JFK and the Unspeakable
by James W. Douglass
....This is one of the few books on the Kennedy case that I actually wished was longer. In the purest sense, Jim Douglass is not a natural writer. But it seems to me he has labored meticulously to fashion a well organized, thoroughly documented, and felicitously composed piece of workmanship that is both comprehensible and easy to read. These attributes do not extend from simplicity of design or lack of ambition. This book takes in quite a lot of territory. In some ways it actually extends the frontier. In others it actually opens new paths. To achieve that kind of scope with a relative economy of means, and to make the experience both fast and pleasant, is quite an achievement.
I should inform the reader at the outset: this is not just a book about JFK's assassination. I would estimate that the book is 2/3 about Kennedy's presidency and 1/3 about his assassination....
JFK’s Murder
Many books have attempted to explain why JFK was murdered. A recent one, JFK and the Unspeakable by James Douglass, does the best job in my opinion. See a review here by Democratic Underground.
"Regicide" by Gregory Douglas explains how the assassination was carried out. The author uses documents obtained from the late Robert T. Crowley, former Assistant Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations for the CIA. His career with the agency began at its inception in 1947 and ended with his retirement in the mid 80’s. He was involved in most of the important operations.
Crowley’s instructions to the author were that the documents could not be used or attributed to him during his lifetime. When he died in Oct of 2000, this embargo was lifted
Four of the chapters examine:
the facts of the assassination
Lee Harvey Oswald
Jack Rubenstein ("Ruby")
the official cover up
Included in these chapters are translations of the Soviet Intelligence Study, excerpts from the official Warren Commission Report, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s analysis and the author’s comments.....
....Operation "ZIPPER" (the forced removal of JFK)
This was the code name known within the agency – "this operation was implemented with the help, approval and/or knowledge of the FBI, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson under the aegis of the CIA."
The "ZIPPER" document reveals the names and official positions of those who directed the killers.
LBJ....
Bill Hicks and the JFK Assassination (Video)
I love this quote from the late great Bill Hicks:
no matter what promises you make on the campaign trail - blah, blah, blah - when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down... and it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll.... And then the screen comes up, the lights come on, and they say to the new president, 'Any questions?'
"Just what my agenda is."
United Breaks Guitars
(Video, Very Good 2 Million Views in a Week, Check out the comment section for Great Comedy)
In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming...
Stuff That’s Missing From the Inspectors General Report on Warrantless Surveillance
1. Any ballpark estimate — any number at all, really — of how many Americans had their communications intercepted by the NSA through the “President’s Surveillance Program.” The fact that this is missing from an inspectors general report is a glaring oversight.
2. The error rate in collecting terrorism communications. According to the inspectors general of the CIA, FBI and NSA, much if not most of the information collected by the program was unrelated to terrorism. The NSA inspector general found “no evidence of intentional misuse” of the surveillance efforts. Which is groovy. But it still doesn’t tell us how much irrelevant data the program collected, which is a crucial question when determining its efficacy.
3. How much so-called Fruit of the Poisoned Tree resulted. That’s a legal doctrine referring to evidence that has to be thrown out of court. Long story short: if an investigation or a technique to get information is inadmissible in court, no evidence yielded by such methods can be used either. Warrantless surveillance is most certainly a case that would generate inadmissible evidence. That’s one of the issues at stake in yesterday’s al-Haramain filing that I wrote about. And it’s huge. If information from warrantless surveillance made its way into indictments or prosecutions, then those cases are jeopardized. That’s the sort of thing that lets terrorists out on the streets.
Check this out, for instance: the Justice Department “was aware as early as 2002 that information collected under the PSP could have implications for DOJ’s litigation responsibilities under Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 16 and Brady v. Maryland.” Rule 16 and Brady prevent prosecutors from withholding germane information from a defendant — like, you know, whether part or all of an investigation is based on an illegal search. But what happened? “[N]o DOJ attorneys with terrorism prosecution responsibilities were read into the PSP until mid-2004, and as a result DOJ continued to lack the advice of attorneys who were best equipped to identify and examine the discovery issues in connection with the PSP.” That means that from 2001 to 2004, U.S. attorneys could have been given — from FBI or intelligence officials — information relevant to a terrorism prosecution that they would have no way of knowing came from a poisoned tree like the PSP, and could therefore never have disclosed that fact to defense counsel. And yet the report doesn’t tell us how often that happened.
Relatedly, this is dense but important:
Chapters Three and Six of the DOJ IG [inspector general] report describe how DOJ and the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court] addressed the impact PSP-derived information had on the FISA process. The DOJ IG concluded that it was foreseeable that [PSP-derived] information might impact the process and that the initial delay in reading anyone from DOJ’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR) or the [FISA Court] into the PSP unnecessarily jeopardized DOJ’s relationship with the Court.....
Was Bush Kept In The Dark On DOJ Concerns About Surveillance?
ne passage on the IGs report on surveillance suggests something that perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise -- that President Bush was kept in the dark by members of the White House staff about about serious objections to the surveillance program raised by others in the administration.....
Bush Personally Sent Card And Gonzo To Ashcroft's Hospital Bed
This great catch by Marcy Wheeler might be the most shocking nugget of all from the IGs report on surveillance.
The report goes into some detail about that famous visit made by Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales to then-AG John Ashcroft, when Ashcroft was in the hospital, and essentially incapacitated, after gall bladder surgery. The White House needed the Attorney General's sign-off to continue its warrantless wiretapping program.
For years, there's been a mystery about who called the hospital and informed Ashcroft's wife, over her objections, that Card and Gonzo would be coming to see the AG. And it looks like the answer is the president himself....
PDF Link to IG Report on Warrantless Wiretapping Programs
Last year, Congress directed intelligence agency Inspectors General to prepare an unclassified report on the Bush Administration’s warrantless surveillance program. That report has just been released. It traces the origins, implementation, and utilization of the Program, and discusses the legal questions surrounding its development. See Unclassified Report on the President’s Surveillance Program (pdf), Joint Inspector General Report, 10 July 2009....
Go;dman Sachs Using Plunge Protection Team Data to Execute Trades
....GS has special access inside the system from its status assisting the Working Group on Financial Markets (colloquially the Plunge Protection Team) created by Presidential Order two decades ago. GC also acts as Special Liquidity Provider for NYSE.
With 60% dominance of NYSE program trading, what's good for Goldman defines what shows as overall market performance.
Control of to network and server access codes is unclear. A number of shops run their network and job control operations with UNIX shell scripts. Bloomberg and Merrill are typical. Problem with shell scripts is that they get run with superuser credentials -- soon as you have 1000 scripts, everybody gets access to the passwords....
California Dreamin': How the State Can Beat Its Budget Woes
.....If private banks can create credit on their books, so can the world’s eighth largest economy. Indeed, there is longstanding precedent for this approach. The State of North Dakota has owned its own bank for nearly a century. North Dakota is one of only two States (along with Montana) that are not currently facing budget shortfalls. North Dakota has beaten the Wall Street credit freeze by generating its own credit. By law, ever since 1919 the State’s revenues have been deposited in its own bank, the Bank of North Dakota (BND). Using the “fractional reserve” lending scheme open to all banks, these deposits are then available to be used as the “reserves” for creating many times their face value in loans. Other banks in the State do not see the BND as a threat, because it partners with them and backstops them, serving as a sort of central bank for North Dakota. BND’s loans are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) but are guaranteed by the State.
If California followed suit....
Minnesota GOP Writes Big Check To... Senator Al Franken
....The Minnesota Republican Party has tied off a remaining loose end from the epic, eight-month battle to determine a winner in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, sending Democratic Sen. Al Franken's campaign a check for almost $96,000 that was owed to him by Republican former Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign....
Top Ten Messages On Sarah Palin's Answering Machine (VIDEO)
As our own Jason Linkins pointed out, Letterman is one of the few comedians who needn't mourn Sarah Palin's passing off stage. After their feud this year, Letterman ended up apologizing (twice) and Palin became a touchy subject on his show for the weeks after. Now that she's resigned Dave is back in full Palin-joke form.
Monday night he spent the bulk of his monologue mocking her and last night he did a Sarah Palin top ten (without calling her a slutty flight attendant). In last night's list he managed to mock John McCain, George Bush, and himself all the while lancing Palin and her decision to step down....
U.S. Federal Prosecutor: Stolen Goldman Sachs Software Could be Used to “Manipulate Markets in Unfair Ways”
The purported theft of a Goldman Sachs trading platform threatens to cost it millions of dollars, a prosecutor told a court, but so far the bank has not reported damage to its business. Questions were raised about the security of proprietary trading systems at a court hearing on July 4 for a former Goldman computer programmer arrested on a charge of stealing the information, which was copied to a server in Germany....
Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs
The New York Stock Exchange quietly announced last week that it would end its practice of requiring companies to report all their program trading — a move that helps shield large investment banks, particularly Goldman Sachs, from public scrutiny.
The new rule means the public will no longer be able to tell if large investment banks are manipulating the stock market for their own gain, says Matt Taibbi, the journalist whose Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachs’ role in asset bubbles over the past century has rocked the financial world.....
Programmer Steals Software That Runs Goldman Sachs’
Automated Trading Systems
Don’t miss the following Zero Hedge piece for more: Is A Case Of Quant Trading Sabotage About To Destroy Goldman Sachs?
In the 5 days immediately preceeding his departure from “Financial Institution” (potentially GS), Sergey allegedly downloaded 32 megs of ultra top-secret quant trading proprietary code, that, according to Special Agent McSwain’s affidavit, he then proceeded to encrypt and upload to a website in Germany, with a UK owner. One can only imagine the value of this “code” not only to Goldman but to the highest bidder. After all, from the affidavit: “certain features of the [code], such as speed and efficiency by which it obtains and processes market data, gives the Financial Institution a competitive advantage among other firms that also engage in high-volume automated trading.The Financial Institution further believes that, if competing firms were to obtain the [code] and use its features, the Financial Institution's ability to profit from the [code]'s speed and efficiency would be significantly diminished." Needless to say, many others are now also likely hot on the trail of the code.....
How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue
General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks.At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE....
Alaskans say Palin had gone fishin' on the job
As surprised fans and critics of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin traded guesses behind her decision to resign more than a year before her term ends, the former vice presidential candidate offered few hints at her political future, except to say she'd gone fishing....
The Myth of How the Media Destroyed Palin
t's been amusing to observe, in the past few days, Sarah Palin hit the media (from blogs to the New York Times) for causing all of her troubles, even threatening to sue some of them for "defaming" her. She's even tweeted the charges, repeatedly. It's been equally fun to read some of those who backed her and John McCain last fall now admitting, after her resignation speech, that she is a true lightweight. This was apparent to most Americans within days of her emergence on the national ticket late last summer.......
Palin slams the media as Alaska's Republican Senator Murkowski slams Palin
( New York Post reports that Levi Johnston, Palin's daughter's baby daddy, is planning to write a "tell-all" book about the Palin clan)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), whose Senate term expires in 2010, may have had a possible Senate run by Palin in mind when she slammed the Alaska governor in the press on Friday, saying that she was "deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded."....
Happy Birthday America, 233 years old, and No Bush's Hold Elective or Appointed Office, A Reason To Celebrate Big Time This Year....
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security......
Hug A Comedian Today, They lost Some Great Material Today... and Sarah, Don't Let the Door hit you in the Ass.... Maybe We Will Find Out Who Finally Paid for Those Doors on Your House...
CNN and other major news outlets have reported that Sarah Palin has abruptly resigned as governor of Alaska. The suddenness of her announcement raises the question about whether Palin resigned to avert a major scandal. One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.
Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.....
It Came from Wasilla
Despite her disastrous performance in the 2008 election, Sarah Palin is still the sexiest brand in Republican politics, with a lucrative book contract for her story. But what Alaska’s charismatic governor wants the public to know about herself doesn’t always jibe with reality. As John McCain’s top campaign officials talk more candidly than ever before about the meltdown of his vice-presidential pick, the author tracks the signs—political and personal—that Palin was big trouble, and checks the forecast for her future.....
George Carlin -"Who Really Controls America" (Video)
After Reading Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone Piece on Goldmans Sachs, The Great American Bubble Machine, Watch George Carlin's Take on Who Really Owns US. George Carlin was a Prophet, Blazing a Trail of Truth, Through America's Long Decline under the Rule of the Bush Dynasty, That Lasted from 12:30 PM, 11-22-63 till noon 1-20-2009. America's Recovery from 46 years of Lies, Lies, and Damn Lies, will take a Long Long Time. This Independence Day Remember, America is not a Destination it is a Journey, That has a Long way to Go.... Willy Bova
Jon Stewart On The Governor That Went "Hiking" Over Fathers Day in Argentina (Video)
Gov. Mark Sanford’s bizarre press conference in which he revealed his Argentina “disappearance” revolved around marital infidelity was the top story last Wednesday. Daily Show host Jon Stewart noted that the Republican needed an “act from God” to get himself off the front pages. Then the “King of Pop” passed away last Thursday.
“Boy, you can imagine the sentiment around the Sanford camp,” Stewart mocked, before shouting in a happy and excited voice: “Hey everybody did you hear the tragic news?”
Stewart then pantomimed the Sanford campaign team celebrating and giving each other high fives.
“All he has to down is keep his head down, not say anything, and the whole thing will blow over,” Stewart continued, before showing a clip about how Sanford had revealed more infidelities to the Associated Press.
“God killed Michael Jackson to save your ass!” Stewart screamed.
Stewart later played a clip of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Reverend Philip Linder saying, “Many of us are praying that he goes into a more silent mode.”
“That’s actually Episcopalian for shut the f*ck up,” Stewart joked.
Colbert: The Clinton Curse, and Fox News calls Hurricane Katrina a Democrat (Video)
...Colbert then went on to address Fox News’ flub last week when the network identified South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, as a Democrat.
“Look, I get it,” Colbert said. “When someone misbehaves it’s natural to assume he’s a Democrat, even when he’s the head of the Republican Governors’ Association. After all, Fox made the same mistake with Mark Foley and Hurricane Katrina.”
Jon Stewart blasts former CIA analyst for rooting for bin Laden attack (Video)
Perhaps it’s a form of Stockholm Syndrome.
The same person who spent nearly a decade fruitlessly leading the CIA unit charged with finding Osama bin Laden now seems to be rooting for him.
Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer told Fox News’ Glenn Beck Tuesday night, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”
According to his bio, “From 1996 to 1999, [Scheuer] served as the Chief of the bin Laden unit (aka Alec Station), the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorism Center. He then worked as Special Adviser to the Chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004.
Happy Canada Day, 142 Years Young!
Video About Canada, the SPP and the North American Union
Goldman Sachs: The Wall Street Bubble Mafia
By Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who’s Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.
By now, most of us know the major players. As George Bush’s last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton’s former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup – which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There’s John Thain, the rear end in a top hat chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibillion-dollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain’s sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden parachute payments as his bank was self-destructing. There’s Joshua Bolten, Bush’s chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director whom Paulson put in charge of bailed-out insurance giant AIG, which forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board. The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York – which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman – not to mention …
Jon Stewart: Cheney's 'nuts may be the size of baby elephants'
(Video)
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been critical of the plan to pull US troops out of Iraq cities. Did he forget that those plans were made while he was in office? Jon Stewart thinks Cheney may have a medical condition which causes him to forget inconvenient facts.
"You know what, Sourpuss McMonkeyheart is right," Stewart said. "What idiot came up with the idea to pull troops out of Iraqi cities by June of '09?"
Stewart then played a video of former President George W. Bush talking about the plan last December...
Fox News Blows a Gasket Over Senator Deahead Franken's Unanimous Victory (Video)
Here's a fun dose of schadenfreude.
Sen.-elect Al Franken's (D-MN) long-awaited victory in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race seems to have caused quite a lot of stress in the Murdoch-owned press. Remember, this is the same corporation that sued him for his Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them book back in 2003, with the unintended consequence of giving him tons of free publicity to sell books -- and elevating him into being a hero of liberal activists, without which he might never have become a politician!
On Fox News yesterday evening, Glenn Beck was quite alarmed by the development...
It's Unanimous, Deadhead Al Franken, is the 60th Democratic Senator,
Norm Coleman is Now a Verb for Sore Loser....
The Minnesota Supreme Court has handed down its much-expected ruling in the heavily-litigated Minnesota Senate race from 2008 -- and it's a unanimous one -- deciding against Republican former Sen. Norm Coleman's appeal of his defeat in the election trial and affirming the lower court's verdict that Democratic comedian Al Franken is the legitimate winner of the race...
Franken vs. Coleman: Our Top 10 Moments,
What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
It's been a strange eight months following the Minnesota elections. Here are 10 of our very favorite moments (post election), care of TPMDC reporter (and Franken-Coleman authority) Eric Kleefeld:
Nov. 5: Franken Says Race "Too Close to Call"
The day after the election, Franken releases a statement vowing that the race is not over. He doesn't know the half of it..
Jon Stewart: CIA hopes Wall St. geniuses will help other
‘calm, stable countries to collapse’
.....“Economics, finance and business professionals, if the quest for the bottom line is just not enough for you, the Central Intelligence Agency has a mission like no other,” a radio ad announced about the openings. “Join CIA’s directorate of intelligence and be a part of our global mission as an economic or financial analyst. Make a difference in your career and for your nation.”
Stewart joked, “The CIA specializes in taking calm, stable countries and causing them to collapse, why would they want people who ran Banks…”
“Brilliant,” Stewart applauded after a short pause....
Insurance Firms Fear Public Option Will Kill Their Near-Monopolies
....The report, released by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), uses data compiled by the American Medical Association to show that 94 percent of the country's insurance markets are defined as "highly concentrated," according to Justice Department guidelines. Predictably, that's led to skyrocketing costs for patients, and monster profits for the big health insurers. Premiums have gone up over the past six years by more than 87 percent, on average, while profits at ten of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007.
Far from healthy market competition, HCAN describes the situation as "a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate."....
Billionaire Madoff tied to intelligence agencies
....The day before Madoff was arrested, he sent a "package" to Citibank's private banking facility at 850 Lexington Avenue. Usually when Madoff Securities sent out a "package," a set of documents in an 8 1/2 x 11 inch envelope authorizing electronic funds transfers, there was always a signed receipt from Citibank. One exception was "packages" personally sent by Madoff to Citibank. On December 10, Madoff sent a "package" to Citibank with no receipt from the private banking service. That evening Madoff attended the company's annual Christmas party, which had always been held on December 17. Madoff was reportedly not acting normal and his wife Ruth was trying to play the gregarious role normally handled by Madoff in previous parties. WMR's inside source believes that Madoff knew then that he was facing arrest the next day......
Ponzi Scum Madof Sentenced To 150 Years In Prison
Barring extraordinary developments, Bernie Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The Wall Street swindler has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for swindling investors out of many billions of dollars, reports the AP. That was the sentence prosecutors had been seeking. The federal probation department had asked for 50 years. Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, had argued that both figures were excessive -- but the judge sided with prosecutors....
Madoff may not have benefited most in scam
Client Jeffry Picower allegedly withdrew $5.1 billion from accounts...
....Between December 1995 and December 2008, Picower and his family withdrew from their various Madoff accounts $5.1 billion more than they invested with the self-confessed swindler, according to a lawsuit filed by the trustee who is trying to recover money for those Madoff defrauded....
Healthcare industry spending $1.4 million - a day - on lobbyists
The healthcare industry is spending upwards of $1.4 million each day on average to lobby members of Congress on health care legislation, a report issued by Common Cause this week reveals. Industry spending has nearly doubled since 2000. Healthcare interests contributed $94 million to Congress members during the 2008 election cycle alone — up from $40 million in 2000...
The NSA’s new data-mining facility is one component of a growing local surveillance industry
......Does automated data mining even work?
While the opening of the NSA’s massive new data center heightens existing civil-rights concerns, a new report from the National Research Council questions whether such data-mining is even effective. Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation and released in October of this year, the report suggests that pattern-based data-mining is not even a viable way to identify terrorists.
The 352-page study —“Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists” — concludes that identification of terrorists through automated data-mining “is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts.” It also says inevitable false positives will result in “ordinary, law-abiding citizens and businesses” being erroneously flagged as suspects.....
Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance:" Part I
.....Engdahl's newest book is reviewed below. Titled "Full Strectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order," it discusses America's grand strategy, first revealed in the 1998 US Space Command document - Vision for 2020. Later released in 2000 as DOD Joint Vision 2020, it called for "full spectrum dominance" over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary, including with nuclear weapons preemptively....
How the Wall Street Bankers Bought Congress
You would think that causing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression might have repercussions. You would think being a major factor in the destruction of around 40 percent of the world’s wealth might get you in trouble. You would think being the cause of the worst housing crisis in history — with millions of people losing their homes because of you — might force a restructuring of how Wall Street does things.
You would think that. But you’d be wrong.....
The Big Takeover
It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire....
Ex-insurance exec confesses health insurers dump sick people
A retired health insurance executive — in a shocking but not terribly surprising admission — confessed Wednesday that insurance companies deliberately confuse policyholders and attempt to dump sick patients to plump their profit margins. “[T]hey confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors,” former Cigna senior executive Wendell Potter...
Public health plan could save $1.8 Trillion...
and Scew Insurance Companies, Too Bad So Sad...
A nationwide health insurance exchange that includes a Medicare-like government option could save $1.8 trillion more than if only private plans are offered, a prominent private U.S. health policy group said on Wednesday. Federal spending on health-related costs would still rise from 2010 to 2020, but they would be less with a plan that pays doctors and hospital rates similar to the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund.....