Stewart Vrs Crammer: Rumble in the Jungle Round III (Video)
After Tuesday night's "Daily Show," Jim Cramer just may be regretting his sarcastic response - "A comedian's attacking me! Wow! He runs a variety show!" - to Jon Stewart's criticism. Almost as biting as his original video montage critique of CNBC, Stewart unleashed an epic attack on Cramer and the whole NBC family for using their various networks as a platform for Cramer's rebuttal.
Stewart repeatedly showed Cramer making absurd and ridiculous noises while hosting his show, "Mad Money," highlighting the remarkable similarities between the program and a wacky variety show......
Crammer Vrs Stewart Round Two: Stewart to Crammer F*#% You (Video)
"I just saw John Stewart rip Cramer for claiming that he didn't say Bear Stearns stock was a good buy days before it went bust," a blogger at The Daily Banter wrote after Monday's Daily Show aired. "After showing several clips in which Cramer does just that, the brilliant Mr. Stewart simply said 'F*CK YOU!.'" ...
Jon Stewart Trashes CNBC Again — On Letterman (VIDEO)
Jon Stewart wasted no time following Wednesday's epic CNBC take-down, appearing on the "Late Show with David Letterman" Thursday night and continuing the thought.
Except to Letterman, he didn't just focus on CNBC — he blasted all three 24-hour financial news channels, presumably CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg.
"The thing that upsets me the most, honesty, there are three 24-hour financial networks," Stewart complained. "All their slogans are like, 'We know what's going on on Wall Street.' But then you turn it on during the crisis, and they're like, 'We don't know what's going on!' It'd be like turning on The Weather Channel in a hurricane, and they're just doing this: 'Why am I wet? What's happening to me? And it's so windy! What's going on, I'm scared!' How do you not know?
Obama order seeks to undo Bush signing statements
President Obama has directed federal agencies to initiate reviews for all of former President George W. Bush's signing statements.....
House of Cards
I'm glad to see TPM picking up on the question of what is to be done about the bondholders. I've had the feeling for a few weeks that this is the real Gordian knot the Administration can't bring itself to cut, for fear that the rope is holding up the roof above all of us.
Here's my next question, though: aren't most of those bondholders holding not traditional bonds - straight debt from straight borrowing at whatever interest - but derivatives of and bets on those traditional bonds? And that being so, wouldn't government, once the banks went into receivership, be able to institute rules that make holders of "real" bonds whole, and pay off the derivative gamblers at pennies on the dollar?
And if that in turn is so, doesn't every day the government fails to bite the bullet mean another bunch of billions paid back out of taxpayer funds to the derivative gamblers rather than the institutions that made good faith investments?...
The CIA -- Who is it benefiting? The American people or American corporations?
By Wayne Madsen
WMR reported that on May 5, 2006, just three days prior to Dusty Foggo’s resignation as the CIA’s executive director, CIA Director Porter Goss resigned. On the same day that Goss resigned, President George W. Bush signed an order exempting publicly traded companies from accounting and disclosure procedures, required under the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, for national intelligence reasons. Then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte was delegated the authority to exempt companies from compliance with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) law.
What Bush did with one stroke of a pen was to exempt companies like Stanford Financial Group, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, American International Group (AIG), and other companies linked to U.S., and, in the case of Madoff, Israeli, covert intelligence activities from normal oversight and regulation by the SEC. The director of National Intelligence (DNI), then John Negroponte, no stranger to the world of subterranean intelligence operations, was empowered to exempt CIA front companies from SEC oversight. It is not known whether President Obama’s DNI, Dennis Blair, retains this authority, but Congress should start asking about the Bush order and whether it remains in effect......
Ron Paul: "What if the American people learned the truth?"
Solvent Insurer / Insolvent Insurer
Forget the good bank/bad bank, I have an even bigger beef with this INSANE absurdity: Why are the taxpayers making good on hedge fund trades gone bad?
I cannot figure that one out.
When AIG first faltered, there were two companies jammed under one roof. One was a highly regulated, state supervised, life insurance company. In fact, the biggest such firm in the world.
The other firm was an unregulated structured finance firm, specializing in credit default swaps and other derivatives.......
Smart Grid: Government spying targets Rural America
I’ve been reading the stimulus bill. When I saw the term Smart Grid on page 232 of the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” I stopped reading so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. If you haven’t heard about Smart Grid, listen up. Smart Grid is closely related to the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), and both programs are designed to spy on Americans. Even more disturbing than the purpose of these government-condoned intrusions into our lives is the fact that the Obama Administration feels that Smart Grid is so important that it had to be funded in the stimulus package—which is supposed to be used for emergencies only. What’s the emergency? Why does Smart Grid need to be implemented within 60 days of the bill passing? Here come the answers, and none of them are good.....
SNL video: Limbaugh electrocutes Steele for 'off the hook' remarks (Video)
Saturday Night Live's political satire wasn't exactly subtle: RNC Chairman Michael Steele doesn't just kowtow to Rush Limbaugh, according to the comedy show; he is actually electrocuted by the radio talk show host for speaking his own mind. Steele, played by SNL's Kenan Thompson, stopped by the show's "Weekend Update" March 7th to respond to calls for his resignation by Republican Party officials....
Matt Taibbi: Limbaugh is 'a fat, pill-popping idiot' (Video)
Matt Taibbi, a left-wing political columnist for Rolling Stone magazine, was a guest on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews last night. Famous for his harsh invective against the Bush administration and other Republicans, it isn't surprising that when asked about Rush Limbaugh, he didn't hold his punches.
“Why don't people like Rush Limbaugh?” Chris Matthews asked Taibbi expectantly. “Because he's abrasive, he's divisive, he's...a fat, pill-popping idiot,” Taibbi responded. Matthews shook his head and guffawed loudly. “Well, I'm glad I asked,” Matthews added......
CNBC's SLICK RICK” SANTELLI IS A BAILOUT QUEEN
f you’re wondering why disgraced pseudo-rebel Rick Santelli and his pals at CNBC kept strangely quiet about the hundreds of billions in bailouts right up until a couple weeks ago, when the government finally extended its bailout program beyond the corporate world and to regular American citizens, there’s a simple explanation. Rick and his coworkers at CNBC have been living high on the government bailout hog. Yup, “Slick Rick” Santelli and his fair-weather free-market comrades are nuthin’ but old-fashioned welfare queens pimping a newfangled libertarian hustle to cover it all up.....
JIM CRAMER DESTROYED CNBC VIEWERS’ WEALTH IN JUST 4 DAYS
Last Friday, when his company GE announced a massive dividend cut, Cramer told his viewers to buy. His counter-intuitive reason was that even though under normal circumstances a dividend cut means that the company is going broke and can’t pay dividends, in this case, oddly enough, “it was positive.”
“I applaud management for doing it,” he said, deep-throating his bosses for cutting investors’ returns so that there’s more money in the bank to pay Jim’s salary.
GE’s stock subsequently plummeted for four straight days after his recommendation. One of the biggest problems, according to a Bloomberg article, is that GE is trying to sugarcoat a dire situation, and sophisticated investors (i.e. the types who don’t listen to Cramer) aren’t buying it:
“The rub against GE at this point is they have been pretty slow to admit some problem assets” in the finance unit, said Peter Klein, senior portfolio manager at Cleveland-based Fifth Third Asset Management, which holds the shares among $18 billion under management. “If assets are impaired in some way you would like to know to that.”
So while your taxpayer subsidies to GE and their dividend cuts to shareholders be bery bery good to Jim, any poor sucker who believed his recommendation for GE stock on Friday be bery bery fucked. The day of Cramer’s recommendation on February 27, GE’s stock rose to over 9 dollars per share in intraday trading; yesterday, the stock fell to as low as $5.72 per share, its lowest price in 17 years. In just 4 days, Jim Cramer lost you, the gullible viewer, 1/3 of your investment. And at the same time picked your pocket for your tax dollars.....
Jim Cramer Uses CNBC to Manipulate Stocks (Really, Tell Me More...)
.....This rabbit hole involves the thugs surrounding Jim Cramer and some of the top financial "journalists" from the New York Times, WSJ, Fortune magazine and BusinessWeek, top hedge funds, the Mafia, and the DTCC. It also includes "blackmail, smear campaigns, espionage, fraud, harassment, extortion, bribery, rumor-mongering, sabotage, off-shore money laundering, political cronyism, frivolous lawsuits, witness tampering, biased financial research, false identities, bogus credit ratings, bribery, libelous blogs, bad science, forgery, wiretapping, counterfeiting, collusion, lying, cheating, threats and theft." ....
Bill Maher's Ode To Government (VIDEO)
Bill Maher ended his show Friday with a humorous and also impassioned segment on why government is important in light of recent attacks on its place in American life. Pointing to Bobby Jindal's suggestion last week during his response to Obama's speech that government was at odds with the American people, as well as attacks on the stimulus plan as typical 'tax and spend,' Maher responded by explaining that "the people are the government": "the first responders who put out your fires, that's your government. The ranger who shoos pedophiles out of the park restroom."
Colbert calls Hannity's praise for Rush 'obsequious crack-licking' (Video)
....."I mean to warrant obsequious crack-licking like that, he must have said something terrible," theorized Colbert of Hannity's praise. "I mean -- something like the vacuum in Republican leadership has allowed a mean-spirited, lard-assed talk radio host to become the de facto leader which is turning an already crippled party into a bickering laughingstock."....
Why It Could Be Curtains for the Euro
The biggest victim of the global housing and credit bubble may be the euro — the single currency of 16 European nations. Having just celebrated its 10th birthday in a free-fall, the euro is being exposed for all of its structural weaknesses.
The euro is managed with a common monetary policy. But a fractured fiscal and political structure has left it without a full toolbox to fight hard times. And this chink in the armor is threatening to make the euro’s life-span short....
Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones in UK
Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance. Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society....
Change: Obama Ends Bush's Disgraceful Contracting out to Private Industry IRS Tax Collection
The Internal Revenue Service is ending a three-year-old program that used private companies to collect overdue taxes, saying the job should be performed by government workers.....
Colbert mocks 'crazy eyes' Beck with 'Doom Bunker' segment (Video)
It's the end of the world as we know it, maybe, according to Glenn Beck. But, at least one fake pundit feels fine cracking wise.
Among media pundits ripe for parody, Beck must seem an easy target, especially for a weathered comedian. After Beck once asked his audience to look into his eyes and see how serious he is, Colbert underwent an on-air anal exam to jokingly one-up the Fox editorialist, finding plenty of red comedic meat in his "crazy eyes."....
Credit Card Company Claims to Talk to Dead People for Debt Collection
There is a New York Times story running on Huffington Post Wednesday about debt collectors attempting to collect debts from dead people. I had a situation that takes it one step further. A collector for MBNA claimed to have talked to my dead mother about her debt. All of the details, including the letter from the debt collector and a copy of her death certificate, are here.....
'Seinfeld' Cast To Appear On 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'
"Seinfeld" isn't coming back, but its stars will be together again this fall on HBO.
The network says that Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards will appear in several episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." The HBO comedy stars Larry David, who helped create "Seinfeld.
What Battered Newsrooms Can Learn From Stewart's CNBC Takedown
The most talked-about journalism of this week wasn't produced in the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek or NPR. It was Jon Stewart's epic, eight-minute takedown on Wednesday night's Daily Show of CNBC's clueless, in-the-tank reporting of inflatable bubbles and blowhard CEOs as the U.S. and world economies slowly slid into a meltdown. You can quibble about Stewart's motives in undertaking the piece -- after he was spurned for an interview by CNBC's faux populist ranter Rick Santelli -- but you can't argue with the results.
The piece wasn't just the laugh-out-loud funniest thing on TV all week...
'I find cheap populism oddly arousing' Stewart mocks CNBC (Video)
Daily Show host Jon Stewart took aim Wednesday at newly minted populist and former derivatives trader Rick Santelli, after he abruptly canceled a guest appearance on his show. Stewart delighted his audience by running through a stream of bad business predictions by Santelli’s own network, CNBC...
U2's Letterman Top 10 List, Sting Mocking (VIDEO)
U2, who are appearing all week as the musical guests on the "Late Show with David Letterman," also took part in delivering the show's nightly "Top 10" list Wednesday. Appropriately titled "Things U2 has learned over the years," it featured good punch lines for each of the band's members and ended with a zinger at Letterman's expense.
But perhaps the best moment was when guitarist the Edge, who was given the task of reading #5--"Cool Name: The Edge. Uncool Name: The Itch"--instead said "Uncool Name: Sting" before correcting himself. Was it an accident or was the Edge mocking his fellow one-name rock star? The look on his face isn't entirely innocent. Take a look to decide for yourself--that particular bit starts at 2:00.
Tuesday's Late Night Round-Up: Meghan McCain, Rush Limbaugh, And Herpes (VIDEO)
Jon Stewart kept after Rush Limbaugh last night by discussing the man's public and private failures and comparing him to Jabba the Hut....
Canadian Asks, 'Say please' at U. S. border nets pepper spray
A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search.
"I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn't. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me," said Desiderio Fortunato, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident who frequently crosses the border to visit his second home in the state of Washington. "Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?"...
Diebold voting system sported 'delete' button: report
...."But the most startling information in the state's 13-page report (.pdf) is not about why the system lost votes, which Threat Level previously covered in detail, but that some versions of Diebold's vote tabulation system, known as the Global Election Management System (GEMS), include a button that allows someone to delete audit logs from the system."...
Bernanke Says Insurer AIG Operated Like a Hedge Fund
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said American International Group Inc. operated like a hedge fund and having to rescue the insurer made him “more angry” than any other episode during the financial crisis.
“If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of one other than AIG,” Bernanke told lawmakers today. “AIG exploited a huge gap in the regulatory system, there was no oversight of the financial- products division, this was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company.".....
Madoff Steals $50 Billion, Wants Wife to Keep $70 Million: Report
Financier Bernard Madoff said his wife should be allowed to keep nearly $70 million worth of assets held in her name, including the Manhattan penthouse where he is currently under house arrest, because they are unrelated to his alleged fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported...
Bailout The Sec: Complete Interview Of Harry Markopolos (Madoff Whistleblower) On CBS 60 Minutes (Video)
Harry Markopolos told the truth about Bernie Madoff. No one listened. Harry Markopolos put together a 29 page document proving that Madoff was a fraud and a ponzi. The SEC didn't understand the vocabulary....
' Worst economic collapse ever' (Video Russian TV)
In 2009 were going to see the worst economic collapse ever, the Greatest Depression, says Gerald Celente, U.S. trend forecaster. He believes its going to be very violent in the U.S., including there being a tax revolt...
Privacy in the Age of Persistence
Welcome to the future, where everything about you is saved. A future where your actions are recorded, your movements are tracked, and your conversations are no longer ephemeral. A future brought to you not by some 1984-like dystopia, but by the natural tendencies of computers to produce data.
Data is the pollution of the information age. It's a natural byproduct of every computer-mediated interaction. It stays around forever, unless it's disposed of. It is valuable when reused, but it must be done carefully. Otherwise, its after effects are toxic.....
Judge orders defendant to decrypt PGP-protected laptop
A federal judge has ordered a criminal defendant to decrypt his hard drive by typing in his PGP passphrase so prosecutors can view the unencrypted files, a ruling that raises serious concerns about self-incrimination in an electronic age. In an abrupt reversal, U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Vermont ruled that Sebastien Boucher, who a border guard claims had child porn on his Alienware laptop, does not have a Fifth Amendment right to keep the files encrypted.
"Boucher is directed to provide an unencrypted version of the Z drive viewed by the ICE agent," Sessions wrote in an opinion last week, referring to Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. Police claim to have viewed illegal images on the laptop at the border, but say they couldn't access the Z: drive when they tried again nine days after Boucher was arrested.....
Extraordinary Measures
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.....
Obama Justice department releases Bush Terror War Memos
The U.S. military could have kicked in doors to raid a suspected terrorist cell in the United States without a warrant under a Bush-era legal memo the Justice Department made public Monday.
The memo, from Oct. 23, 2001, also said constitutional free-speech protections and a prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure could take a back seat to military needs in fighting terrorism inside the country. It was one of nine previously undisclosed memos and legal opinions which shed light on former U.S. President George W. Bush's legal guidance as he launched a war against terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.
They depict an administration apparently determined to expand the president's power after the shock of Sept. 11, and add fuel to critics' charges that fundamental constitutional protections were threatened in the process....
Text of Bush Terror War (War on the Bill of Rights) Memos
Below are previously inaccessible memos written by Bush administration officials outlining their reasons for why the military had the right to warrantless wiretaps and warrantless search and seizures of people in the U.S. they deemed to be terrorist suspects. The Obama administration released the memos. Read them below.
Justice Department will stop medical marijuana raids, Attorney General says
In a little-noticed remark Wednesday, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries established under state laws but technically prohibited by the federal government. The decision marks a shift from the Bush Administration, which was more draconian in its approach to hunting those who sought to dispense marijuana for medical purposes......
Radio chip coming soon to your driver's license?
Homeland Security seeks next-generation REAL ID
Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that ultimately could provide electronic identification for every adult in the U.S. and allow agents to compile attendance lists at anti-government rallies simply by walking through the assembly.......
UK: Contingency Plan for Deployment of British Army
in Case of Bank Riots
TOP secret contingency plans have been drawn up to counter the threat posed by a “summer of discontent” in Britain. The “double-whammy” of the worst economic crisis in living memory and a motley crew of political extremists determined to stir up civil disorder has led to the extraordinary step of the Army being put on standby. MI5 and Special Branch are targeting activists they fear could inflame anger over job losses and payouts to failed bankers........
Ukraine risks unrest as ills worsen
Olexander Pavlenko, a young computer programmer, is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainians who cannot get their money out of the bank. He stood in line in Kiev at Nadra Bank and Ukrprombank, two big troubled banks, planning to withdraw more than $10,000 (€7,950, £7,125). But like many others, he was told the cash was not available.....
Dow Falls Below 6,800 DOWN 4%; Lowest Close Since ’97
Investor worries about the economy in general, and financial companies in particular, continued to erode the markets on Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average fell below 7,000 for first time since October 1997....
Propping Up a House of Cards
Next week, perhaps as early as Monday, the American International Group is going to report the largest quarterly loss in history. Rumors suggest it will be around $60 billion, which will affirm, yet again, A.I.G.’s sorry status as the most crippled of all the nation’s wounded financial institutions. The recent quarterly losses suffered by Merrill Lynch and Citigroup — “only” $15.4 billion and $8.3 billion, respectively — pale by comparison....At the same time A.I.G. reveals its loss, the federal government is also likely to announce — yet again! — a new plan to save A.I.G., the third since September. So far the government has thrown $150 billion at the company, in loans, investments and equity injections, to keep it afloat. It has softened the terms it set for the original $85 billion loan it made back in September. To ease the pressure even more, the Federal Reserve actually runs a facility that buys toxic assets that A.I.G. had insured. A.I.G. effectively has been nationalized, with the government owning a hair under 80 percent of the stock. Not that it’s worth very much; A.I.G. shares closed Friday at 42 cents...
Hedge Funds Pulling Most of Their Money Out of Market at the End of Each Day
In October, the Washington Post wrote:
The largest swings have often occurred during the last hour of trading, prompting a closer look by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a nongovernmental regulator of securities firms. The end of the trading day is when institutional investors, including hedge funds and mutual funds, rush to meet client demands to pull cash out of the market, analysts said.
Today, trader Tyler Durden wrote about a tip he received from a trusted source: the average equity hedge fund is 70% in cash at the end of each trading day. Durden comments:
Explains why the market performs like a schizophrenic day trader, as investors try to game the greater fool in unison, running the market up and down especially in market leading sectors such as financials. As long as a fund is not the last man in, the first 50% in any wave are set to make profits. While this has long been the modus operandi for ... notable algo trading outfits ..., the fact that it is spreading to most hedgies is shocking ....
An Insider Spills the Beans on Offshore Banking Centers
The oil industry created the practice of countries (SHIPS?) flying "flags of convenience" as a means of avoiding income taxes nearly a century ago. Since the 1960s the U.S. Government itself has encouraged American banks to set up branches in Caribbean hot-money centers and more distant islands as a means of attracting foreign money into the dollar. The initial aim was to help finance the Vietnam War by turning America into a new Switzerland for the world's hot money.
This policy succeeded in turning the United States into a flight-capital center for third-world dictators, Mexican presidents and Russian oligarchs. The former Soviet Union now finances a substantial portion of the U.S. balance-of-payments deficit with the flight capital that neoliberal "reformers" facilitated by backing the kleptocrats. The result has grown into a full-blown system enabling multinational corporations to evade taxes everywhere, including the United States itself. It enables domestic investors to globalize their operations by setting up offshore affiliates Enron-style in the Cayman Islands, Dutch West Indies or some small and newly notorious Pacific Island of their choice...
Financial Follies: Is the Fed Encouraging Credit Card Company Foot-Dragging?
On Tuesday, I wrote about how, in December, the Federal Reserve approved new rules curtailing some -- but by no means all -- of the more egregious practices of the credit card industry. But, surprisingly, the rules are not scheduled to go into effect until July 2010. Why, I wondered, this 18-month long delay before making the banks clean up their acts?
Sen. Robert Menendez, one of the real leaders in the Congressional battle for credit card reform, had the same question. Looking for answers, he sent letters to the CEOs of the six biggest credit card issuers, urging them not to wait. "Because of the great danger facing our economy," he wrote, "it is important that you institute the protections, as outlined in the recent regulations, as soon as possible."
Blogging on HuffPost, Sen. Menendez reports that five of the companies responded "and all but one claimed it was too much of a burden to do it any faster."
To hear the credit card companies tell it, curbing such practices as raising interest rates on pre-existing balances, and implementing rules allowing consumers a reasonable amount of time to make their credit card payments is no easy feat.
Is Ireland fated to be another Iceland?
What separates Ireland from Iceland? According to a local joke, the letter C. According to Morgan Kelly, about six months.
The stunning fall of Iceland late last year and the spreading contagion of the financial crisis have ignited fears - fanned by bloggers, analysts and a small group of outspoken economists like Kelly - that Ireland, another small, open economy plagued by deficits and an outsize banking industry with incalculable losses, may suffer a similar fate....
Basic Algebra: What Will the Verdict Be? (Video)
(Trial for Bush/Cheney &....)
By John Cusack
Try them, and let a jury decide. We know ours is not a nation of cowards. What will our leaders do?....
NSA aims to expand power: Eavesdropping agency looks to take over cybersecurity
The spy shop that brought you the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program wants to expand its power under President Barack Obama, the nation's top intelligence chief told Congress Wednesday, in a little-noticed intelligence grab. While acknowledging that many distrust the agency for its role in eavesdropping, Obama Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair said he believed the agency should expand into a permanent role in handling government cybersecurity efforts.
In essence, his agency's move is an effort to take the responsibilities away from the Homeland Security Department. The head of Obama's cybersecurity transition team, Paul Kurtz, said he supports giving the NSA more power in handling cybersecurity.....
"Believe it or not this is a great idea. DHS is filled with political people who change with each administration at the top levels and is over it's head with problems, FEMA, Immigration, smuggling...ETC. The Bush administration even required Windows computers be used exclusively in DHS.....Not sure I want Microsoft software or platforms protecting our country in the event of a CYBER-Attack......The NSA is staffed with intelligence professionals, and military personel. So giving the NSA rather than DHS control of Cyber Security would seem like a no brainer." Willy Bova
Court of Appeals Denies DOJ Attempt to Hide Evidence of Warrantless Wiretapping
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco today rejected the Obama Justice Department’s attempt to continue to conceal evidence of warrantless wiretapping.
As I wrote in my story today, the government filed an emergency appeal last week hoping to halt the release of documents showing that the National Security Agency, under President George W. Bush, had secretly wiretapped the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation — a Saudi charity with an office in Oregon that the government deemed a terrorist organization and shut down. Al-Haramain and its lawyers, who claim they were also wiretapped, need the documents (which they’ve already seen because the government released it accidentally) to proceed with their lawsuit against government officials.....
Russian bomber neared Canada before Obama visit
Canadian fighters planes scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa last week, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said on Friday. The long-range Bear bomber did not enter Canada's Arctic airspace but the two CF-18 fighters had to order the plane to "back off", MacKay told a news conference.
He also told reporters that Russia had not warned Canada that the flight was coming, a statement that a Russian government source in Moscow dismissed as farcical....
Russia's Putin warns against economic protests
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned opposition critics on Friday not to use the economic crisis as an excuse to challenge his government and told them to abide by the law. Unrest across Russia over economic upheaval has been muted, with the biggest protests so far taking place in the Far East port of Vladivostok where hundreds were arrested in January demonstrations over car tax......
We Can't Make It Here Anymore (Music Video, Very Good)
by James Mcmurtry
JAPAN: EXPORTS DOWN 45.7 PERCENT FROM A YEAR EARLIER
Japan’s exports plunged 45.7 percent in January from a year earlier, resulting in a record trade deficit, as recessions in the U.S. and Europe smothered demand for the country’s cars and electronics. The shortfall widened to 952.6 billion yen ($9.9 billion), the biggest since 1980, the earliest year for which there is comparable data, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo. The drop in shipments abroad eclipsed a record 35 percent decline set the previous month......
Ron Paul delivers opening statement during HFSC hearing (Video)
The congressman from Texas spoke all the way through to a premature commercial break on a live CNBC broadcast this morning. The House Financial Services Committee, headed by Rep. Barney Frank, met today to hear the testimony of Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Before they could get to that, however, there was a short but wide-reaching statement delivered by Ron Paul....
Kill The Messenger
By Sibel Edmonds - (Video Documentary)
Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistleblower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington’s highest levels—sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage….
McDonald's: No workers comp for employee shot protecting patron
(Time for a Boycott?)
Fast food giant McDonald's has denied workers compensation benefits to a minimum wage employee who was shot when he ejected a customer who had been beating a woman inside the restaurant.....
Obama: Health Reform ‘Will Not Wait Another Year’ (Video)
"I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year." President Obama
Obama’s urgency is well placed. Skyrocketing health care costs are threatening the country’s economic stability and Congress cannot help American families or address the economic woes “in a lasting, meaningful way without health care reform.”
Indeed, his budget will include a “historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform – a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.”
The Credit Card Debt Crisis: The Next Economic Domino
Hot on the heels of the banking crisis, the employment crisis, and the mortgage/foreclosure crisis, the country is on the verge of experiencing a credit card crisis.
According to the Federal Reserve, the total outstanding credit card debt carried by Americans reached a record $951 billion in 2008 -- a number that will only climb higher as more and more people reach for the plastic to make ends meet. What's more, roughly a third of that is debt held by risky borrowers with low credit ratings.
Credit card defaults are on the rise and are expected to hit 10 percent this year. This will obviously drive many banks closer to failing their stress tests -- but it will have an even greater impact on the lives of people who find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into debt...
New Rules Bill Maher - Hang the Banksters (Video Humor)
Bill Maher is back with a Chinese answer to our financial problems....