Liddy/AIG & Goldman

post from Talking Points Memo on 17 April 2009 09:37:00 AM. © Talking Points Memo

Time to lower the boom, says Simon Johnson. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/04/liddyaig_goldman.php

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Fox News personalities continue to ignore Bush
administration role to slam Obama DHS

post from Media Matters for America on 17 April 2009 09:35:09 AM. © Media Matters for America

During the April 16 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, while discussing an intelligence assessment from the Department of Homeland Security, titled, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters stated, "I do believe that there are people within the Obama administration, on that bizarre Hollywood-Harvard access -- axis -- who really have a disdainful view of our troops."[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/sReUp5gI8xw/200904170006

Digg this

Cavuto continues Fox paranoia about DHS report

post from Media Matters for America on 17 April 2009 09:21:18 AM. © Media Matters for America

On the April 16 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto repeatedlyadvanced the claim that the recently releasedDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) report, which detailed potential increases inright-wing extremism,targets conservatives simply for holding beliefs contrary to the Obama administration'spolicies and proposals. Cavuto made these claims even though on the April 15edition of Fox News' Studio B,host Shepard Smith stated that the DHS report"isn't about the tea-partyfolks."[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/13ocJzzLa44/200904170005

Digg this

Let’s Play! Name this GOP Entitlement
Syndrome!

post from All Spin Zone on 17 April 2009 09:16:00 AM. © All Spin Zone

Trailing Democrat Scott Murphy in the vote count in the special Congressional election in District 20 in New York, Republican Jim Tedisco has asked the court to declare him the winner. Yes, it boggles the mind, but he’s a Republican, so he feels entitled. Heck, Tedisco felt entitled to challenge the election results before election day was even over, so this reach for an entutlement should surprise us no at all. From the Register-Star in New York:

20th Congressional District candidate Republican Jim Tedisco submitted a petition to the Dutchess County Supreme Court Thursday asking the judge to declare him the winner of the extremely close special election race, despite the numbers currently being in favor of his opponent, Democrat Scott Murphy.
According to The Associated Press, Murphy leads Tedisco by 178 votes district wide ? 79,452 to 79,274. The only ballots that have not been counted are those challenged by each candidate?s lawyers, and while Tedisco?s office has said the challenges are roughly evenly split between the two camps, Columbia County lawyers for Murphy have only challenged 22 ballots, while Tedisco?s have challenged 258.
Tedisco is also asking the court to authorize recanvasing of all machine ballots to acquire the ?proper? tallies. He would like them to reassess the validity of absentee votes already counted, and keep ballots challenged by Tedisco unopened. County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin said this new development could result in the election taking quite a bit more time to be decided. She would not venture a guess on how long it will be before the 20th District has a representative in congress.

Beyond that we desperately need a name for the Republican Entitlement Syndrome that seemingly dictates that Americans are not allowed to have deomcratically elected representatives until the Republicans get all their legal whining out of the way, it is time to recognize this as the biggest feature of the Republican strategy going forward. No plans for the nation’s future, no cures for economic problems, and no coherent leadership. They are offering us sex-crazed teabagging parties, a dose of “Just Say No” to everything not proposed by Republicans, and withholding democratic representation through childlike legal fits.

Let’s get a name for this trend. I’ll start off. How about “Just Say No to Democracy?” It fits with their other stances, no?

They are also writing about this development at DKos.

Read The Full Article:
http://allspinzone.com/wp/2009/04/17/lets-play-name-this-gop-entitlement-syndrome
/

Digg this

Torture: The Need To Prosecute

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 17 April 2009 09:13:10 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

cross-posted from The Dream AntillesYesterday, while I was driving to court, I heard on NPR that the "torture memos" had been redacted and released, and to my amazement, that Barack Obama had announced that the actual torturers would not be prosecuted.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/5U_VD-rNUBw/torture-the-need-to-pros
ecute

Digg this

The Daily Muck

post from TPMMuckraker on 17 April 2009 09:13:00 AM. © TPMMuckraker

The Michigan-based Council of Islamic Organizations said Thursday that it asked Attorney General Eric Holder to review complaints that the FBI planted Muslims in mosques to spy on Islamic leaders and community members. Congregation members said that the FBI probes extended beyond alleged spying on Islamic leaders who allegedly supported terrorist acts; some community members were told that the FBI could resolve citizenship cases if they spied on their Mosque. An official in another Michigan Muslim organization said that as Holder revamps the Justice Department "it's extremely necessary for him to take a serious look at this issue." (AP)

Although Rep. Peter Visclosky recently conducted a comprehensive audit of his political committees to expunge funds raised by the tainted PMA lobbying group, questions remain about the Indiana Democrat's connection to the firm. Visclosky still has not explained the $160,000 in donations from a golf club marketing executive and a hotel sommelier, labeled on Visclosky's FEC forms as "PMA associate" and "PMA consultant." For years, Visclosky has steered government contracts to PMA clients and contributors. The PMA offices were raided recently by federal investigators, who are probing the firm's connections to a number of lawmakers, including Rep. John Murtha (D-PA). (Washington Post)

In bad news for victims of Sir Allen Stanford's $8 billion Ponzi scheme, the British receivers charged with overseeing the operations of Stanford International Bank said Thursday that the company's liabilities greatly outweigh its assets. After Stanford's massive fraud came to light, many of his investors quickly withdrew funds from each of his companies, including the Antiguan bank. The bank's remaining assets will stay frozen as receivers continue to seek money to repay Stanford's victims, a goal which seems increasingly unlikely. (Reuters)

Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) will hold a Chicago fundraiser this weekend, hoping to pad his campaign fund after a financial report released Thursday showed that he has raised only $845 since January. Burris has accumulated a hefty legal bill defending himself against ethics and perjury probes after he was appointed to Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat by former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. A host of Sunday's fundraiser said that none of the donations will go towards the legal defense fund Burris hopes to create. (LA Times)

The number of off-duty Los Angeles police officers arrested on alcohol-related charges rose sharply since 2004. A report by the LA Sherriff's department released Wednesday shows that 70 officers were arrested in 2008 compared to 24 in 2004. Many of the arrests involve firearms. One police deputy shot his cousin in the abdomen at a New Year's Eve party, and two others were charged with brandishing their weapons at Los Angeles bars. A top official at a city police officer's association said that the department does not need a new policy but needs to "start enforcing their existing policies." (New York Times)

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TPMmuckraker/~3/_liMTI5GTqE/the_daily_muck_804.php

Digg this

OLC Memos: Who We Have Become

post from Firedoglake on 17 April 2009 09:03:41 AM. © Firedoglake

You tell me. Which language is from Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's seminal work The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 and which is from US Department of Justice OLC memoranda issued in the last few years.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/04/17/olc-memos-who-we-have-become
/

Digg this

ThinkFast: April 17, 2009

post from Think Progress on 17 April 2009 09:00:00 AM. © Think Progress

An anonymous Bush official blasted President Obama for releasing the torture memos yesterday. ?It’s damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama’s action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are,? the official told Politico?s Mike Allen. ?We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary.?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said yesterday that “she would hold a hearing to examine the National Security Agency?s interception of domestic communications after new reports that recent wiretapping went beyond what Congress has authorized.” “These are serious allegations, and we will make sure we get the facts,” said Feinstein in a statement.

“I have not backed off at all from my belief that the assault weapons ban makes sense,” President Obama said in Mexico City yesterday, knocking down signals from the White House that it would scuttle efforts to revive the ban. He added, however, that he is not “under any illusions that reinstating that ban would be easy.”

Following the loss of roughly 5,900 jobs in 2008, “the number of newsroom jobs is now at a level last seen during the early 1980s.” 2008 saw “the biggest drop” in jobs that the American Society of News Editors “has recorded since it first started conducing its newsroom employment survey in 1978″ as job losses doubled from 2007 when the industry shed 2,400 jobs.

According to a report from the Office of Congressional Ethics, the new independent ethics panel created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last year “has started 10 reviews of lawmaker misconduct.” But the panel “hasn’t gotten to the point of deciding whether to refer any matters to the House ethics committee.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/17/thinkfast-april-17-2009/

Digg this

Daily Futures Commentary April 17, 2009

Friday, April 17, 2009

The weak close in the June Euro last night put this market in a position to breech the 1.3114 swing bottom support and send this market to at least 1.2945 over the near term. The current weakness can be attributed to a combination of a weakening…

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jutiagroup/~3/XU19NVSYglA/

Digg this

This comment deserves to be a post of it's own

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 17 April 2009 08:49:06 AM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

(Grolaw left this comment to YellowDog's most excellent post from this morning, but I think it merits a post of it's own. --BG)

Bush & crew systematically raped, pillaged and destroyed everything that they touched. They used every form of artifice, lie and force to dismantle the Constitution and our Treaties with our sister nations.

The price that we paid for Nixon's arranged pardon has been the despot who had an international propaganda network run by Rupert Murdoch (one of the 25 most powerful and wealthy men on the planet) play out the despot's fearsome talking points leading to an unmatched transformation of this nation into an international pariah due to our war for oil and the occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq. Our standing as the savior of the free world, bought at the dearest price in blood and treasure in WWII, is gone.

We are now the torturers who have unprincipled lawyers justify violation of our own standards of conduct under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment as implemented by Sections 2340-2340A of Title 18 U.S.C. Our despot paid for the "legal" authority to torture by placing the author, Jay Bybee (a Mormon who took both his baccalaureate and J.D degrees from Brigham Young University (does religious bias play any part in his rationale to suborn torture?)) on the bench of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003. The man who sees no legal or ethical problems with torture sits on the Federal Appellate Bench in judgment of US Citizens in California. He was sworn in by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (who certainly knew of his memos in support of torture). This is beyond outrageous.

Where Democrats in the Senate knew of his actions in support of torture and still confirmed his appointment to the bench - we have effectively ceded control of our justice system to the sociopaths of the right. Bybee was confirmed in 2003 - hundreds of others have followed. Article III Judges have life tenure. The Bush legacy is well entrenched in our justice system - from the Supreme Court down to the lowest Administrative Law Judge in the most trivial executive agency. Justice in the United States will be tainted for at least 30 years due to the Bush appointments.

We have become a nation of splintered interests - carefully devised and divided by a rogue element in the Republican Party (well documented by author Thomas Frank in The Wrecking Crew and What's The Matter With Kansas? ).

Our nation has been gutted like a trout. We have lost the 4th Estate - through consolidation and 30 years of Republican doctrine guiding our "free, appropriate public education" leaving us without readers and a robust free press.

Leveraging the deaths of 3,000 citizens on September 11, 2001 into a dictatorship says volumes about how strident rhetoric repeated over and over can and does control the great mass of our citizens. We are less for our failure to question our leaders who have driven the ship of state aground through fear-mongering while robbing out treasury, wasting blood and treasure in the occupation of an oil state and destroying the businesses, homes and infrastructure of our nation.

Absent a return to independent prosecutors or, preferably, an international tribunal prosecuting the corrupt despots that stole our nation under cover of the terrorism threat - this nation, as it was conceived, will cease to exist. We stand at the precipice. The next step is crucial.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheyGaveUsARepublic-FrontPage/~3/saipDFeR5Kg/this-
comment-deserves-to-be-a-post-of-its-own