George W Bush's Buddy, Ponzi Scum Sir Allen Stanford Complains about Prison, Too Bad So Sad....
Allen Stanford, the Texas banker charged with orchestrating an $8 billion fraud, isn't too happy behind bars, it seems. His attorney, the heavy-hitting criminal defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin, has filed papers calling conditions at the federal detention facility north of Houston where Stanford is being held "oppressive," and asking that the cricket-loving billionaire be moved.
DeGuerin notes that "during the hottest part of the summer, with outside temperatures of 100 degrees or more," Stanford is being held in a facility that was without air conditioning "for at least a week" during a recent power outage.
According to the filing, Stanford is housed in a single cell with as many as ten other men. "There are no windows for light or ventilation and the conditions are intolerable," the filing says.
The filing also notes that Stanford is unable to consult with his attorneys or review evidence at the facility, since most of the evidence is on computer files and the facility does not allow inmates to use computers. No word on whether Stanford would also prefer that a larger menu of food options be made available to him...
Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare for its sick poor
Wendell Potter can remember exactly when he took the first steps on his journey to becoming a whistleblower and turning against one of the most powerful industries in America.
It was July 2007 and Potter, a senior executive at giant US healthcare firm Cigna, was visiting relatives in the poverty-ridden mountain districts of northeast Tennessee. He saw an advert in a local paper for a touring free medical clinic at a fairground just across the state border in Wise County, Virginia.
Potter, who had worked at Cigna for 15 years, decided to check it out. What he saw appalled him. Hundreds of desperate people, most without any medical insurance, descended on the clinic from out of the hills. People queued in long lines to have the most basic medical procedures carried out free of charge. Some had driven more than 200 miles from Georgia. Many were treated in the open air. Potter took pictures of patients lying on trolleys on rain-soaked pavements.
For Potter it was a dreadful realisation that healthcare in America had failed millions of poor, sick people and that he, and the industry he worked for, did not care about the human cost of their relentless search for profits. "It was over-powering. It was just more than I could possibly have imagined could be happening in America," he told the Observer...
72 Million Americans are either uninsured or underinsured...
President Obama will be promoting health care reform this week in Virginia and North Carolina, and plans to keep the pressure on Congress during next month's recess. One argument for health care reform is that 47 million Americans are uninsured.
But not everyone knows that another 25 million are underinsured as CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports.
John Stewardson is up at dawn, working for the local 602 union in Washington, D.C. But by 11:30 a.m., he's home fixing lunch for his ailing wife Linda, a cancer survivor....
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOUR BLACKBERRY
With every high-tech gadget we buy, we give up a little more privacy. Many devices today are in constant communication with their manufacturer. And it's not just consumers who are losing their rights -- the technology gives authoritarian states whole new ways of keeping tabs on individuals.
Don't look now, but no matter where you go, you're connected. We -- or most of us, at least -- have opened our front doors to large corporations, hardware manufacturers, software firms and search engines. We have allowed them to rifle through our jacket pockets and handbags. And now they can do as they wish with us, or do the bidding of the powers-that-be -- in the form of a totalitarian government, for example.
Don't believe it? Well, consider a recent incident involving the Internet bookseller Amazon and two works by -- ironically enough -- George Orwell. Amazon had been selling the titles, "1984" and "Animal Farm," to owners of its Kindle reader, the special e-book device the bookseller developed. However, it turned out that the publishers of the Orwell books didn't own the electronic rights to the works. And so, to the surprise of buyers, Amazon erased the two books -- which had been paid for and delivered -- from the electronic reader. Amazon's readers had unwittingly purchased pirate copies, it turned out....
Cable TV Workers Trained To Spy On Citizens
One of the largest cable TV companies in the United States is training its employees to look for suspicious behavior and report it to police under the guise of a neighborhood watch initiative. Since according to law enforcement and Homeland Security guidelines, suspicious behavior includes owning guns, being politically active, and having bumper stickers on your car, the cable guy’s next visit to your house may turn out to have more interesting consequences than you originally anticipated.....
Elliot Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job: (Video)
The Federal Reserve — the quasi-autonomous body that controls the US’s money supply — is a “Ponzi scheme” that created “bubble after bubble” in the US economy and needs to be held accountable for its actions, says Eliot Spitzer, the former governor and attorney-general of New York.
In a wide-ranging discussion of the bank bailouts on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting, host Dylan Ratigan described the process by which the Federal Reserve exchanged $13.9 trillion of bad bank debt for cash that it gave to the struggling banks....
The rich have never had it so good
Here's a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it's been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.
But what really makes the ultra-wealthy so fortunate, what truly separates this moment from a run-of-the-mill Gilded Age, is the unprecedented protection the 1-percenters have bought for themselves on the most pressing issues. To review: With 22,000 Americans dying each year because they lack health insurance, Congress is considering universal healthcare legislation financed by a surcharge on income above $280,000 -- that is, a levy almost exclusively on 1-percenters. This surtax would graze just 5 percent of small businesses and would recoup only part of the $700 billion the 1-percenters received from the Bush tax cuts. In fact, it is so minuscule, those making $1 million annually would pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year -- or nine-tenths of 1 percent of their 12-month haul....
The Wall Street Rally: Watch Your Wallets
By Robert Reich
Been Down So Long It Seems Like Up To Me, the precocious 1966 novel by the late Richard Farina, defined the late 1960s counterculture. The stock market rally that's pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average back above 9000 for the first time since early January could be given the same title, and it might well come to define the much-wished-for financial recovery.
What's pushing the stock market upward? Mainly, unexpectedly positive second-quarter corporate profits. But those profits aren't being powered by consumers who have suddenly found themselves with a lot more money in their pockets. The profits are coming from dramatic cost-cutting -- including, most notably, payroll cuts. If a firm cuts its costs enough, it can show a profit even if its sales are still in the basement.
The problem here is twofold. First, such profits can't be maintained. There's a limit to how much can be cut without a business eventually disappearing -- becoming, in effect, a balance sheet in space. Secondly, when businesses slash payrolls to show profits, consumers end up with even less money in their pockets to buy the things businesses produce. Even if they hold on to their jobs, they're likely to fear that they won't have the jobs for long, which causes them to retreat even further from the malls....
Top Ten Things Overheard At Sarah Palin's Farewell Party (VIDEO)
...When news broke that Sarah Palin was resigning, Dave took several shots at the soon-to-be ex-governor, saying that we knew Obama was in Russia cause "Sarah Palin [could] see him from her house," and asking "was it something I said?"...
Best Late Night Jokes Of The Week: Palin, Sanford, Regis, And More! (VIDEO)
Anyway, as usual, your Late Night Round-Up, Best Of Edition is sprinkled with jokes from last night and dashed with some favorites from throughout the week. The usual, and comedically beautiful, suspects abound (Palin, Sanford, Obama, Spencer Pratt, Regis, etc), along with some newcomers who are doing their best to make that fabled list...
Jon Stewart: GOP’s anti-health reform plan ‘a dildo rolled in glitter' (Video)
...“The Republicans’ ideas say,” continued the Fox Host, “what if you just started with the doctors and went straight to the consumers? And what would you have? Well, you would have straight-forward healthcare.”
However, the host failed to mention that the GOP has apparently decided against proposing any ideas for reform, according to the leader of the Republicans’ “Health Care Solutions Group,” who argued that two competing plans would confuse the American people.
“Wow!” bolted Stewart. “That’s incredibly honest! You could spend months meticulously constructing a clipper ship piece by piece in a glass bottle. Or, you could do the Republican method and just roll a dildo in glitter.” He jokingly added that “roll a dildo in glitter” is a copyrighted phrase for NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams...
World Prepares to Dump the Dollar
(Loonie up 7.4% in 2 weeks)
...Now that the initial panic has subsided, the dollar’s international purchasing power has resumed its former downward trajectory. Since the post-crisis high in March, the dollar has fallen by a portfolio-shredding 10 percent. America’s foreign creditors are again questioning the wisdom of holding so many U.S. dollars. And they’re looking for a way out. “Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China are demanding a greater stake in the management of the global economy and challenging the dollar as the primary denomination for world reserves,” reported Bloomberg about the recent G-8 summit.
But is dumping the dollar just wishful thinking on the part of these nations? Or is there some tangible alternative? Well, how about this: Some think they’ve already minted a dollar-killer....
Canada's Central bank likely to eye runup in loonie's value
In currency trading land, the Canadian dollar has become a "high-beta" or high-risk currency. That means the loonie is exhibiting erratic up and down swings. In five weeks from the start of June, the currency plunged 7.4 per cent against the U.S. dollar and during the past two weeks it has soared 4.7 per cent. The recent moves have been much more volatile than the underlying commodities the currency is perceived to be following.....
Apple reports Record Profits, Stock soars 15% In Two weeks, Microsofts profits down 29% Stock tanks...
Microsoft's profits have been affected by a general slowdown in PC sales. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Microsoft shocked investors yesterday by announcing another plunge in revenues and profits, sending the group's shares tumbling and leaving some analysts questioning the technology giant's prospects.
In its latest quarterly financial results, the world's biggest software company announced revenues of $13.1bn, down from almost $16bn over the same period last year. Profits for the last three months fell 29% to $3.05bn, down from $4.3bn for the fourth quarter of 2008....
Microwave weapon will rain pain from the sky
THE Pentagon's enthusiasm for non-lethal crowd-control weapons appears to have stepped up a gear with its decision to develop a microwave pain-infliction system that can be fired from an aircraft. The device is an extension of its controversial Active Denial System, which uses microwaves to heat the surface of the skin, creating a painful sensation without burning that strongly motivates the target to flee. The ADS was unveiled in 2001, but it has not been deployed owing to legal issues and safety fears....
Convicted Felon, Gordon Liddy Struggles Embarrassingly To Defend Birther Conspiracy (VIDEO)
Watergate conspirator and conservative radio host G. Gordon Liddy went on Hardball Thursday afternoon to address the inexplicably still-debated question over whether or not President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
The exchange was, at times, excruciating to watch as a largely catatonic Liddy struggled to explain the slew of evidence that points to Obama's U.S. citizenship. At one point, Matthews showed Liddy a certificate of live birth, which he noted was sufficient enough documentation to get a passport issued by the State Department.
Stewart lays into Dobbs and attorney/dentist/realtor/birther (Video)
After CNN’s Kitty Pilgrim, filling in for host Lou Dobbs on July 17, thoroughly debunked the “birther” conspiracy — which suggests, entirely without tangible proof, that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen — Dobbs returned to the airwaves July 20, amazingly suggesting “the [birthers'] questions won’t go away because they haven’t been dealt with.”
On Wednesday night, Dobbs’ stark lack of factual continuity became prime target for the man Time Magazine’s readers voted America’s “most trusted newscaster.”
“Do you even watch CNN?” an incredulous Jon Stewart rhetorically asked Dobbs. “It’s your own f***ing network! … She debunked that theory filling in on your show, Lou! And her last name is Pilgrim! How much more American can she get?
Dialy Show's Lewis Black hits GOP for demonizing health care reform
Comedian Lewis Black reviewed Republicans’ arguments against health care reform Wednesday on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. The comedian singled out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who was quoted as saying “I had a friend of mine in Florida who lost a friend in Canada because the government decided he was too old for a certain kind of procedure.”
Black didn’t buy McConnell’s story. “Your anti-health care anecdote is a friend of a friend? That’s not even enough proof for an urban legend. I have a friend of a friend who brought home a dog from Mexico then he shaves it. It turns out someone had stolen its kidney and replaced it with a polaroid picture of my tooth brush up Richard Gere’s ass. Go figure. If you can’t give me any evidence then at least do the honorable thing and confuse me,” joked Black.
Colbert Mocks Conservative Pundits For Claims Of Reverse Racism; Calls Buchanan A 'Reverse Civil Rights Leader' (VIDEO)
Stephen Colbert eviscerated Tom Tancredo, Pat Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh last night for claiming Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is racist and that white men are being discriminated against.
He referred to Buchanan, who has been appearing on MSNBC all week claiming Sotomayor has "a lifelong resolve to discriminate against white males," as a reverse civil rights leader, and showed a clip of him saying, "White men were 100% of the people who wrote the Constitution, 100% of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg." This, of course, prompted Colbert to say, "YEAH, where were the black guys during the Civil War? Come on, I'm not saying they all should have volunteered, just three fifths of them.
The NSA Wiretapping Story Nobody Wanted
They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you’re dead.
The cliché doesn’t seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein’s new book,“Wiring up the Big Brother Machine … and Fighting It.” It’s an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans.
New Apple Vrs Microsoft Web Ad (Video)
...And here's one of Apple's advertising responses to those pesky laptop hunters. The ad goes directly after the type of comparison shoppers featured in Microsoft's spot:...
High-fructose diets impair memory
Adopting a diet rich in fructose, a form of sugar commonly found in processed foods and beverages, may result in impaired spatial memory.
Previous studies had reported various health problems such as insulin insensitivity, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease following the use fructose, the sweetener commonly found in table sugar, fruit juice concentrates and high fructose corn syrup...
Potential Neurotoxin Could Be in Our Food
Long after a potentially neurotoxic flame retardant is off the market, it could linger in our food chain.
One of the most comprehensive analyses yet of human exposure to PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, shows that the chemical — long used in everything from computers to sleeping bags — enters humans through their diets, not just their household.
“The more you eat, the more PBDEs you have in your serum,” said Alicia Fraser, an environmental health researcher at Boston University’s School of Public Health who headed the new study, published this month in Environmental Health Perspectives....
Mysterious, Glowing Clouds Appear Across America’s Night Skies (HAARP???)
Mysterious, glowing clouds previously seen almost exclusively in Earth’s polar regions have appeared in the skies over the United States and Europe over the past several days. Photographers and other sky watchers in Omaha, Paris, Seattle, and other locations have run outside to capture images of what scientists call noctilucent (”night shining”) clouds. Formed by ice literally at the boundary where the earth’s atmosphere meets space 50 miles up, they shine because they are so high that they remain lit by the sun even after our star is below the horizon.
The clouds might be beautiful, but they could portend global changes caused by global warming. Noctilucent clouds are a fundamentally new phenomenon in the temperate mid-latitude sky, and it’s not clear why they’ve migrated down from the poles. Or why, over the last 25 years, more of them are appearing in the polar regions, too, and shining more brightly.
“That’s a real concern and question,” said James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University and the principal investigator of an ongoing NASA satellite mission to study the clouds. “Why are they getting more numerous? Why are they getting brighter? Why are they appearing at lower latitudes?”.....
President Is Set to 'Take the Baton' On Health Care...
Six months into his presidency, Barack Obama may have no greater test of his ability to translate personal popularity into a successful legislative agenda than the upcoming two weeks.
With skepticism about the president's health-care reform effort mounting on Capitol Hill -- even within his own party -- the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to dramatically increase public pressure on Congress: all Obama, all the time....
Who Will Bring The Marshmellows?
A Close Musician Friend of mine Jerry Joseph said before the election "That the only question for America if Obama does not win the election is Who will bring the Marshmellows?" Implying that America would turn into a B Movie Version of Mad Max if the Bush Dynasty that began on 11-22-1963 was continued with the election of John McCain. Well Jerry Joseph is right, Obama is Americas last chance to re-establish a Republic Democracy again in America. However if the issue of Health Care and Health Care Bankruptcy is not addressed, America may yet become a place where marshmellow futures rise faster than gasoline futures. America must address health care issues NOW, or America is doomed. The key to economic recovery is the ability of the work force to be mobile and to go where the jobs are. This creates real estate sales etc... With a work force who lives in fear of losing their health insurance, America is doomed, period end of story, write the final chapter. In Canada you can move to any province and find work and never worry about, will my family have health care. How is America going to compete in the 21st century with a workforce that lives in fear of medical bankruptcy if they go to where the work is? How can America compete in the world with a health care system run by a bunch of CRIMINALS involved in a conspiracy to suck as much money from Americans as they can? While Health care is just one example of the Bush Dynasty's Criminal Syndicates it is the first that must be brought down first, or America will become just one big Marshmellow roast. Lets hope this does not happen. Electing Obama is one thing actually changing Americas from it's Bush Crime Syndicates Crony Corrupt Capiitalism will be much harder to achieve than electing another JFK. So call your Senators and Congressman and DEMAND HEALTH CARE REFORM with a PUBLIC OPTION WITH NO PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS.
After Health care reform is passed GOLDMAN SACHS and the criminal Hedge Fund Syndicates are next, with complete overhauling of the Federal Reserve System, so that it is no longer a revolving door three card monty PONZI SCHEME between Goldman Sachs, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve. Demand your Senator and Congressman support Ron Paul (R) Texas, bill to Audit the FEDERAL RESERVE. First Health Care, and then on to the concentration of Wealth in America that is at unprecedented levels. The only way distribute wealth fairly is to do away with the Three card Monty Ponzi Scheme of the FED, Treasury and Goldman Sachs. Obama has been President for 6 month's, the next six month's will determine if America is going to change, or become the planets biggest Marshmellow roast.
Willy Bova
Goldman's $4 Billion High Frequency Trading Wildcard
A recent story in Advanced Trading goes after some of the minutae of High Frequency Trading and provides a glimpse of the total value that HFT may provide to behemoth PT powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs. The article presents a very valuable perspective on just why HFT is so critical these days, especially when cash traders go for 6 hour Starbucks breaks between 10 am and 3:30 pm: "high frequency trading firms, which represent approximately 2% of the 20,000 or so trading firms operating in the US markets today, account for 73% of all US equity trading volume. These companies include proprietary trading desks for a small number of major investment banks, less than 100 of the most sophisticated hedge funds and hundreds of the most secretive prop shops, all of which operate with one thing in mind—capture profit opportunities by being smarter and faster than the closest competition." And as the market keeps going up day in and day out, regardless of the deteriorating economic conditions, it is just these HFT's that determine the overall market direction, usually without fundamental or technical reason. And based on a few lines of code, retail investors get suckered into a rising market that has nothing to do with green shoots or some Chinese firms buying a few hundred extra Intel servers: HFTs are merely perpetuating the same ponzi market mythology last seen in the Madoff case, but on a massively larger scale. When it all blows up, the question is whether the SEC will go after the perpetrators of this pyramid with the same zeal that it pursued Madoff himself. We think not.
The reason for this, as the AT article points out, is that HFT has become the biggest cash cow for Wall Street: "The incredible capabilities offered by technology have given meteoric rise to a relatively few high frequency proprietary trading firms that now wield far greater influence on the markets today than most people recognize." How big of a cash cow:
"Proprietary trading takes in a number of unique strategies, including market making, arbitrage (ETFs, futures, options), pairs trading and others based on the linked trading of more than one asset class, e.g., futures index and cash equities. In fact, TABB Group estimates that annual aggregate profits of low latency arbitrage strategies exceed $21 billion, spread out among the few hundred firms that deploy them.
Walter Cronkite, Voice of TV News, Dies
Walter Cronkite, who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92.....
A documentary about the JFK Assassination that features Live footage of TV on 11-22-1963, including Walter Cronkite
(Evidence of Revision Part 1)
This is the best documentary I have ever seen on the JFK Coup. It has 5 parts and covers the RFK assassination too, including extensive live TV coverage of those days. If you want to know what really happened on 11-22-1963 watch this 7 hour documentary it is amazing..... Willy Bova
Evidence of Revision Part 2
(JFK, LBJ and Vietnam)
Evidence of Revision Part 3
(LBJ Leader of the Coup, Case Closed)
Evidence of Revision Part 4
( RFK live TV feeds ....)
Evidence of Revision Part 5
(RFK MK Ultra...)
Goldman Sachs in Talks to Acquire Treasury Department
In what some on Wall Street are calling the biggest blockbuster deal in the history of the financial sector, Goldman Sachs confirmed today that it was in talks to acquire the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
According to Goldman spokesperson Jonathan Hestron, the merger between Goldman and the Treasury Department is "a good fit" because "they're in the business of printing money and so are we."
The Joy of Sachs By Paul Krugman
The American economy remains in dire straits, with one worker in six unemployed or underemployed. Yet Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits — and it’s preparing to hand out huge bonuses, comparable to what it was paying before the crisis. What does this contrast tell us? First, it tells us that Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America....
The real price of Goldman’s giganto-profits
By Matt Taibbi
So what’s wrong with Goldman posting $3.44 billion in second-quarter profits, what’s wrong with the company so far earmarking $11.4 billion in compensation for its employees? What’s wrong is that this is not free-market earnings but an almost pure state subsidy.....
Rolling Stone writer called ‘anti-Semitic’ for simply following the money
Popular Rolling Stone contributor, writer and blogger Matt Taibbi claims that he was sent e-mails which attacked him and accused him of anti-Semitism for exposing the investment bank giant Goldman’s Sachs and their shady financial dealings over the years. Taibbi goes into great detail in his seven page essay Inside The Great American Bubble Machine on events relating to such market manipulations as the Great Depression, the commodities bubble, the housing bubble and even the upcoming green/environment bubble, and has fingered Goldman Sachs as playing a leading role in each catastrophe. More important than the various scams that have played out, much to the detriment of the average American, Taibbi exposes the reloving door tradition of the private sector employee of Wall Street into high level, unelected positions in the US government....
Stewart takes ‘anonymous’ revenge on GOP senator
To the surprise of many observers, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) read anonymous comments about Judge Sotomayor in her confirmation hearing Tuesday.....
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart found some anonymous quotes from the Internet about Graham to read on the air Thursday.
Some choice examples:
“Lindsey Graham takes it up the cornhole.”
“He is a sad sack of shit and is an embarrassment to the state of South Carolina.”
“He’s such a white Southern pig racist idiot douchebag.”
The audience roared in laughter after Stewart also revealed that Graham is “actually featured on the ‘men who look like old lesbians dot blogspot site.’”
“Well, Senator Graham,” Stewart mock solemnly intoned, “someone apparently believes you look like an old lesbian. DO YOU?!!!!! And may I remind you, you’re under oath.”
Franken's First Time Around: Comedian-Turned-Senator Questioned "Clarence Thomas" In 1991 SNL Sketch (VIDEO)
his isn't Al Franken's first Supreme Court confirmation hearing. In 1991 he appeared in an opening sketch on "Saturday Night Live" that mocked Clarence Thomas's appointment process and those involved. It featured Tim Meadows as Thomas and Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, Chris Farley and Franken as his questioners.....
Paul McCartney Does Letterman, Plays the Roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater, Get Back, Band on the Run, Helter Skelter... (Video)
Paul McCartney Plays Citi Field (Shea Stadium) (VIDEO)
When he performed "A Day in the Life," McCartney swapped out John Lennon's part at the end with a version of Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance," asking the crowd to join in.
For the encore, McCartney brought out Billy Joel for "I Saw Her Standing There." Last year, McCartney joined Joel on stage for the last concert at Shea Stadium.
‘CIA suspect in Bhutto’s assassination’
Slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto could have been targeted by the CIA as part of its recently-exposed alleged assassination program, reports say. On Wednesday, Washington-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen quoted US intelligence officials as making ‘prominent’ references to Bhutto as a probable target of the program. “I spoke to several US intelligence officials who were telling me that this assassination team may have targeted politicians in other countries,” Madsen told Russia Today.
“One name mentioned prominently was former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who may have been a victim of this particular program.” The program was recently exposed by the agency’s director Leon Panetta, who claimed that he had stopped it last month upon hearing about it......
Private contractors replacing troops in Iraq, Afghanistan
If you thought the end of American intervention in foreign wars was nearing, think again. President Obama has been replacing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with private contractors—some 250,000 are currently deployed overseas—including Blackwater (operating under another alias.)
Contractors are not subject to the same guidelines as our soldiers, and thus, have not been held accountable for the misdeeds they have afflicted upon civilian populations in the past....
RFID passports: a tragedy waiting to happen
You’re strolling in the south if France when a van stops, men burst out and in seconds hustle you into the van. “American scum!” they hiss as they hood you. But wearing a Sorbonne t-shirt and no fanny pack, how did they know? Thank your government - and a bad storage choice.
In a recent article Todd Lewan accompanied ethical hacker Chris Paget as he found chipped tourists around San Francisco’s Fishermans Wharf - from a van. Your Canadian flag patch won’t save you now.
Panic + stupid = RFID passports
In 9/11’s aftermath panic ruled the nation’s domestic security bureaucracies, Congress and the White House. Paranoid mid-level bureaucrats were given free rein to “innovate” and guess what popped up? RFID tags in your passport.
And now they are adding them to driver’s licenses too...
Colbert: I offered Sanford ‘a literal stroke job' (Video)
MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann gave “Worst Person” honors to several news organizations Tuesday and Wednesday for trying to “suck up” to Gov. Sanford before he revealed that he was cheating on his wife. The mostly right-leaning reporters had written emails to the Republican South Carolina governor complaining about how other outlets were covering his “disappearance,” and were basically offering softer treatment in exchange for exclusives....
Olbermann blasts ABC’s Tapper for Sanford ’suck up’ email (Video)
ABC News’ Jake Tapper was named to Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” list after it was revealed that he sent “suck up” emails to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s office calling NBC’s coverage “slimy.” Tapper called an NBC’s Today Show segment on Sanford “insulting” to the Governor in an attempt to get an interview....
'Secret' Chappelle Show Draws Thousands In Oregon (VIDEO)
Thousands of people who learned through text message, Twitter and word-of-mouth that comedian Dave Chappelle would hold a free show filled a downtown Portland square late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Chappelle arrived at about 1 a.m. to a surge of camera phone-wielding fans. There was only problem – a small amplifier left the comic inaudible to most....
If A Revolution Comes, They're Going After Goldman First
Earlier this evening as I headed back to my hotel, I passed through the mall area of the Prudential Center in Boston. At one point, there was a kiosk in front of me that contained Russian Matryoshka dolls.
I noticed a guy hitting on the sales clerk at the doll kiosk. As I passed by, in total amazement, I heard the guy say to the girl, "Even the central banker of Italy used to work for Goldman Sachs."
Whether they know it or not, Goldman has a PR problem. When you have a guy hitting on a girl by displaying his sophistication about the world, and that sophisticated knowledge is that Goldman Sachs has penetrated every nook and cranny of government financial agencies around the world, Goldman is in trouble....
Letterman: Top 10 Dick Cheney excuses (Video)
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney emerged yet again in the news last week when it was revealed that he was behind a counterterrorism program that while still a mystery to many, was so abhorrent to current CIA director, Leon Panetta, that he terminated it as soon as he learned of its existence.
Never missing an opportunity to mock the Bush administration, David Letterman devoted his 'Top Ten' list to Dick Cheney's excuses for lying to congress about his counterterrorism program.
So, from the home office in Wahoo, Nebraska...
Number 10: Was going to make it public, but then I remembered I'm an evil bastard.
Number 9: It was so secret, I didn't even tell myself about it.
Number 8: Uh-oh, chest pains -- Gotta go!....
Where and When You Use Credit Cards Could Hurt Your Credit Rating
Here’s a word to the wise: Think twice before whipping out that credit card to pay for purchases at the Salvation Army or a discount store, have tires re-treaded or even buy a late-night round of drinks. Credit card companies see those purchases, and a slew of others, as a sign of real or impending financial trouble and they’ll quickly cut the credit limit, raise the interest rate or even cancel the card with no warning. Once that happens the credit score that determines who is worthy of a loan and at what rate usually plummets.....
Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.....
Washington set to buy Silverstein's WTC lease
The US government is poised to buy the lease on the destroyed World Trade Centre from the property magnate Larry Silverstein in an attempt to seize the initiative in the increasingly bitter dispute about the future of the site. The federal government has become dissatisfied with Mr Silverstein's failure to formulate an effective plan for what should be built on the site of the collapsed twin towers....
Ex-FBI Agent: Why I Support a New 9/11 Investigation
By Coleen Rowley
In the absence of my being there in New York City to stand with the 9/11 families, first responders and survivors, I offer the following statement in support of your goal of a new investigation into the attacks of September 11th and the NYC CAN campaign to place it on the ballot for November.
At the time of 9-11, I had been an FBI agent for over 20 years. My main responsibilities by then were teaching criminal procedure to FBI agents and other law enforcement officers, mostly about 4th Amendment search and seizure, 5th and 6th Amendment law of interrogation, right to attorney and constitutional protection of rights to “free speech”, due process, habeas corpus, and against cruel and unusual punishment. A week before 9-11, I and the rest of the FBI’s ethics instructors were mandated (as a result of an earlier public FBI scandal) to give a one hour PowerPoint presentation, a form of remedial training on “law enforcement ethics” which I accomplished in a fairly perfunctory way, just reading the slides....
In first year, Texas’ $2 million Webcam border watch
nets just 11 arrests
The state of Texas spent a $2 million federal grant to install 14 Webcams along its border with Mexico. After its first year, the crowd-sourced surveillance program is out of money and has only yielded 11 arrests, according to published reports.....
Goldman executives sold $700m of stock
Executives at Goldman Sachs sold almost $700m worth of stock following the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of the sales occurred during the period in which the investment bank enjoyed the support of $10bn from the troubled asset relief programme. The surge in selling among Goldman partners, at a time when the US government had thrown a lifeline to Wall Street, is likely to draw criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Having survived the crisis, the bank is expected to report strong second-quarter earnings on Tuesday on rebounding trading profits....
For Goldman, a Swift Return to Lofty Profits
.....Up and down Wall Street, analysts and traders are buzzing that Goldman, which only recently paid back its government bailout money, will report blowout profits from trading on Tuesday.
Analysts predict the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, because of its trading prowess across world markets. If they are right, the bank’s rivals will once again be left to wonder exactly how Goldman, long the envy of Wall Street, could have rebounded so drastically only months after the nation’s financial industry was shaken to its foundations....