http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/29/96779/goldman-admits-it-had-bigger-role.html#ixzz0sMNx7tIe
Oh what the heck it's only a case of perjury, if we can overlook money laundering for the Mexican drug cartels, this shouldn't even register on the attention scale.
Reversing its oft-repeated position that it was acting only on behalf of its clients in its exotic dealings with the American International Group, Goldman Sachs now says that it also used its own money to make secret wagers against the U.S. housing market.
A senior Goldman executive disclosed the "bilateral" wagers on subprime mortgages in an interview with McClatchy, marking the first time that the Wall Street titan has conceded that its dealings with troubled insurer AIG went far beyond acting as an "intermediary" responding to its clients' demands
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/29/96779/goldman-admits-it-had-bigger-role.html#ixzz0sOz7cnkO
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
BP disaster response plan didn't include hurricanes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/bp-oil-spill-cleanup-did_n_630859.html
No hurricane disaster plan
Somehow I'm not surprised
Common sense says one was required
So how many other offshore drilling companies haven't got one either since it doesn't seem to be a requirement in obtaining a drilling permit?
Rep. Edward Markey says BP's disaster response plan for an oil spill doesn't mention hurricanes or tropical storms.
Markey says the omission is yet another example of what the oil giant was not prepared to handle.
No hurricane disaster plan
Somehow I'm not surprised
Common sense says one was required
So how many other offshore drilling companies haven't got one either since it doesn't seem to be a requirement in obtaining a drilling permit?
Rep. Edward Markey says BP's disaster response plan for an oil spill doesn't mention hurricanes or tropical storms.
Markey says the omission is yet another example of what the oil giant was not prepared to handle.
Oil spill visits get partisan
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html
So now not even government is allowed to see the Gulf damage?
This is gettin a little freaky kids.
I don't accept the excuse that it's denied over travel funding, that's about as bogus as they come.
How many people went to Copernhagen last year? How many people does Obama travel with?
Nancy still has access to her private plane as far as I know, but now they can't find money so Congress can go and view the damage from the offshore oil well blowout themselves.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.
House Democrats said no.
Scalise’s trip was rejected for a variety of bureaucratic and logistical reasons, but it has also opened a new vein of partisan squabbling over who should be allowed to arrange a trip to view the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Scalise wants to organize a trip so lawmakers can fully grasp the impact before they vote on oil drilling regulations. And he doesn't want to do it through a committee, because the members don't fit neatly into specific panels — they stretch across committee, and even partisan, lines.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html#ixzz0sMEwld2W
So now not even government is allowed to see the Gulf damage?
This is gettin a little freaky kids.
I don't accept the excuse that it's denied over travel funding, that's about as bogus as they come.
How many people went to Copernhagen last year? How many people does Obama travel with?
Nancy still has access to her private plane as far as I know, but now they can't find money so Congress can go and view the damage from the offshore oil well blowout themselves.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) wanted to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the damage caused by BP’s gigantic oil spill first hand.
House Democrats said no.
Scalise’s trip was rejected for a variety of bureaucratic and logistical reasons, but it has also opened a new vein of partisan squabbling over who should be allowed to arrange a trip to view the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Scalise wants to organize a trip so lawmakers can fully grasp the impact before they vote on oil drilling regulations. And he doesn't want to do it through a committee, because the members don't fit neatly into specific panels — they stretch across committee, and even partisan, lines.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39225.html#ixzz0sMEwld2W
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
US accepts Gulf oil spill aid from 12 countries
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_accepts_Gulf_oil_spill_aid_from__06292010.html
The United States will accept offers from 12 foreign countries to help clean up and contain the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said on Tuesday.
"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," a US State Department statement said.
"We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance," it said, adding that details would be "forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."
Offers of boom to contain oil and collect it off the surface of the water have been accepted from Canada, Mexico, Norway and Japan, said a spokeswoman from the Unified Area Command, an entity headed by the US Coast Guard that is coordinating with BP on the oil spill response.
Skimmers have been accepted from Mexico, Norway, France and Japan and a sweeping arm system has been accepted from the Netherlands, spokeswoman Gina Ruoti told AFP.
Non-material offers of assistance are coming from the European Union and International Maritime Organization, she added, but was unable to say how much the assistance would be.
A total of 27 countries have offered assistance to the US
The United States will accept offers from 12 foreign countries to help clean up and contain the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said on Tuesday.
"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," a US State Department statement said.
"We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance," it said, adding that details would be "forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."
Offers of boom to contain oil and collect it off the surface of the water have been accepted from Canada, Mexico, Norway and Japan, said a spokeswoman from the Unified Area Command, an entity headed by the US Coast Guard that is coordinating with BP on the oil spill response.
Skimmers have been accepted from Mexico, Norway, France and Japan and a sweeping arm system has been accepted from the Netherlands, spokeswoman Gina Ruoti told AFP.
Non-material offers of assistance are coming from the European Union and International Maritime Organization, she added, but was unable to say how much the assistance would be.
A total of 27 countries have offered assistance to the US
How to run drug money? Be a large bank
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2460-How-To-Run-Drug-Money-Be-A-Large-Bank.html
This goes against everything that the government has stood for in "THE WAR ON DRUGS".
How much over the decades has it cost the taxpayer to fund that war?
How many prisons had to be built for people sentenced to incarceration for the simple act of being caught in the purchase or the selling of drugs?
Enormous amounts of money have been poured in to fight this so called war, which in itself amounts to a veritable feast for the "Large Banks". They make out all the way around.
What's a little blood on the border when it means so much for "The Banks" circle of life?
WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN COPS AND WHY DO WE AS AMERICANS SIT STILL FOR THIS CRAP?
Oh, so the banks don't just bilk investors and rip off municipalities, they also help Mexican Gangs run drugs?
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.
That's nice. Guns and ammunition cost money - lots of it. Getting that money requires some means of transporting it and "laundering" it. For that, we turn to the largest financial institutions in the world, who, it turns out, have never been prosecuted for these felonious acts.
“Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,” says Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case.
Blatant disregard? Sounds like something you'd say at a sentencing hearing, right? Well, no....
No big U.S. bank -- Wells Fargo included -- has ever been indicted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act or any other federal law. Instead, the Justice Department settles criminal charges by using deferred-prosecution agreements, in which a bank pays a fine and promises not to break the law again.
‘No Capacity to Regulate’
Large banks are protected from indictments by a variant of the too-big-to-fail theory.
Indicting a big bank could trigger a mad dash by investors to dump shares and cause panic in financial markets, says Jack Blum, a U.S. Senate investigator for 14 years and a consultant to international banks and brokerage firms on money laundering.
The theory is like a get-out-of-jail-free card for big banks, Blum says.
“There’s no capacity to regulate or punish them because they’re too big to be threatened with failure,” Blum says. “They seem to be willing to do anything that improves their bottom line, until they’re caught.”
This goes against everything that the government has stood for in "THE WAR ON DRUGS".
How much over the decades has it cost the taxpayer to fund that war?
How many prisons had to be built for people sentenced to incarceration for the simple act of being caught in the purchase or the selling of drugs?
Enormous amounts of money have been poured in to fight this so called war, which in itself amounts to a veritable feast for the "Large Banks". They make out all the way around.
What's a little blood on the border when it means so much for "The Banks" circle of life?
WHERE ARE THE GODDAMN COPS AND WHY DO WE AS AMERICANS SIT STILL FOR THIS CRAP?
Oh, so the banks don't just bilk investors and rip off municipalities, they also help Mexican Gangs run drugs?
This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.
The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years.
That's nice. Guns and ammunition cost money - lots of it. Getting that money requires some means of transporting it and "laundering" it. For that, we turn to the largest financial institutions in the world, who, it turns out, have never been prosecuted for these felonious acts.
“Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,” says Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case.
Blatant disregard? Sounds like something you'd say at a sentencing hearing, right? Well, no....
No big U.S. bank -- Wells Fargo included -- has ever been indicted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act or any other federal law. Instead, the Justice Department settles criminal charges by using deferred-prosecution agreements, in which a bank pays a fine and promises not to break the law again.
‘No Capacity to Regulate’
Large banks are protected from indictments by a variant of the too-big-to-fail theory.
Indicting a big bank could trigger a mad dash by investors to dump shares and cause panic in financial markets, says Jack Blum, a U.S. Senate investigator for 14 years and a consultant to international banks and brokerage firms on money laundering.
The theory is like a get-out-of-jail-free card for big banks, Blum says.
“There’s no capacity to regulate or punish them because they’re too big to be threatened with failure,” Blum says. “They seem to be willing to do anything that improves their bottom line, until they’re caught.”
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Florida to try new method for keeping oil from shore
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/27/1703519/florida-to-try-new-methods-for.html
Have they thought about the gas and how the air curtain will affect that and what the consequences of it will actually be are
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Sunday announced two new efforts -- funded by oil giant BP -- to keep crude from the state's shores.
The first effort will begin with three barges, and could grow to as many as nine, configured in the shape of a boom to protect Destin Pass in the state's western panhandle. The barges would funnel the oil to an area where it can be skimmed, according to a press release issued by Crist's office, which did not give a date for the project to begin.
The second effort involves creating an underwater ``air curtain'' of bubbles that would push oil from the depths to the surface.
BP also is drilling two relief wells that technicians hope will pierce and cap the gushing oil well. Drilling on the wells began in May and is expected to be complete in August.
``The relief wells continue on track and are making good progress,'' David Nicholas, a BP spokesman said Sunday.
Nicholas said BP already has located the point at which the relief wells will intercept the existing well, by using sensitive electronic equipment that detects differences in the rock's electromagnetic field.
Have they thought about the gas and how the air curtain will affect that and what the consequences of it will actually be are
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Sunday announced two new efforts -- funded by oil giant BP -- to keep crude from the state's shores.
The first effort will begin with three barges, and could grow to as many as nine, configured in the shape of a boom to protect Destin Pass in the state's western panhandle. The barges would funnel the oil to an area where it can be skimmed, according to a press release issued by Crist's office, which did not give a date for the project to begin.
The second effort involves creating an underwater ``air curtain'' of bubbles that would push oil from the depths to the surface.
BP also is drilling two relief wells that technicians hope will pierce and cap the gushing oil well. Drilling on the wells began in May and is expected to be complete in August.
``The relief wells continue on track and are making good progress,'' David Nicholas, a BP spokesman said Sunday.
Nicholas said BP already has located the point at which the relief wells will intercept the existing well, by using sensitive electronic equipment that detects differences in the rock's electromagnetic field.
Friday, June 25, 2010
USF scientists find long line of oil 6 inches under the sand at Pensacola Beach
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/usf-scientists-find-long-line-of-oil-6-inches-under-the-sand-at-pensacola/1104804
It just keeps getting better and better with no end in sight
The sugar-sand beach here appeared cleaner Thursday, after workers picked up tar balls overnight with shovels and nets. By noon they had collected 44,955 pounds of tar balls and oil material, according to the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center.
But a University of South Florida geologist made a grim discovery Thursday morning, 24 hours after the worst oil onslaught in Florida so far.
Ping Wang, 43, who has studied beaches for 20 years, dug a narrow trench perpendicular to the shoreline, about a foot deep and 5 feet long. A dark, contiguous vein of oil ran horizontally along the walls of the trench, about 6 inches beneath the surface of the sand.
The sheet of oil which was deposited on the beach at high tide Wednesday and stretched some 8 miles was covered by as much as a foot of sand at high tide Thursday, Wang explained.
"Beaches change very often," he said. Depending on tides and wave action, they constantly lose or accumulate sand.
While picking up tar balls and oil patties from the surface is helpful, Wang's discovery suggests that type of cleaning will be inadequate.
"This is going to be hard to clean up," he said. "It's going to need to be a much larger scale effort than what we're seeing."
Wang, working with a team of geologists from USF, dug trenches at various spots along the beach on the Gulf Islands National Seashore and found the buried, unbroken vein each time.
It just keeps getting better and better with no end in sight
The sugar-sand beach here appeared cleaner Thursday, after workers picked up tar balls overnight with shovels and nets. By noon they had collected 44,955 pounds of tar balls and oil material, according to the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center.
But a University of South Florida geologist made a grim discovery Thursday morning, 24 hours after the worst oil onslaught in Florida so far.
Ping Wang, 43, who has studied beaches for 20 years, dug a narrow trench perpendicular to the shoreline, about a foot deep and 5 feet long. A dark, contiguous vein of oil ran horizontally along the walls of the trench, about 6 inches beneath the surface of the sand.
The sheet of oil which was deposited on the beach at high tide Wednesday and stretched some 8 miles was covered by as much as a foot of sand at high tide Thursday, Wang explained.
"Beaches change very often," he said. Depending on tides and wave action, they constantly lose or accumulate sand.
While picking up tar balls and oil patties from the surface is helpful, Wang's discovery suggests that type of cleaning will be inadequate.
"This is going to be hard to clean up," he said. "It's going to need to be a much larger scale effort than what we're seeing."
Wang, working with a team of geologists from USF, dug trenches at various spots along the beach on the Gulf Islands National Seashore and found the buried, unbroken vein each time.
Cop Fired for Putting Paper Bag on Perp's Head
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Cop-Fired-for-Putting-Paper-Bag-on-Perps-Head-97146339.html
So now we treat all criminals as if they were terror detainees?
What's up with the hood and when did it become a standard use?
The incident that got him fired happened Nov. 1, when a man, Gerald Feldhaus, was arrested outside Yolo Restaurant on Las Olas for trespassing and resisting arrest.
"He was spitting and screaming as he would look and yell at other people," Wezkiewicz told investigators.
Rather than use a department-issued hood designed specifically for prisoner control, Wezkiewicz used a brown paper bag.
"Poor judgment prevailed concerning his decision to utilize a brown paper bag," Capt. Rick Maglione wrote in a report on the incident.
Claiming Wezkiewicz "shed a negative light" on the department, the report said using the hood instead would not "be falsely perceived as an attempt to humiliate an individual."
So now we treat all criminals as if they were terror detainees?
What's up with the hood and when did it become a standard use?
The incident that got him fired happened Nov. 1, when a man, Gerald Feldhaus, was arrested outside Yolo Restaurant on Las Olas for trespassing and resisting arrest.
"He was spitting and screaming as he would look and yell at other people," Wezkiewicz told investigators.
Rather than use a department-issued hood designed specifically for prisoner control, Wezkiewicz used a brown paper bag.
"Poor judgment prevailed concerning his decision to utilize a brown paper bag," Capt. Rick Maglione wrote in a report on the incident.
Claiming Wezkiewicz "shed a negative light" on the department, the report said using the hood instead would not "be falsely perceived as an attempt to humiliate an individual."
Don't taze my granny
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/60261.html
This is just no longer acceptable. These situations are not accidents. They are the results of intense police training. The question is: Whose format of training are they being taught by?
This situation makes it quite obvious that there is no room for independent thought allowed for otherwise this bed ridden woman would have never been tazed.
Lonnie Tinsley of El Reno, Oklahoma made a nearly fatal mistake last December 22 when he went to check on his grandma, Lona Vernon.
Concerned that Lona hadn’t taken her medications, Lonnie called 911 in the expectation that an emergency medical technician would be dispatched to the apartment to evaluate the bedridden 86-year-old woman.
Instead, that call for help was answered by nearly a dozen armed tax-feeders employed by the El Reno Police Department.
Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, Lona ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”
This is just no longer acceptable. These situations are not accidents. They are the results of intense police training. The question is: Whose format of training are they being taught by?
This situation makes it quite obvious that there is no room for independent thought allowed for otherwise this bed ridden woman would have never been tazed.
Lonnie Tinsley of El Reno, Oklahoma made a nearly fatal mistake last December 22 when he went to check on his grandma, Lona Vernon.
Concerned that Lona hadn’t taken her medications, Lonnie called 911 in the expectation that an emergency medical technician would be dispatched to the apartment to evaluate the bedridden 86-year-old woman.
Instead, that call for help was answered by nearly a dozen armed tax-feeders employed by the El Reno Police Department.
Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, Lona ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Judge denies Obama admin stay on drill ban ruling
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Judge-denies-Obama-admin-stay-rb-3471663315.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
Well it seems there is no power in the White House, unless it has to do with taking away more of your rights as a citizen, or pledging your tax payments to clean up more corporate3 catastrophes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A judge refused on Thursday to put on hold his decision that blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Well it seems there is no power in the White House, unless it has to do with taking away more of your rights as a citizen, or pledging your tax payments to clean up more corporate3 catastrophes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A judge refused on Thursday to put on hold his decision that blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
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