device had been so altered that diagrams BP got from the equipment's owner didn't match the supposedly failsafe device's configuration, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

Beware of the unintended consequences of Wall Street reform

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/


Sometimes "The Cancer" has to be cut out, because just taking "the drugs" won't fix it.
In the case of Wall Street, "The drugs" are only effective in mildly retarding "The Cancers" growth.
"The Cancer" lives and still grows because of the corrupt system that houses it.
It lives within the bone marrow of the world's governments, hidden by the skin, that only shows the Corporate melanoma.
Right now, whats happening with reform, will only serve as Chemo to eradicate the "skin cancer", without a complete "bone marrow transplant" in "completely sterile conditions" "the Cancer" no matter what we do, will continue to thrive.

In light of last week's 'flash crash', the European debt crisis, and the ongoing battle over U.S. financial regulation reform, policymakers around the world have found no shortage of ‘solutions’ for fixing the market and global capitalism.

“I'm concerned about free market capitalism, continuing to be free market capitalism, if we can even say that still exists anymore,” says Todd Harrison, CEO and founder of Minyanville.com.

Prosecutors Ask if 8 Banks Duped Rating Agencies

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Prosecutors-Ask-if-8-Banks-nytimes-782041221.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

The investigation angle should be: Who's on whose Family Tree.
Who owns or has controlling interest in the ratings agencies should be the number 1 priority question here.
I know it's mine.
And while we're at it, where else do the brances of those Family Trees extend to?
The starting point should be the FED!

The New York attorney general has started an investigation of eight banks to determine whether they provided misleading information to rating agencies in order to inflate the grades of certain mortgage securities, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

The investigation parallels federal inquiries into the business practices of a broad range of financial companies in the years before the collapse of the housing market.

Where those investigations have focused on interactions between the banks and their clients who bought mortgage securities, this one expands the scope of scrutiny to the interplay between banks and the agencies that rate their securities

Huge, Ongoing Wall Street Subsidy Allows Banks to Coin Money Every Day at Savers' Expense

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/huge-ongoing-wall-street-subsidy-allows-banks-to-coin-money-every-day-at-savers'-expense-485282.html?tickers=xlf,%5Edji,%5Egspc,gs,jpm,bac,c&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=

Who's your DADDY and takes care of your every need.
Nice scam that Hank Paulson put into place isn't it? Remember him? The Treasury Secretary that came handpicked from Goldman Sachs.
Now just how convienent was that for the banks, to have someone who understood and could supply the fix for their special needs?

The latest quarterly reports from the big Wall Street banks revealed a startling fact: None of the big four banks had a single day in the quarter in which they lost money trading.

For the 63 straight trading days in Q1, in other words, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup made money trading for their own accounts.


But these days, trading isn't risky at all. In fact, it's safer than walking down the street.

Why?

Because the US government is lending money to the big banks at near-zero interest rates. And the banks are then turning around and lending that money back to the US government at 3%-4% interest rates, making 3%+ on the spread. What's more, the banks are leveraging this trade, borrowing at least $10 for every $1 of equity capital they have, to increase the size of their bets. Which means the banks can turn relatively small amounts of equity into huge profits--by borrowing from the taxpayer and then lending back to the taxpayer.

Why is the US government still lending banks money at near-zero interest rates? Ostensibly, for the same reason that the government bailed out the banks in the first place: So the banks will lend money to small businesses, big businesses, and other participants in the "real economy."

But the banks aren't lending money to the real economy: Private sector lending has fallen off a cliff.

Transocean Petitions to Limit Liability in Gulf Rig Blast

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635204575241852606380696.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

God forbid that those 11 people's family should be compensated for their death without a fight.
Greed kills but it also maims.



By MARK LONG And ANGEL GONZALEZ
Transocean Ltd., the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that burned and sank last month unleashing a massive oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico, Thursday filed in federal court a petition to limit its liability to just under $27 million.

..The world's biggest offshore driller filed the request in the U.S. District Court in Houston under a century-and-a-half-old law that allowed the Titanic's owners to limit their liability following that ship's 1912 sinking. While Transocean may not succeed in limiting its financial liability, the filing could give the company an edge in what could be a lengthy, multipronged legal battle against claims for damages from the accident that killed 11 workers.

Under the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, a vessel owner is liable only for the post-accident value of the vessel and cargo, so long as the owner can show he or she had no knowledge of negligence in the accident, maritime lawyers say.

The law was created in the days before modern insurance and communications technology, to help U.S. shipping businesses compete against foreign ship owners who were protected against claims. Drilling rigs count as vessels under U.S. maritime law, and since "the remains of the … Deepwater Horizon now lay sunken" about a mile deep in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the value of the rig and its cargo comes to no more than $26,764,083, Transocean claims in the filing. Before the accident, the rig was worth around $650 million.

Wall Street Probe Widens

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704247904575240783937399958.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop#articleTabs%3Dcomments

This has become one serious case of head lice. The banks and the rating agencies are actually only the nits, and if you treated them and got rid of them the problem would still continue on, because you have killed the lice that lays the nits.
Those lice can be found running through the hair of our government.
People like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, they're the ones that catered to the banks, serving up everything and anything that the banks lobbied them for.
Lobbying paid for the removal of Glass Steagall. Glass Steagall was the safety belt that insured that the financial monstrosity that we face now could never have happened.
But the "big bucks" and political party greed overrode the common sense of the safety belt and we are now crippled from a crash that never should have occurred

Federal prosecutors, working with securities regulators, are conducting a preliminary criminal probe into whether several major Wall Street banks misled investors about their roles in mortgage-bond deals, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The banks under early-stage criminal scrutiny—J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG—have also received civil subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a sweeping investigation of banks' selling and trading of mortgage-related deals, the person says. Under similar preliminary criminal scrutiny are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, as previously reported by The Wall Street

Red Flags Were Ignored Aboard Doomed Rig

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703339304575240210545113710.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_business

They knew they had a problem and proceeded anyway, because to have fixed it would have realized a cost overrun of 5-10 million dollars. God forbide that should happen right?
Greed kills my friends.

At 5 p.m., workers ran another key test called a negative pressure test, used to determine if the well had been properly cemented, according to testimony given to the committee by BP executive James Dupree and cited by committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.).

The pressure in the well was lowered to see if gas could enter. Test results were at best "inconclusive" and at worst "not satisfactory," Mr. Dupree, the BP Senior Vice President for the Gulf of Mexico, said, according Mr. Waxman. It appeared the cement job hadn't sealed off the well and a gaseous mixture was leaking into it, Mr. Waxman said Mr. Dupree said.

A second test was run. Mr. Dupree said its results could indicate that natural gas was building up inside the well, according to Mr. Waxman.

At 8 p.m., less than two hours before the blast, BP officials decided that additional tests "justified ending the test and proceeding," Mr. Waxman said, attributing this information to a communication from a BP lawyer. The congressman said information reviewed by his committee "describes an internal debate between Transocean and BP personnel about how to proceed


.This would have taken a week to 10 days, says one industry veteran. Between the cost of hiring the rig and the subcontractors, this maneuver could have cost BP $5 million to $10 million, according to industry estimates.

This extra work, however, wasn't pursued. Instead, BP forged ahead. A worker on the rig said the crews would usually set a final cement plug and then remove the remaining mud. He said BP called the federal Minerals Management Service to request clearance to take out the mud. BP's Mr. McKay said he wasn't aware of any such call.

Florida braces for oil spill impact

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.4090f16a5abf84c5a5adff0665cbc792.991&show_article=1

And forethought was a good thing

"This has the potential to be the largest single environmental and economic disaster in the history of Florida."

British Petroleum has pledged 25 million dollars in advance to Florida to try to step up the response to the disaster.

Gov. Patterson's priorities

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gov_furlough_raises_hell_by_boosting_w6v3K6wFAWNq9rXgAIwHbN

And the stupidity carries on.


Gov. Paterson has granted stunning pay raises of up to 29 percent to several key aides — even as he slaps furloughs on 100,000 state workers, and his lieutenant governor threatens layoffs. The shocking move by the lame-duck governor involves five members of his embattled press office, whose two top-ranking members abruptly resigned earlier this year amid what they privately called misleading statements made by the governor.

The double-digit pay hikes, granted within the past 10 days, were first disclosed by Albany TV station CBS6 late yesterday -- just hours after public employee unions went to federal court seeking a temporary restraining order against Paterson's unprecedented move to force half the state workforce off the payroll one day a week for the next nine weeks.


Gov. Paterson
"It's a slap in the face to state employees who have had their raise delayed and are threatened with the loss of another 20 percent pay per week through the furloughs," said Public Employees Federation spokeswoman Darcy Wells.

"Whatever happened to shared sacrifice?"


The furlough plan, designed to save $250 million, is part of the governor's overall proposal to close a looming $9.2 billion deficit for the current fiscal year -- a problem making the new raises even more difficult to fathom.

Among those receiving hikes are press officer Jessica Bassett, whose pay jumped to $75,000 annually from $65,000 (15 percent), Margaret-Kelly McKeon, executive assistant, up to $75,000 from $65,000 (15 percent), Elizabeth Banner, confidential secretary, to $60,000 from $55,000 (9 percent), press officer Anna Adams-Sarthou, to $45,000 from $35,000 (29 percent) and press assistant Melanie Hartgraves, to $45,000 from $38,000 (18 percent).

Paterson's $150,000-a-year communications director, Morgan Hook called the raises "promotions





Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gov_furlough_raises_hell_by_boosting_w6v3K6wFAWNq9rXgAIwHbN#ixzz0nkEer75Z

It's positive to question
And it's negative to not
And with that tip on my lip
Here's one that I got
Yo Yo homie
Who's your decorator
In the place that offers more
No side B seen by me
Do you know what fun is for

States: Let taxpayers cover your mortgage

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/12/news/economy/taxpayer_mortgages/index.htm



Unemployed? Owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth? Your state might one day pay your mortgage.

Giving people free money to cover their home loans is just one of the radical ways that four states -- Florida, Michigan, California and Arizona -- plan to use $1.4 billion the Obama administration is sending their way to help the unemployed and underwater avoid foreclosure.


The federal government is doling out a total of $2.1 billion to 10 states, which also include Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Ohio and Oregon. The others have not yet submitted their plans to Treasury for approval or have not made them public.

Dylan Ratigan on the IMF-EU Bailout

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37070441#37070441


Dylan wants to know WHY!

U.S. Climate Bill Would Expand Offshore Drilling, Cut Emissions

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-12/u-s-climate-bill-would-expand-offshore-drilling-cut-emissions.html

A market for pollution rights. Lol that just strikes me as hilarious, it's a good thing the government owns the pollution rights for both wars, because those emission fees would be beyond the maximum right about now.
Who's going to do the governments dealing for them?
Why the banks are of course and they stand to make a tidy little profit while doing so I'm sure, as well as s few of the Senators to (they're allowed to legally trade on insider info you know)

The bill by Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman tries to remake the nation’s energy sector amid lawmaker anger over the growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. It would give coastal states 37.5 percent of the drilling revenue and the authority to block production within 75 miles of shore, according to a summary obtained yesterday.

“It’s a long, tough fight,” Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said yesterday. “We’re going to do the best we can.”

The legislation aims to meet the emissions goal by creating a market for pollution rights and setting maximum and minimum prices for government-issued pollution allowances.

4 Big Banks Score Perfect 61-Day Run

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/business/12bank.html?src=mv

Wow what are the odds of this happening to 1 bank let alone 4.
Lol, glad you asked because Karl has done a little of that odd figuring for us.
And his findings are rather odd to say the least, and throw an enormous spotlight
on what it takes to beat those odds.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2305-More-On-Goldmans-Perfect-Record.html

It is the Wall Street equivalent of a perfect game of baseball — 27 up, 27 down, the final score measured in millions of dollars a day.

Despite the running unease in world markets, four giants of American finance managed to make money from trading every single day during the first three months of the year.

Their remarkable 61-day streak is one for the record books. Perfect trading quarters on Wall Street are about as rare as perfect games in Major League Baseball. On Sunday, Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics pitched what was only the 19th perfect game in baseball history.

But Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Company produced the equivalent of four perfect games during the first quarter. Each one finished the period without losing money for even one day.

Germany 'might have to foot entire euro aid bill'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7710001/Germany-might-have-to-foot-entire-euro-aid-bill.html

Well not the entire bill Germany, the American taxpayer is making a very large contribution through the IMF, and I heard that that figure just got even larger since England said they refused.
And yes you are apt to be held responsible for the entire European sum, because lets face it, it's not logical to expect any of the piigs to be able to come up with their share, since they are the prevailing reason at this point, for the needed bailout.

Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) said on Tuesday they had not decided whether to support a European rescue package for the euro, and warned the country could end up footing the entire cost of the bill.

The package - 440billion euros in guarantees from euro states plus 60billion euros in a European stabilisation fund - includes some 123billion in loan guarantees from Germany, a German government source said on Tuesday.

SPD parliamentary whip Thomas Oppermann told ARD television there were still too many open questions about the plan, which parliament is due to begin debating next week.

"What happens if other countries who get aid from the package drop out? Will the German share increase then?" he said.

The government has said the German share could rise because not all EU member states would have the means to participate.

"In the worst case scenario, the Germans may have to guarantee the 440billion euros alone, and we won't be able to do that," added Oppermann

"We are Europe's fools again!" Germany's biggest selling daily, Bild, said on its front page on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, hedge funds, banks and speculators could do what they wanted on financial markets, Oppermann said.

"A substantial participation of the banks and hedge funds in the costs of the crisis must be arranged," he said.

"Today we'll probably just see a simple authorisation of credit again

EU finance ministers said the International Monetary Fund was expected to contribute 250billion euros to the package, taking the total to 750billion euros, about £642billion

Salary dispute holds up "Twilight 5" announcement

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/entertainment/2010-05/11/content_9836462.htm

Yeah I know not my usual, but I had to just to show you how much
Greed kills.
The "little kid" is now the big 13 and this is her scene. She's read them all, seen the movies and bought the videos and I can tell you for a fact it is not because of the main characters. She is fanatical about the secondaries, should the studio choose to decide not to include them in the new productions, I seriously doubt she will spend her hard earned cash, on what would promise for her, to be a huge disappointment.
She's just an average kid with average friends that feel the same way.
Bella is looked upon as an over emotional emo, that has to be tolerated for the sake of their viewing pleasure.
Mother's intuition tells me that if Summit Entertainment wishes the Twilight series to remain a blockbuster, they will leave the "Cullen kids" alone, and just pay the higher cost.




The studio behind the "Twilight" feature franchise is working furiously to close the talent deals required to split Stephenie Meyer's fourth novel in the vampire series into two films.

But an unlikely roadblock is holding up an announcement -- and could even lead to cast changes for the series' final installment.

Summit Entertainment is close to finalizing agreements with leads Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, all of whom will get big raises to return for a fifth installment of the vampire romance saga. And director Bill Condon is already signed to film two "Breaking Dawn" movies, which would be shot back-to-back starting in the fall and released in November 2011 and summer 2012, respectively.

But Summit is having a harder time locking in some of the franchise's secondary characters. Deals for Peter Facinelli (who plays Carlisle Cullen) and Billy Burke (Bella's father, Charlie Swan) are done, but sources say the actors who play the Cullen kids (especially Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene) are trying to sink their teeth into bigger paydays that the studio is so far unwilling to provide.

"We may have a situation where one of them is thrown out on the street to make a point," says a source close to the dealmaking.

So are we headed for a recasting on the final "Twilight"?

Federal regulators are proposing new regulations on the wireless phone industry, which would require carriers to alert consumers if they've gone over

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238160307049390.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_tech

Well Hello, here's an idea that common sense says should have been required a long time ago.
Why has it taken so long you ask? Because it's all about the bottom line and how much profit they can reap from it.


Federal regulators are proposing new regulations on the wireless phone industry, which would require carriers to alert consumers if they've gone over their monthly data or text message allotments.

Joe White has details of a new FCC proposal which would require wireless carriers to alert consumers if they've gone over their monthly data or text message allotments. Plus, e-updates for your e-readers and Boeing's new Phantom Ray drone.
.The proposal is similar to rules recently enacted in the European Union on wireless companies, which require carriers to send a text message to subscribers who are racking up roaming charges or getting close to their plan's roaming limit.

The Federal Communications Commission proposal also considers whether carriers should send real-time alerts to subscribers who are exceeding their monthly voice, data or text messaging limits.

"We've gotten hundreds of complaints about bill shock," said Joel Gurin, head of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, in a statement. He said the agency is looking at if "there's any reason that American carriers can't use similar automatic alerts to inform consumers when they are at risk of running up a high bill."

Interior Plans to Split Minerals Management Service .

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575237981485045538.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

The tiny agency pretty much says it all, they only collect. American Petroleum Industry writes the rules because it's better for their bottom line.

The Interior Department plans to split the Minerals Management Service into two divisions, one focusing on gathering royalties from oil and gas companies and another focused on safety inspections.

..The tiny agency currently plays dual roles, focusing on collecting money as well as on ensuring the safety of oil drilling in federal waters and land. Some former employees have said that amounts to a conflict-of-interest, as employees must focus on keeping oil revenue flowing while also focusing on safety.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/10/93859/us-agency-lets-oil-industry-write.html#storylink=omni_popular


The oil industry, not the federal agency that regulates it, plays a crucial role in writing the safety and environmental rules for offshore drilling, a role that critics say reflects cozy ties between an industry and its regulators that need to be snapped.

Nearly 100 industry standards set by the American Petroleum Industry are included in the nation's offshore operating regulations. The API asserts that its standards are better for the industry's bottom line and make it easier to operate offshore than if the Minerals Management Service set the rules



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/10/93859/us-agency-lets-oil-industry-write.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0neEUw5SL

Senate votes 96-0 to audit Fed

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/11/93918/96-0-vote-congress-opens-federal.html

Oh not a complete audit lol, that might actually show you why this calamity started in the first place.
The FED only wants to show you what they did to fix it because there is a built in excuse, that they had to do everything and anything to keep floating this dead fish of a financial system.
No crime here, WE just didn't know.......right lol

The Senate voted 96 to 0 Tuesday to open the secretive Federal Reserve Board's emergency lending practices to a congressional audit, as well as require a detailed disclosure of who's getting the funds.

"We are on the verge of lifting the veil of secrecy on perhaps the most important government agency in the United States of America,” said amendment sponsor Sen. Bernard Sanders, Ind.-Vt., "an agency which has control and spends trillions of dollars. They do it behind closed doors."

Under the plan, Congress' Government Accountability Office would conduct "a top to bottom audit of all the Federal Reserve's emergency activities" since the economic crisis began in December, 2007. In addition, the Fed would have to put on its web site all recipients of money from than $2 trillion in emergency aid that the Fed has dispersed since then.

The audit is the Senate's latest change to legislation that would overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system, making it easier for the government to break up ailing banks and provide a strong, independent consumer agency to help people with credit questions and problems.



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/11/93918/96-0-vote-congress-opens-federal.html#ixzz0ndxumYSM

Anti-ageing drugs 'will fuel euthanasia'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7711264/Anti-ageing-drugs-will-fuel-euthanasia.html

Oh anti-aging for the rich, all done under the guise of stopping human suffering, how convenient.


People will simply choose to end their own lives in the future, when anti-ageing drugs that could extend lifespans by many years become commonplace, according to an expert on longevity.

By Stephen Adams
Published: 3:22PM BST 11 May 2010

But birth rates might also have to be centrally controlled to cope with rising numbers of old people, Dr David Gems of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London said.

Dr Gems, who is researching ways of slowing ageing, said society faced "a strange future".


Speaking on the ethics of anti-ageing treatment at the Royal Society, he said: "If we were to live very long lives then I feel that more people would simply elect to end their own lives. That seems to be reasonable."

He argued that prolonging life with anti-ageing drugs that could delay the onset of age-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, was a moral imperative comparable to the eradication of smallpox.

"The potential for reducing suffering is absolutely immense," he said.

Anger over reality television 'virgin auction'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/7704737/Anger-over-reality-television-virgin-auction.html

This is just disgusting. It would seem anything and everything is on the table as long as it reaps a large profit.

Justin Sisley was forced to move the auction from the Australian state of Victoria to Nevada in America, after authorities said they would charge him with prostitution if the filming went ahead

The virgins will be paid $20,000 (pounds 12,000) each to take part in the auction and will also receive 90 per cent of their "sale price", according to a report in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

The remainder of the money will go to the Nevada brothel which is hosting the event.

Initial bids will be placed online, but bidders will attend the final part of the auction, coming face to face with the people whose virginity they are bidding for.

Britain must fend for itself in event of crisis, French official warns

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7710261/Britain-must-fend-for-itself-in-event-of-crisis-French-official-warns.html

Personally I just think Mr Darling is being responsible to his country.
They don't have the money to give, their own debt is eating them alive, just like ours. Mr Darling is just more concerned about his country's national debt load and refuses to pile more debt on top of it unlike the banking elite that run our country.


Jean-Pierre Jouyet said the UK would have to fend for itself if ongoing political uncertainty led to a meltdown in the financial markets.

“The English are very certainly going to be targeted given the political difficulties they have. Help yourself and heaven will help you. If you don’t want to show solidarity to the eurozone, then let’s see what happens to the United Kingdom,” he told Europe 1 radio.


Mr Jouyet, European affairs minister from 2007-2008, was clearly angered by the Chancellor Alistair Darling’s refusal to pledge funds in an attempt to protect the euro, by failing to agree to provide troubled eurozone countries with €440bn in loans or guarantees.

He said it was a clear sign of the divisions within the European Union. “There is not a two speed Europe but a three speed Europe. You have Europe of the euro, Europe of the countries that understand the euro...and you have the English,” he said.

However, Mr Darling did agree to contribute to a €60bn extension to an existing European Union facility to help those countries in particular difficulty.

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to provide a further €250bn.

US oil spill: fishermen raise alarm over chemical dispersants

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/7705333/US-oil-spill-fishermen-raise-alarm-over-chemical-dispersants.html

How much does it scare you that a trade secret is being dumped into the Gulf and we're not allowed to know just exactly what that trade secret is made of or how much damage it in itself will do to the oceanic enviroment?
The killer part is that the leaks still leak on, but don't worry they still have anothe 500,000 gallons of the trade secret to dump on it while it does.


However, LuAnn White, a toxicologist at Tulane University, noted that what is being used now "is a new generation of dispersants, but we don't know what is in them because it's a trade secret.'"

Approximately 325,000 gallons of dispersant have been deployed so far in BP's effort to break up the spreading oil slick before it hits the fragile Gulf coast, and over 500,000 gallons more are available.

Taxpayer ripoffs

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2303-See,-The-Gun-Is-Loaded!.html

So basically all the bailout for the piigs did was to give even more money to the banks, just in a roundabout way.
Yes America those are your tax dollars(you help fund the IMF)being once again just flushed down the toilet,


Let's see if I can figure out what's happened here.

1.Banks shorted the Euro, (correctly) surmising that Greece, Portugal, Spain and others can't possibly cover their debts.


2.The ECB freaks out as the Euro heads toward PAR and calls "emergency meetings" (forgetting, I might add, that the Euro traded under PAR not that long ago.)


3.The ECB and Eurozone decides to "defend" the Euro with €1t in "defensive measures", including buying bonds of bankrupt sovereigns (gee, that's nice - monetization by another name.) Since the ECB and EuroZone cognescenti is of course connected to the large banks in Europe (including France, where Sarkozy is located) these banks know to back off on Friday (notice the nice little uptick?) to lock in their bonuses from these insanely-profitable trades against their own currency.


4.The very same banks, including the ones in Sarkozy's back yard, see the very nice spike and short the Euro even harder, (correctly) surmising that they have successfully stuck the gun up the nose of the ECB!
Rinse and repeat until you have all the money.

Naw, it wouldn't be that simple, would it? Why of course it would.

See, lending someone money when they're bankrupt can't possibly make them not-bankrupt. It can only make them more-bankrupt. As a consequence the ECB's action is self-destructive and doomed to fail, and as a consequence there is no reason for these banks to back off at all! Indeed, quite to the contrary - they have (correctly) deduced that they can make billion in bonuses by shorting their own currency to destruction, forcing ever-larger "interventions" by the ECB!

World Health Organization Moving Ahead on Billions in Internet and Other Taxes

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/10/world-health-organization-moving-ahead-billion-dollar-internet-tax/

The WHO wants more money. This is getting to be a major trend, giving more money and power to organizations that can't manage the load that they already have. Note how the world's taxpayers must once again foot the bill.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations' public health arm, is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online — while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray.

The aim of its taxing plans is to raise "tens of billions" of dollars for WHO that would be used to radically reorganize the research, development, production and distribution of medicines around the world, with greater emphasis on drugs for communicable diseases in poor countries.

The irony is that the WHO push to take a huge bite out of global consumers comes as the organization is having a management crisis of its own, juggling finances, failing to use its current resources efficiently, or keep its costs under control — and it doesn't expect to show positive results in managing those challenges until a year from now, at the earliest.

Fox News initially reported last January on the "suite of proposals" for "new and innovative sources of funding," prepared by a 25-member panel of medical experts, academics and health care bureaucrats, when it was presented of a meeting of WHO's 34-member Executive Board in Geneva.

Now the proposals are headed for the four-day annual meeting of the 193-member World Health Assembly, WHO's chief legislative organ, which begins in Geneva on May 17.

The Health Assembly, a medical version of the United Nations General Assembly, will be invited to "take note" of the experts' report. It will then head back with that passive endorsement to another Executive Board meeting, which begins May 22, for further action. It is the Executive Board that will "give effect" to the Assembly's decisions.

What it all means is that a major lobbying effort could soon be underway to convince rich governments in particular to begin taxing citizens or industries to finance a drastic restructuring of medical research and development on behalf of poorer ones.

The scheme would leave WHO in the middle, helping to manage a "global health research and innovation coordination and funding mechanism," as the experts' report calls it.

France, Germany Forced Greece to Buy Arms: MEP

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4616433&c=EUR&s=TOP

This is what your footing the bill for America,....more WAR toys.
Between paying for "the banks" and the "Military Industrial Complex" for every other country plus our own, have drained the coffers dry, and yet they still pledge more support.
Where is the extra money coming from this time?

France and Germany, while publicly urging Greece to make harsh public spending cuts, bullied its government to confirm billions of euros in arms deals, a leading Euro-MP alleged Friday.

Franco-German lawmaker Daniel Cohn-Bendit said that Paris and Berlin are seeking to force Prime Minister George Papandreou to spend Greece's scarce cash on submarines, a fleet of warships, helicopters and war planes.

"In the past three months we have forced Greece to confirm several billion dollars in arms contracts. French frigates that the Greeks will have to buy for 2.5 billion euros. Helicopters, planes, German submarines."

Despite its economic woes, which recently deepened spectacularly when its credit rating was downgraded, Greece is one of Europe's biggest arms buyers, seeking to keep pace with its regional rival Turkey

License to frustrate: Get-tough ID policies could snag all Floridians

http://southflorida.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-immigration-mayocol-b050810-20100507,0,7845754.column



No matter how you feel about illegal immigration, and no matter how much we want to protect ourselves from terrorism, the hellish bureaucratic scenes now unfolding at DMV offices across South Florida serve as a reminder: Be careful what you wish for.

Outside the Fort Lauderdale branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles on Thursday, I found a hot and bothered group snaked in line around a dismal strip mall. They clutched birth certificates, passports, citizenship diplomas, Social Security cards, paystubs, FPL bills, phone bills and bank statements.

All to get a driver's license.

"This is my fifth trip," said Rita Miller, whose purse was stolen last month.


"There's still going to be illegal immigrants and terrorists," said Scott Salberg. "They're just not going to come here to get a driver's license."

Said Paul Sendles, a British expatriate with a U.S. green card: "What's next? Are we going to have to give fingerprints to get a license?"

Many Floridians have been caught off-guard by a new law with strict documentation requirements that went into effect Jan. 1.

If you want to get a driver's license — including renewals and replacements for lost and stolen licenses — you pretty much have to show up in person at a DMV office and bring everything but your first born.

When the Global Debt Shuffle Hits Home

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109504/when-the-global-debt-shuffle-hits-home?mod=bb-budgeting&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=



It took the Dow Jones Industrial Average 62 long, grinding years to close above 582.69 for the first time. On Thursday, the Dow (NYSE: ^DJI - News) plunged by 582.69 points in less than 420 seconds.

The market's terrifying drop was more than a technical trading glitch. It was a warning that the U.S. economy is playing a dangerous game. After all the massive bailouts, the federal debt is exploding.

Overall U.S. government debt now stands at 92.6% of projected 2010 gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The U.S. now has a heavier debt burden than several of the overleveraged countries that have been branded with the scornful nickname "the PIIGS." Portugal's debt, according to the IMF, is 85.9% of its GDP; Ireland's, 78.8%; Italy, 118.6%; Greece, 124.1%; Spain, 66.9%. Perhaps there should be a new acronym, with the U.S. added to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain: "PIG IS U.S."

Bernanke lies....... again

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2297-Bernanke-Liar-Again.html

And just when you haven't gotten over our own bank bailouts along comes Europe.



In response to the re-emergence of strains in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets in Europe, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank are announcing the re-establishment of temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap facilities.

There's been no "strain" in dollar funding markets.

There has been an extreme level of strain in Euro funding markets.

But see, the Europeans just announced they're going to use an SPV - that is, a secret off-balance sheet funding vehicle with over €400 billion in it.

Who's going to provide the €400 billion? The Fed? (Yes, I know what the Euro folks said. Now how about some transparency? You see, I trust them as much as I trust OUR political and banksters - that is, not at all.)

With what authority does Bernanke effectively appropriate?

Was there an appropriation bill that I seem to have missed by Congress? Or has Bernanke, once again, decided on a unitary basis to entirely ignore the US Constitution?

And furthermore, if he has, will Congress stand for it?

We're going to bail out European banks now, right? US banks weren't enough. Oh wait - we did European banks in 2008 too, didn't we?

Uh, exactly how many taxpayer dollars from US Citizens is The Fed going to give to European banks this time?

Federal Reserve opens credit line to Europe

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100510/ap_on_bi_ge/us_europe_financial_crisis_fed

Didn't ya just know this was going to happen.



The Federal Reserve late Sunday opened a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe in a move to head off a broader financial crisis on the continent.

Other central banks, including the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, are also involved in the effort

The Greek spirit of resistance turns its guns on the IMF

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/09/greece-debt-crisis-euro-imf




"This has gone beyond economic matters to a battle for national independence," says Manolis Glezos, the leftist who shot to fame snatching the swastika from the Acropolis shortly after Hitler's forces streamed into Athens in 1941.

"Papandreou himself has admitted we had no say in the economic measures thrust upon us. They were decided by the EU and IMF. We are now under foreign supervision and that raises questions about our economic, military and political independence."

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein survives shareholder revolt but faces calls to stand down

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274691/CEO-Lloyd-Blankfein-faces-calls-stand-Goldman-Sachs-shareholders-meeting.html



The boss of Goldman Sachs last night survived a shareholder revolt but faced furious calls for him to quit at a fiery investors' meeting.
They demanded that Lloyd Blankfein should fall on his sword because he had let the Wall Street giant ‘go to pieces’ over its handling of toxic sub-prime mortgages on its books.

He faced a bid to strip him of his powers and a no-confidence vote at the annual shareholders’ meeting, but won it after admitting the company needed to embark on a period of ‘rigorous self-examination’.

A further woman investor added from the floor: ‘The enormous bonuses have contributed to a culture of greed that is bad for our company, greed that is bad for shareholders and for the broader public interest.’



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274691/CEO-Lloyd-Blankfein-faces-calls-stand-Goldman-Sachs-shareholders-meeting.html#ixzz0nJPw0hAJ

Fannie, Freddie ire over payments to Treasury

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/96053-payments-burden-fannie-freddie

Really does this even make sense?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac see the billions in dividends they must pay annually to the Treasury Department as a significant burden that cripples any hope they have of returning to profitability.

A strict lobbying ban prevents Fannie and Freddie from airing much of a critique of the agreement, but it is clear from their annual reports that they think the dividend payments are unfair.


The $7.6 billion Fannie will pay in dividends “exceeds our reported annual net income for all but one of the last eight years, in most cases by a significant margin,” Fannie Mae said in its 10K report issued in February.

“The amounts we are obligated to pay in dividends on the senior preferred stock are substantial and will have an adverse impact on our financial position and net worth and could substantially delay our return to long-term profitability or make long-term profitability unlikely,” Freddie’s annual report says.

That either company would even be thinking about profitability might come as a surprise to some.

The two government-sponsored mortgage enterprises at the center of the housing and financial crisis are in conservatorship and heavily indebted to the government. People still hold publicly traded stock in the companies, but the shares are worth little. Both were trading at a little more than $1 on Tuesday.

The dividend payments were set up in 2008 when the George W. Bush administration’s Treasury provided a $100 billion backstop to ensure the companies remained solvent. The backstop was increased to $200 billion by the Obama administration in 2009.

In exchange, the administration received senior preferred stock from the two companies that pays an annual 10 percent dividend in cash, or 12 percent in stock.

The two companies have drawn down a total of $126.9 billion from the Treasury.

The dividend payments add to Fannie and Freddie’s debt, giving the exchanges a peculiar circular nature. Fannie and Freddie are essentially paying money to the government from money the government loans to the two companies.

GOP continues effort to thwart EU bailouts

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/96571-gop-continues-its-effort-to-thwart-eu-bailouts

Don't hold your breath on that position is all I can say Cathy. I guess you didn't look at pg 159 or 160.

You wanna see the details behind Bank America's (BAC) exposure to Europe and the emerging markets? If you do, "turn" to page 159 & 160.
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/todd-harrison-finance-markets-wall-street/5/7/2010/id/28187?camp=syndication&from=yahoo


Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash), vice chair of the House Republican Conference, on Thursday said the Dow losing approximately 348 points should signal the Obama administration that the Greece bailout will not help to restore the market.

"The market downturn supports the argument of bailout opponents that investors don't have confidence that the Greek bailout deal will work," she said in prepared remarks.

Rodgers and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) also sent a letter to Vice President Joseph Biden urging him to oppose a potential bailout of Spain, which appears to be teetering toward financial crisis.

"Should Spain request a bailout from the IMF, we urge you to make it clear that the U.S. will oppose such a bailout, and do all in its power as the IMF's leading contributor to reject putting American money further at risk," they wrote. "The U.S. did not implement the policies that have caused Spain's debt issue and the U.S. taxpayer should not be put at risk to bail them out."

The lawmakers have already sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner calling on him to oppose the $145 billion bailout of Greece, as well as future European bailouts.

FED offers loans to businesses hurt by oil spill

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/06/1616599/feds-to-offer-loans-to-businesses.html

And the beat goes on.
Banks making more profit off of the interests of disaster.
It would seem that interest profit stands in for the the soul of America's heartbeat


Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills announced Thursday that her agency was establishing emergency loan operations in 13 Louisiana parishes and in two contiguous counties.

Fisherman and watermen who stand to lose their livelihoods because of the spill and the fishing ban in the Gulf Coast region can seek loans of up to $2 million with a 4 percent increase, with payment terms extending up to 30 years



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/06/1616599/feds-to-offer-loans-to-businesses.html#ixzz0nGBRkpiy

Oil Regulator Ceded Oversight to Drillers

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704370704575228512237747070.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

Self regulation and you just thought that was a banking thing lol.

The small U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling doesn't write or implement most safety regulations, having gradually shifted such responsibilities to the oil industry itself for more than a decade.

Instead, the Minerals Management Service—now caught up in the crisis of the Deepwater Horizon rig that for weeks has sent crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico—sets broad performance goals for the industry. Oil producers and drilling companies are then free to decide for themselves how to meet those goals, industry executives and former regulators say.


A Wall Street Journal examination of the MMS's track record found several instances of the agency identifying potential safety problems and then either not requiring follow-up or relying on the industry to craft a solution. In some cases, the industry didn't do its part.

The Journal also found that the safety record of U.S. offshore drilling compares unfavorably, in terms of deaths and serious accidents, to other major oil-producing countries

Mr.President: UNPLUG THE F-ING COMPUTERS

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

Remember the movie "War Games"?
"SHaLL we PLAY A GAME?"
THERMAL NULCLEAR WARFARE
Those freaky launch strike screens come to mind.
Yeah sick association I know, but if you think about all those "stop sets" going off as a nuclear launch in someones life, you can see how I got that picture.
The games rigged people and today shows you just how rigged it is.
Karl says you have no recourse.
My mind says BULLSHIT.
This was HUMAN ERROR, who the hell was running the programs?

high-frequency trading and direct-exchange connected computers

The DOW (and other indices) dropped hard. The response in the computers connected directly to the exchanges was instantaneous and produced this:



A computer-driven bid collapse followed and the result was a more than 1,000 point selloff.

I'd be suing somebodies asses BIGTIME. This kind of thing ain't no different than the Honda thing. It's time to MAN up (now that corporations are equal to a human entity), they need to own up to the financial harm that they imposed upon others through there insatiable need to feed their greed.
The buck stops WHERE?

This sort of thing has to be stopped.

This was not humans - it was pure computer algorithm trading. If you had stops set, you got blown out way below any reasonable trading range with no recourse. Margin requirements were raised instantly on futures which sure didn't help.

This was essentially the 1987 program-trading crash powered by the fastest CPUs money can buy, and points out that these systems do not have social utility and at times like this they are unbelievably destructive.

The banks and others who have argued for innovation have just proved once again that their brand of "innovation" means that the average investor gets bent over the table. You cannot, as an investor, be in the market until these outrageous practices are permanently barred from the exchanges.

I was on the right side of the destruction today, but I could have very easily been on the wrong side and gotten badly hurt. As it stands I'm quite certain there were tens of thousands of individual traders who went so far into negative equity in the futures market and got immediately liquidated that we will be hearing of blown up accounts and bankrupted traders for weeks if not months.

To those who say that we have "restored confidence" in the markets and "the worst is beyond us", I want everyone to remember very carefully the early 2007 market collapse that originated in Asia and came over here - the event that began my writing of The Ticker.

When governments tamper with markets as has been done over the last year and change to the point that true liquidity leaves and is replaced by computer-driven volume, this is what happens as there is NO UNDERLYING BID.

VOLUME IS NOT LIQUIDITY. Liquidity creates volume but not the other way around. We have deluded ourselves into believing that a handful of major banks passing shares between each other funded with zero percent loans equals "liquidity."

US to announce Mexico trucking plan soon-LaHood

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0626694320100506



President Barack Obama's adminstration will soon announce its plan to reopen the U.S. border to Mexican trucks and end a dispute that prompted Mexico to slap duties last year on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. goods, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

Bernanke Warns Against Move to Audit Fed

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704370704575228164133105390.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection



Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sought Thursday to head off legislation that would subject the central bank's monetary policy decisions to congressional audits, warning it could stoke inflation and threaten economic stability.

With U.S. senators moving toward a possible vote later in the day on an amendment to the financial regulatory bill that would significantly increase congressional oversight of the Fed, Mr. Bernanke warned of the consequences in a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.).

"Such amendments, if enacted, would seriously threaten monetary policy independence, increase inflation fears and market interest rates, and damage economic stability and job creation," Mr. Bernanke wrote.

In the past few days, Mr. Bernanke has reached out to about a half-dozen lawmakers to help make the Fed's case against the bill.


..If the amendment passes, it might be hard to strip from the broader legislation. The House's version of the bill, which passed late last year, contains a similar provision, which Mr. Bernanke also opposes. Passage would set up a dilemma for the White House, which would have to decide whether to veto a top domestic priority to duck the provision.

Banks Hemorrhage Cash With Cards Wanting to Be American Express

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=alqIrcJYUnP8

How for the cost of 400 jobs, changed the course of our lives

-- William “Wild Bill” Janklow’s law office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is crowded with mementos from his 16 years as a Republican governor. On a low, wooden bookcase, near bottles of hot sauce custom labeled for his annual Buffalo Roundup, he keeps a 4-foot length of red ribbon festooned with Citibank credit cards.

Janklow is the politician who, in 1981, brought Citibank to South Dakota. When he cut that ribbon to welcome the New York- based bank, he blew the lid off the U.S. credit card business, Bloomberg Markets reports in its June Issue.

The law inviting Citibank to South Dakota threw out limits on how much interest the state’s banks could charge borrowers -- rules known as usury caps.

“Citi wanted the invitation, and they knew what we were doing with rates,” Janklow says. In a secret meeting at the governor’s residence with Walter Wriston, chief executive officer of Citicorp, the bank’s parent, Janklow agreed to drive through the legislation in a swap for 400 jobs.

“That was the deal,” Janklow says. “You have no idea, in a state of 750,000, how many 400 jobs is, all in one place.”

The business Janklow and Wriston set in motion with a handshake that evening transformed U.S. consumer lending. Once interest rates were allowed to rise as high as banks could push them, credit cards became a ticket to enormous profit. In the decade ended on Dec. 31, 2007, credit card issuers together earned more than $50 billion, mostly on the difference between their own cost of money and consumer rates of as much as 30 percent. So-called subprime lenders pitched rates as high as 80 percent. At JPMorgan Chase & Co., cards accounted for 20 percent of both revenue and profits in 2007.

Profit Driver