Monthly Archives: May 2009

Rand Paul Ready to Enter GOP Primary for Senate Seat

“FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican Rand Paul, son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, said Friday he is poised to enter the race for U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning’s seat if the 77-year-old sports icon decides to retire.

‘I’ve been traveling the state and giving speeches as if there is going to be a race,’ he told The Associated Press. ‘Every bone in my body says there is going to be a race.'” (Read more from dailypaul.com)

Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Fine for ‘Fleeting Expletives’

“Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Fine for ‘Fleeting Expletives’

‘The commission could reasonably conclude that the pervasiveness of foul language, and the coarsening of public entertainment in other media such as cable, justify more stringent regulation of broadcast programs so as to give conscientious parents a relatively safe haven for their children,’ Scalia wrote for the five-member conservative majority.” (Read more from washingtonpost.com)

fucking bullshit!

The Stress Tests Fail The Smell Test

“The results of the much-anticipated bank stress tests are finally set to be released on Thursday — after the markets close. But we can already give the Obama economic team a grade for the way the tests have been handled: F.

For starters, why the holdup in releasing the results? It’s been ten days since the Treasury Department and the Fed let the banks in on the preliminary results of the tests. So how come the public — you know, the ones who keep bailing out the banks — are still, ten days later, in the dark?

The reason is, the banks are using this time to negotiate how much information about their portfolios the hoi polloi will be privy to, and are trying to get the government to reconsider its analyses (which are already iffy, since they are based on the banks’ own estimates and on assumptions about the economy – including unemployment rates, and cumulative real estate and credit card losses — that are hardly stress-inducing).” (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)

On the Federal Hate Crimes Legislation

“While America slept on Wednesday April 25 we woke up to find headlines about how Michelle Obama likes to sneak out and eat at fun restaurants. Not so well covered by the media was the passage of the Hate Crimes bill re-introduced and passed in committee by John Conyers. (D-MI) What does it mean?

. . . .

The ‘hate crimes bill’ is an affront to states sovereignty and if misinterpreted by any level of law enforcement will quickly become a ‘thought policing’ bill to wrest even more freedoms from the average citizen by essentially demanding that special groups get special justice.” (Read more from canadafreepress.com)

“All violent crimes should be vigorously prosecuted – but this novel legal approach violates several core principles and holds a number of dangers.

1) It violates the ‘equal protection of the laws’ by protecting some victims more than others. This is a principle which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and is even carved above the entrance to the Supreme Court (‘Equal Justice Under Law’). Do we somehow care less about a victim who is violently assaulted because of a robbery or personal dispute than we do about a victim who is assaulted because they belong in a federally protected category?

2) It punishes thoughts and not just actions. Advocates of the bill deny this because it only authorizes prosecution of someone who ‘willfully causes bodily injury’ or ‘attempts to cause bodily injury.’ But such acts are already crimes under state law. What converts the acts targeted by this bill into a federal offense are the thoughts or opinions of the perpetrator alone. Since every violent crime manifests some sort of ‘hate,’ it makes more sense to think of this as a ‘thought crimes’ law.

3) It constitutes a major federal power grab from states and localities. A version of this bill in an earlier Congress was dubbed the ‘Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act.’ It might better be known as the ‘Local Law Enforcement Usurpation Act.’ In fact, it would even allow prosecution of an individual who had already been prosecuted and acquitted for the same act at the state level-which violates the constitutional protection against double jeopardy.” (Read more from conservativeunderground.com)

Jerusalem settlement ‘extended’

“Construction has begun on approximately 60 new homes in a Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now says.

The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says.

Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.” (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

FOX/ABCNNBCBS: They hate us because they are evil.

Does Goldman Sachs Rule the World?

I found these great excerpts along with commentary at washingtonsblog.com.

“The New York Times points out that Goldman alums include:

* Former treasury secretary Hank Paulson
* Paulson’s bailout chief Neel Kashkari
* Interim Treasury investment officer Reuben Jeffrey
* Key Treasury players Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C. Forst, and Robert K. Steel
* Key New York Federal Reserve players Stephen Friedman (head of the New York Fed board of governors) , William C. Dudley (head of the New York Fed’s unit that buys and sells government securities), and E. Gerald Corrigan (charged with convening a group to analyze risk on Wall Street)

(And there are many more Goldman alums who have been – or are soon to be – appointed. For example, Obama has named Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.) . . .

Here is just one random item this week announcing a couple of standard personnel moves:

Former Barney Frank staffer now top Goldman Sachs lobbyist

Goldman Sachs’ new top lobbyist was recently the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank. Michael Paese, a registered lobbyist for the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association since he left Frank’s committee in September, will join Goldman as director of government affairs, a role held last year by former Tom Daschle intimate, Mark Patterson, now the chief of staff at the Treasury Department. This is not Paese’s first swing through the Wall Street-Congress revolving door: he previously worked at JP Morgan and Mercantile Bankshares, and in between served as senior minority counsel at the Financial Services Committee.

But that doesn’t mean that Goldman has engaged in any self-dealing, does it?

Well, as Time magazine notes:

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the AIG pass-through, at $12.9 billion, was Goldman Sachs, the investment-banking house that has been the single largest supplier of financial talent to the government. Critics have been quick to note — and not favorably — the almost uncanny influence of former Goldman executives. Initial phases of the rescue were orchestrated by ex–Goldman chairman Hank Paulson, who was recruited as Treasury Secretary in part by former White House chief of staff and Goldman senior exec Josh Bolten. Goldman’s current boss, Lloyd Blankfein, was invited to participate in meetings with the Fed. AIG’s Liddy is a former Goldman director and an ex-CEO of Allstate. Another alum, Mark Patterson, once a Goldman lobbyist, serves as chief of staff at the Treasury, while Neel Kashkari, who runs TARP, was a Goldman vice president.

“

Billboards criticizing US aid to Israel taken down under pressure


Taking down the board 1

Press release from The Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel: “On April 8th, the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel erected the billboards throughout the Albuquerque area in order to inform the public about the misuse of their tax dollars, denominated in human lives. The group was motivated by concern for the Palestinian people who had recently been subjected to a massive invasion of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military. Over 1,400 Palestinians – mostly civilian, including three hundred children – were killed and over 5,000 were injured. In 2007 the Bush administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel over a ten year period beginning in 2008. The majority of these dollars will be used to purchase American-made weapons.

The design of the billboard had been approved by Lamar and the billboards’ wording and final image were suggested by Lamar’s graphics designer.

According to information from Lamar, it appears groups claiming to be pro-Israel have conducted a campaign to pressure Lamar to remove the billboards. The Coalition believes this is a deliberate attempt to silence its right to free speech because the humanitarian message of the billboards supports equal rights for the Palestinian people, thereby necessitating criticism of Israel.”

U.S. drops spy charges against two ex-AIPAC officials

Imagine my complete (lack of) surprise.

“Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified U.S. defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue. . . .

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III had made several legal rulings that prosecutors worried would make it almost impossible to obtain a guilty verdict. Among them was a requirement that the government would have to prove that Rosen and Weissman knew they were harming the United States by trading in sensitive national defense information.” (Read more from haaretz.com)

Also:

Lawyers credit Obama team for dismissing AIPAC case
“‘We are extremely grateful that this new Administration, in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, has taken seriously their obligation to evaluate cases on the merits and not to allow an unjust prosecution to continue solely due to momentum,’ said the joint statement by lawyers for Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman issued Friday, hours after the government filed for a dismissal of the charges against the two former senior staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.” (Read more from myantiwar.org)

Biden Son and Brother Near Epicenter of Two Ponzi Schemes

“It’s now public, Francesco Rusciano of Ponta Negra has formally had his assets frozen by a Federal Judge at the request of the SEC.

‘Rusciano went to great lengths to deceive investors, and the SEC is committed to ensuring that money managers who provide inaccurate information to investors and fail to uphold their fiduciary duties are held responsible for their misconduct,’ said Rose Romero, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office.

Back in March, as a blind item, I reported that this was likely to come down:

Very Suspicious Trading…

…coming out of a New York based hedge fund. They report no monthly losses in two years of currency trading. Such perfecto trading has not been seen since Hillary Clinton did it in cattle futures.

They appear to have offices, or at least a mailing address, on Fifth Avenue in a building once owned by the Shah of Iran’s Pahlavi Foundation. Notorious tenants have included: Marc Rich and Ivan Boesky, though there is zero indication that they have any involvement in what appears to be a Ponzi Scheme.

This one is about to break wide open.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the vice-president’s son and brother are playing cameo roles in this saga. . . .” (Read more from economicpolicyjournal.com)