Yesterday I kept up with comments and return visits. I visited a few blogs, but groceries arrived. Putting them away tired me out. I do have things to get done today, so we’ll see how the day goes.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 4:03. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Common Dreams: Millions of people faced worsening travel chaos on Saturday as a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, which risks lingering over Europe for up to five more days, forced countries to extend flight bans.
I understand this will keep Obama from flying to Poland.
From Alternet: The Tea Party movement’s dirty little secret is that its chief financial backers owe their family fortune to the granddaddy of all their hatred: Stalin’s godless empire of the USSR. The secretive oil billionaires of the Koch family, the main supporters of the right-wing groups that orchestrated the Tea Party movement, would not have the means to bankroll their favorite causes had it not been for the pile of money the family made working for the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and early 1930s, building refineries, training Communist engineers and laying down the foundation of Soviet oil infrastructure.
Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, was accused of securities fraud in a civil lawsuit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail.
The move was the first time that regulators had taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market.
The suit also named Fabrice Tourre, a vice president at Goldman who helped create and sell the investment.
In a statement, Goldman called the commission’s accusations “completely unfounded in law and fact” and said it would “vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.”
The focus of the S.E.C. case, an investment vehicle called Abacus 2007-AC1, was one of 25 such vehicles that Goldman created so the bank and some of its clients could bet against the housing market. Those deals, which were the subject of an article in The New York Times in December, initially protected Goldman from losses when the mortgage market disintegrated and later yielded profits for the bank.
As the Abacus portfolios in the S.E.C. case plunged in value, a prominent hedge fund manager made money from his bets against certain mortgage bonds, while investors lost more than $1 billion.
According to the complaint, Goldman created Abacus 2007-AC1 in February 2007 at the request of John A. Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager who earned an estimated $3.7 billion in 2007 by correctly wagering that the housing bubble would burst. Mr. Paulson is not named in the suit.
Goldman told investors that the bonds would be chosen by an independent manager. In the case of Abacus 2007-AC1, however, Goldman let Mr. Paulson select mortgage bonds that he believed were most likely to lose value, according to the complaint.
Goldman then sold the package to investors like foreign banks, pension funds and insurance companies, which would profit only if the bonds gained value. The European banks IKB and ABN Amro and other investors lost more than $1 billion in the deal, the commission said.
“Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio,” Robert Khuzami, the director of the commission’s enforcement division, said in a written statement.
The lawsuit could be a sign of a revitalized Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been criticized for early missteps in assessing the causes of the financial crisis. The agency appears to be tracing the mortgage pipeline all the way from the companies like Countrywide Financial that originated home loans to the raucous trading floors that dominate Wall Street’s profit machine.
At a conference in New Orleans on Friday, Mr. Khuzami indicated that he was scrutinizing other deals involving mortgage securities. “We’re looking at a wide range of products,” he said at a news conference. “If we see securities with similar profiles, we’ll look at them closely.”
Shares of Goldman Sachs plunged more than 10 percent in just the first half-hour of trading after the suit was announced Friday morning. They closed down 13 percent, at $160.70, wiping away more than $10 billion of the company’s market value… [emphasis added]
This must be even more egregious than meets the eye, because Geithner, Bernanke, and Summers (all of whom should be replaced) all have close ties with Goldman. Even these three could not protect Goldman.
For those of you whose eyes roll back in your heads at the mere mention of economics, Rachel Maddow spells it out so simply that even a Teabagger could understand.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m confident many more examples will surface.
It’s a joy to note how the GOP was so busy in nefarious scheming that they failed to note the significance of this event, and positioned themselves squarely on the side of criminal Banksters by delivering their unanimous letter of opposition to financial reform.
Please do not assume that I find the Dodd bill acceptable in its present form. That’s just a different topic, which we’ll cover when they are debating fixes for it.
Porter J. Goss, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in 2005 approved of the decision by one of his top aides to destroy dozens of videotapes documenting the brutal interrogation of two detainees, according to an internal C.I.A. document released Thursday.
Shortly after the tapes were destroyed at the order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service, Mr. Goss told Mr. Rodriguez that he "agreed" with the decision, according to the document. He even joked after Mr. Rodriguez offered to "take the heat" for destroying the tapes.
"PG laughed and said that actually, it would be he, PG, who would take the heat," according to one document, an internal C.I.A. e-mail message.
According to current and former intelligence officials, Mr. Goss did not approve the destruction before it happened, and was displeased that Mr. Rodriguez did not consult him or the C.I.A.’s top lawyer before giving the order for the tapes to be destroyed.
Which is in contrast to statements by officials at the time. First, from then CIA Director Hayden after the news broke in 2007:
I understand that the Agency did so only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries — including the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. The decision to destroy the tapes was made with CIA itself … and the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them, the tapes posed a serious security risk.
And from the White House after the news broke in 2007:
General Hayden made a statement yesterday to his employees in which he said that the decision was made by the agency, it was made in consultation with the agency’s lawyers.
Now, apparently, according to CIA officials, "Mr. Rodriguez did not consult him or the C.I.A.’s top lawyer [or Goss] before giving the order for the tapes to be destroyed."
The destruction of these tapes, Glenn points out, was called obstruction of justice by the 9/11 Commission. An obstruction that covered up the illegal torture of these two detainees. And, an obstruction that is apparently one of those things that the current administration isn’t interested in looking back at… [emphasis added]
At the time, Rodriguez was the DDO, the number two man under Goss. We still have not been given the whole truth. Interrogation tapes are never destroyed, because they are no longer useful. They are a valuable asset, because they can be used as references to answer future questions about interrogation technique. They were not a security risk, because they would have been hidden away more securely than Faux Noise hides truth. There is only one possible explanation here. With approval from the top (Bush and Cheney) they exceeded even the guidelines infamous torture memos. Until the GOP leaders who authorized this and other war crimes, there can be no healing. Torture is not who we as Americans are. To cleanse ourselves from this stain, we need Nuremburg in America.
Not too long ago, I remember reading that the Young Eagles, those 45 and under GOP stalwarts, who expressed their GOP family values at a lesbian bondage club at donor expense, were also slated for a field trip to Xe, the new name for Blackwater. Did Steele plan to have the schooled in the use of an AK-47?
The former president of Blackwater Worldwide and four other former officials at the embattled security firm were indicted Friday on federal weapons charges, partially the result of a raid two years ago by agents that rounded up 22 weapons, including AK-47s.
The indictment issued Friday charges Gary Jackson, who left the company last year in a management shakeup, along with four other former workers. The charges against Jackson include a conspiracy to violate firearms laws, false statements and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Also indicted were former general counsel Andrew Howell, former executive vice president Bill Mathews, Ana Bundy, who at one point had oversight of the firm’s armory, and Ronald Slezak, who was hired to oversee documents related to the company’s status as a firearms dealer.
The charges open a new front of the government’s oversight of the sullied security company. Several of the company’s contractors have previously been charged with federal crimes for their actions in war zones, but the company’s executives have so far weathered a range of investigations.
Around the time that Jackson left the company, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services.
The company has been trying to rehabilitate its image since a 2007 shooting in Baghdad left 17 people dead, outraged the Iraqi government and led to a federal charges against several Blackwater guards — accusations later thrown out of court after a judge found prosecutors mishandled evidence.
The latest case stems from a raid conducted by federal agents in 2008 that seized 22 weapons, including 17 AK-47s. [emphasis added]
These are the same thugs that the Bush/GOP regime unleashed on the city of New Orleans. But the Obama administration also bears some accountability here. Why is this Republican private militia, with a track record of fraud, murder, and now, hoarding illegal weapons still employed at taxpayer expense?
Yesterday was not as smooth as anticipated. When I returned home from errands, I had been unable to find some of the things I needed, so I had to order them online. Then I chatted with a friend from the UK and did my housework. In the end, I only had time to reply to comments and briefly return visits. I have a grocery delivery coming today. For me, unpacking it all and putting it away is a hard job. But I still hope to get some visiting in.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:40. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Think Progress: OBAMA: We cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans just like I promised we would on the campaign. […] So I’ve been a little amused over the last couple days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying, “Thank you!” That’s what you’d think!
The poor, brainwashed fools refuse to hear the truth.
From TPM: Every member of the Senate Republican Caucus has signed a letter, delivered to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, expressing opposition to the Democrats’ financial regulatory reform bill, which they all claim will lead to more Wall Street bailouts.
Am I the only one experiencing déjà vu?
From Raw Story: Passions were ablaze at a Tax Day Tea Party event held on the steps of the old Florida Capitol, with protesters holding signs that read, "We vote with bullets"
Such threats of violence are the venue for those so intellectually challenged that they cannot form a cogent argument.
I don’t know what happened. Supply-side Jesus (the GOP invention, not the real one) must have been busy denying medical care to a leper, or he would have intervened. For a brief moment in time, Tom “Hypocritical Oath” Coburn told the truth.
On Tuesday night’s installment of "The O’Reilly Factor", Fox News host Bill O’Reilly went after Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) for a comment Coburn made at a town hall meeting in Oklahoma earlier in the month. Coburn shot down speculation that imprisonment was one of the consequences for those who chose not to purchase health insurance, telling the crowd: "The intention is not to put anybody in jail. That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn’t the intention."
O’Reilly didn’t take too kindly to that sort of criticism of his employer, especially coming from a conservative like Coburn. So O’Reilly defied Coburn to name a single person on Fox News who had ever said such a thing. And then O’Reilly dropped the gauntlet, saying, "We researched to find out if anybody on Fox News had ever said you’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance. Nobody’s ever said it."
Really? Coburn said he was pretty sure he’d heard it before. And of course, he had…
Of course he had indeed. Here’s video to prove it:
Warning! The following video contains Faux Noise!
Barf bag required!
Considering the flood of lies you just saw gushing from so many mouths, is it any wonder that I call Faux Noise the GOP Reichsministry of Propaganda?
And don’t worry about the Hippocratic Hypocrite. According to Think Progress, Coburn went back on Faux Noise, kowtowed to Neil Cavuto, admitted that he has not been “exactly fair”, and said he is glad Faux Noise is there. Setting an example for GOP sheeple, Coburn returned to the fold and said Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a! Surely he has been declared fit to resume goose-stepping.
Yesterday I wrote a piece on how Mitch McConnell and other GOP politicians are lying about financial reform. The following is part of an editorial from Bitch’s home town newspaper:
…On Tuesday and again Wednesday, McConnell took to the Senate floor to denounce a bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee.
Interestingly, McConnell is disparaging the proposed reforms in words recommended by a pollster.
"If the outline of his speech sounds familiar," wrote Adam Sorensen on Time’s political blog, "it’s because it is the exact argument pollster Frank Luntz urged Republicans to make earlier this year in a widely publicized memo."
McConnell’s statements are perfectly calibrated to inflame the public. He insists the bill would "allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks."
Their resemblance to the truth is another matter.
The provision that McConnell claims would allow endless bailouts emerged from a bipartisan collaboration by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Warner, who learned a thing or two about capitalism as a successful dot.com entrepreneur before becoming Virginia’s governor, told The Washington Post: "It appears that the Republican leader either doesn’t understand or chooses not to understand the basic underlying premise of what this bill puts in place."
The provision to which McConnell particularly objects creates an orderly process for letting "too big to fail" banks fail, at the industry’s expense, without taking down the entire economy.
The losers would be the management and shareholders, not the taxpayers. So onerous would this process be for failing financial institutions, says Warner, that it would serve as a deterrent to reckless decision-making.
McConnell, it should be remembered, voted for the bailout of the big investment banks in the fall of 2008, when it was the only alternative to global economic meltdown.
We have read that the Republicans have a plan for financial reform, but McConnell isn’t talking up any solutions, just trashing the other side’s ideas with no respect for the truth.
While the intricacies of financial regulation are complicated, McConnell’s calculus is pretty obvious.
The high-stakes gamblers on Wall Street, luxuriating again in big bonuses, don’t want any new oversight or regulation. Why would they, knowing that the government would have to bail them out again if their trading of worthless financial instruments goes bust and threatens to bring on the next Great Depression?
McConnell, unabashedly courting Wall Street bankers for political money, is happy to scratch their backs if they’ll scratch his. [emphasis added]
As a small business owner myself, if I can catch a little (tax) break and lets say I hire an employee @ $40,000, and he nets me (my company) $70,000, I consider that a win-win-win situation…
He/She’s employed and earning $$$, my company makes more money, and then I pay taxes for government junk… I may catch a break, but still the gov’t gets their cookie from me and my new employee…
Everyone is happy!!!
From Infidel753 on March 31, 2010 at 12:46 pm.
Re-educating workers is critical in a society where technological change is evr more rapid, and low-skilled jobs will probably continue to decline even in boom times.
Tax breaks for new hires will have the most immediate effect.
Green energy is a field which will grow more rapidly than we expect, and we’ll need the results it produces.
From Kevin Kelley on March 31, 2010 at 11:48 am.
I chose R and D, Green energy, and infrastructure. These three are important because these three fields are what America has allowed to slip from their grasp. Our infrastructure is outdated and crumbling, our energy is dependent on fossil fuels (with oil from foreign nations), and we lack research and development in newer technologies. The lack of all three are causing a tremendous economic burden to Americans and the government.
I voted for the top three, but all are important tools, except the GOP choice I included.
There is a new poll up in which you get to pick for the GOP’s biggest lie. That is a herculean challenge.
