Was Joe Biden in on the Allen Stanford scam?

“A fund run by Joe Biden’s family was jointly branded with one of Allen Stanford’s funds. Allen Stanford is charged with $8 billion in fraud. The Biden fund has cut ties with Stanford’s companies af… A fund run by Joe Biden’s family was jointly branded with one of Allen Stanford’s funds. Allen Stanford is charged with $8 billion in fraud. The Biden fund has cut ties with Stanford’s companies after learning about the allegations against Stanford.” (Read more from sodahead.com)

The crooks have been in charge for a long time. Every once in a while, a little sunlight shines into their mansions, and the cockroaches scramble for the shadows. The best thing we can do is give these crooks as little of our hard earned money as possible.

Jim Rogers on the financial meltdown

Jim Rogers continues to provide the most lucid explanations of our financial crisis I can find.

“There’s no such thing as too big to fail”:

“I expect to see civil unrest in the U.S.”:

On the future of agriculture, gold, inflation:

“They’re ruining the U.S. economy, they’re ruining the U.S. government, they’re ruining the U.S. central bank, and their ruining the U.S. dollar.” “You’re watching the destruction of New York as a financial center and the destruction of the us as the world’s most powerful country.”:

Our man in Congress on the Federal Reserve

Ron Paul commenting on the Fed’s recent actions and questioning Bernanke:

Let’s not forget, Bernanke says “I don’t believe we’ll have an inflation problem in terms of consumer prices.” On one hand, I’m excited by what will soon be a demonstration of him being dead wrong. On the other, when hasn’t Bernanke been dead wrong?

Ron Paul: “The Federal Reserve is the culprit”

Sleazeball Criminal Madoff seeks to keep NYC penthouse, $62M in assets

“Bernard Madoff is seeking to keep a $7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional $62 million in assets, saying they are unrelated to the fraud that authorities say cost victims more than $50 billion. In court papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Madoff and his lawyer claim the apartment, $45 million in municipal bonds and $17 million more in a separate account all belong to Madoff’s wife, Ruth.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Hollywood’s New Censors

by John Pilger

“When I returned from the war in Vietnam, I wrote a film script as an antidote to the myth that the war had been an ill-fated noble cause. The producer David Puttnam took the draft to Hollywood and offered it to the major studios, whose responses were favorable – well, almost. Each issued a report card in which the final category, ‘politics,’ included comments such as: ‘This is real, but are the American people ready for it? Maybe they’ll never be.’

By the late 1970s, Hollywood judged Americans ready for a different kind of Vietnam movie. The first was The Deer Hunter which, according to Time, ‘articulates the new patriotism.’ The film celebrated immigrant America, with Robert de Niro as a working class hero (‘liberal by instinct’) and the Vietnamese as sub-human Oriental barbarians and idiots, or ‘gooks.’ The dramatic peak was reached during recurring orgiastic scenes in which GIs were forced to play Russian roulette by their Vietnamese captors. This was made up by the director Michael Cimino, who also made up a story that he had served in Vietnam. ‘I have this insane feeling that I was there,’ he said. “Somehow… the line between reality and fiction has become blurred.’

The Deer Hunter was regarded virtually as documentary by ecstatic critics. ‘The film that could purge a nation’s guilt!’ said the Daily Mail. . . .

My own 2007 film The War on Democracy, which inverted the ‘war on terror’ in Latin America, was distributed in Britain, Australia and other countries but not in the United States. ‘You will need to make structural and political changes,’ said a major New York distributor. ‘Maybe get a star like Sean Penn to host it – he likes liberal causes – and tame those anti-Bush sequences.’ . . .

These are extraordinary times. Vicious colonial wars and political, economic and environmental corruption cry out for a place on the big screen. Yet, try to name one recent film that has dealt with these, honestly and powerfully, let alone satirically. Censorship by omission is virulent. We need another Wall Street, another Last Hurrah, another Dr. Strangelove.” (Read more from antiwar.com)

Get Ready for Mass Retail Closings

“About 220,000 stores may close this year in America, says our guest, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates. As more Americans save and spend less, it’s clear there’s too much retail space. Just visit Web site deadmalls.com and track retail’s growing body count. And luxury retailers? They’re on ‘life support,’ Davidowitz says.

Among the brandname stores Davidowitz says are in trouble:

*Nordstrom
*Neiman Marcus
*Tiffany
*Jeweler Zale Corp.
*Saks
*J.C. Penney
*Sears”

(Read more from finance.yahoo.com)

Iraq Reconstruction: A Theft Bigger Than Madoff

By PATRICK COCKBURN:

“In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme.

‘I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and not by people from the slums of Baghdad,’ said one US businessman active in Iraq since 2003.

In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in ‘pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills’ to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money. He is among the few US officials who were in Iraq to be convicted of fraud and money-laundering.

Despite the vast sums expended on rebuilding by the US since 2003, there have been no cranes visible on the Baghdad skyline except those at work building a new US embassy and others rusting beside a half-built giant mosque that Saddam was constructing when he was overthrown. One of the few visible signs of government work on Baghdad’s infrastructure is a tireless attention to planting palm trees and flowers in the centre strip between main roads. Those are then dug up and replanted a few months later.

Iraqi leaders are convinced that the theft or waste of huge sums of US and Iraqi government money could have happened only if senior US officials were themselves involved in the corruption. In 2004-05, the entire Iraq military procurement budget of $1.3bn was siphoned off from the Iraqi Defense Ministry in return for 28-year-old Soviet helicopters too obsolete to fly and armored cars easily penetrated by rifle bullets. Iraqi officials were blamed for the theft, but US military officials were largely in control of the Defense Ministry at the time and must have been either highly negligent or participants in the fraud.

American federal investigators are now starting an inquiry into the actions of senior US officers involved in the program to rebuild Iraq, according to The New York Times, which cites interviews with senior government officials and court documents. Court records reveal that, in January, investigators subpoenaed the bank records of Colonel Anthony B Bell, now retired from the US Army, but who was previously responsible for contracting for the reconstruction effort in 2003 and 2004. Two federal officials are cited by the paper as saying that investigators are also looking at the activities of Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald W Hirtle of the US Air Force, who was senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004. It is not clear what specific evidence exists against the two men, who have both said they have nothing to hide.

The end of the Bush administration which launched the war may give fresh impetus to investigations into frauds in which tens of billions of dollars were spent on reconstruction with little being built that could be used. In the early days of the occupation, well-connected Republicans were awarded jobs in Iraq, regardless of experience. A 24-year-old from a Republican family was put in charge of the Baghdad stock exchange which had to close down because he allegedly forgot to renew the lease on its building.

In the expanded inquiry by federal agencies, the evidence of a small-time US businessman called Dale C. Stoffel who was murdered after leaving the US base at Taiji north of Baghdad in 2004 is being re-examined. Before he was killed, Mr Stoffel, an arms dealer and contractor, was granted limited immunity from prosecution after he had provided information that a network of bribery – linking companies and US officials awarding contracts – existed within the US-run Green Zone in Baghdad. He said bribes of tens of thousands of dollars were regularly delivered in pizza boxes sent to US contracting officers.

So far, US officers who have been successfully prosecuted or unmasked have mostly been involved in small-scale corruption. Often sums paid out in cash were never recorded. In one case, an American soldier put in charge of reviving Iraqi boxing gambled away all the money but he could not be prosecuted because, although the money was certainly gone, nobody had recorded if it was $20,000 or $60,000. . . .

In many cases, contractors never started or finished facilities they were supposedly building. As security deteriorated in Iraq from the summer of 2003 it was difficult to check if a contract had been completed. But the failure to provide electricity, water and sewage disposal during the US occupation was crucial in alienating Iraqis from the post-Saddam regime. . . .” (Read more from counterpunch.org)

Protesting Gaza

“Congressman Brian Baird Views Destruction in Gaza – Calls for Immediate Relief and Change in Policy
Two members of Congress, Brian Baird (D-WA-03), and Keith Ellison, (D-MN-05), visited Gaza on Thursday to view firsthand the destruction from recent Israeli air and ground attacks and to meet with international and local relief agencies. This visit, which did not have the official sanction of the Obama Administration, is the first time anyone from the U.S. government has entered Gaza in more than three years. . . .

‘The amount of physical destruction and the depth of human suffering here is staggering’ said Baird, ‘Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, schools completely leveled, fundamental water, sewer, and electricity facilities hit and relief agencies heavily damaged. The personal stories of children being killed in their homes or schools, entire families wiped out, and relief workers prevented from evacuating the wounded are heart wrenching – what went on here, and what is continuing to go on, is shocking and troubling beyond words.’

Inquiring about the status of relief efforts, the Congressmen learned that some aid material has been allowed in since the intensity of the attacks lessened a month ago, but much is still being blocked by the Israeli defense forces. Examples of aid that has been banned by the Israeli Government include: lentils, macaroni, tomato paste, lentils and other food. Basic building materials, generator fuel and parts to repair damaged water treatment equipment have also been kept out. . . .” (Read more from www.house.gov)

“Students angered by Gaza revive sit-ins
A new wave of student activism sparked by events in Gaza has seen dozens of university buildings occupied in Britain, with some of the UK’s top educational establishments agreeing to set up scholarships for Palestinians or disinvest in arms companies linked to Israel.

Though the assault on the territory ended three weeks ago, lingering anger over the attack has prompted students to stage sit-ins at 21 universities, many organised via blogs, Facebook and text messages.

Students at Glasgow and Manchester are refusing to leave the buildings until their demands are met, after similar occupations at other universities provided tangible results in what is being seen as a new era of highly organised student activism.” (Read more from guardian.co.uk)

“Academic boycott of Israel spreads to US & Jerusalem universities
Hundreds of professors and scholars in the US have, for the first time, joined in an academic boycott of the state of Israel, in an effort to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land, and disenfranchisement of the Palestinian people. In addition, Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, a Palestinian-run university, has joined the call for boycott.

The US boycott comes in the wake of dozens of similar boycotts launched in various parts of the world, including in England, Spain, Canada and Australia. The Canadian boycott began in Quebec when academics signed a letter stating:

‘We are a group of teachers and employees at Quebec colleges and universities who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and with the people of Gaza who have suffered through the Israeli siege . . . .'” (Read more from imemc.org)

“Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges Obama after detailing US weapons used in Gaza
-White phosphorus shells traced back to America
-Activists call for arms embargoes on both sides”
(Read more from guardian.co.uk)

Firms defraud government but get new US contracts

“WASHINGTON – Companies that defrauded the United States and jeopardized American lives received new government work despite rulings designed to stop them from receiving federal contracts, government investigators report.

Payments went to a company whose president tried to sell nuclear bomb parts to North Korea, a company that jeopardized lives on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, and a seller of body armor that the Air Force said was defective.

The companies were on a government database of 70,000 individuals and businesses suspended or barred by various U.S. agencies from receiving government contract work.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Pathetic and funny until you realize this is OUR money the government is wasting. We should all quit our productive jobs and work for the crooks. We’ll all live off the printing press, and taxes on the few suckers who don’t have government jobs.

Kyrgyz MPs vote to shut US base

“The decision was passed by 78 votes to one. Once President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs the bill, the US has 180 days to leave the base. . . . Bishkek denies any link between the move to shut the base and Moscow’s aid. . . .

Thousands of US soldiers pass through the Manas base every month on their way in and out of Afghanistan. . . . It is also home to the large tanker aircraft that are used for in-air refuelling of fighter planes on combat missions, and it serves as a key supply hub. . . .

For Russia, on the other hand, its closure would be a diplomatic victory as it seeks to reassert its influence in former Soviet republics, analysts say. . . .

With supply lines to Afghanistan via Pakistan increasingly threatened by militant attacks, Washington has intensified talks with other countries in the region in the wake of Mr Bakiyev’s announcement. . . .

The US used to have an air base in Uzbekistan that served troops operating in Afghanistan. But Uzbek authorities closed it in 2005 after criticism from the US and EU over a crackdown on a mass protest in the town of Andijan.” (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

Afghanistan is just another great game being played with our blood and tax dollars. The best thing we can do is go home and let the Afghans solve their own problems.