#Gabon, where politicians eat children with impunity. #OpGabon stands with victims of ritual killings & their parents http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LjdBsT0tkE&feature=share&list=PL57FshPHthB5mzTEyuFtdzx46a5NsfaGD …
Friday, August 9, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Just created a bitcoin wallet on Coinbase - anyone else have some bitcoin?
Just created a bitcoin wallet on Coinbase - anyone else have some bitcoin?: Just created a bitcoin wallet on Coinbase - anyone else have some bitcoin?
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli knowingly violated relevant sections of the State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act
On April 26, 2013 the Richmond Commonwealth Attorney’s Office was
appointed to determine whether Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli knowingly violated
relevant sections of the State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act (“the Act”).
The Attorney General (“AG”) provided this office with copies of his original and
amended Statements of Economic Interest (“Statement”) for calendar years 2009 to 2012,
and he invited us to interview him or any member of his staff. Representatives from this
office and Virginia State Police (“VSP”) reviewed all documents provided by the
Attorney General. The VSP interviewed various persons, including the Attorney
General. We also reviewed other documents obtained during the course of our
investigation.
Our investigation focused on the content of the AG’s Statements. We did not
broadly investigate the Attorney General or his Office. This report is in no way intended
to offer an explanation for the behavior of the Attorney General or any member of his
staff. Likewise, we are in no way attempting to reconcile our factual determinations with
the various media reports on this subject. Questions regarding such issues should be
directed to the Attorney General or his designee. Finally, at the risk of stating the
obvious, we will continue to review information discovered by the VSP or other
appropriate investigative agency.
The Act ensures the integrity of Virginia’srepresentative form of government.
The General Assembly enacted this statute to govern public officials’ pursuit of personal
interests while they are in office. An official’s personal interests fall within the scope of
Law
appointed to determine whether Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli knowingly violated
relevant sections of the State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act (“the Act”).
The Attorney General (“AG”) provided this office with copies of his original and
amended Statements of Economic Interest (“Statement”) for calendar years 2009 to 2012,
and he invited us to interview him or any member of his staff. Representatives from this
office and Virginia State Police (“VSP”) reviewed all documents provided by the
Attorney General. The VSP interviewed various persons, including the Attorney
General. We also reviewed other documents obtained during the course of our
investigation.
Our investigation focused on the content of the AG’s Statements. We did not
broadly investigate the Attorney General or his Office. This report is in no way intended
to offer an explanation for the behavior of the Attorney General or any member of his
staff. Likewise, we are in no way attempting to reconcile our factual determinations with
the various media reports on this subject. Questions regarding such issues should be
directed to the Attorney General or his designee. Finally, at the risk of stating the
obvious, we will continue to review information discovered by the VSP or other
appropriate investigative agency.
The Act ensures the integrity of Virginia’srepresentative form of government.
The General Assembly enacted this statute to govern public officials’ pursuit of personal
interests while they are in office. An official’s personal interests fall within the scope of
Law
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The Koch brothers are buying Amerkkka...
The Koch brothers are buying Amerkkka and buying up our democracy and replacing it with a pig-class that cares only about its bottom line and not about people, animals and the environment at all. Corporations have protection from Citizens United and are considered to have the rights of citizens now while the Koch brothers and their flunky, Paul Ryan and his newsboys (Fox new$ and their ilk) and lying propaganda machine are systematically killing retirement benefits, the environment, social programs (including but not limited to Social Security and Medicare/medicaid), and voters rights. They are lying to people that they want to get big government out of peoples' lives when with the other hand they restrict women's access to health care, citizens' access to health care (which is already at an all-time low), and even school lunches. Anyone who complains, like Unions or environmentalists, are labeled crazy by the right -wing bought and paid for media loons. Meanwhile plants, water, air, land and people are adversely affected medically and financially by the corporate master slobs like energy companies ("Big Oil", fracking pigs, etc., that rape the land and give us the bill by allowing corporations to pay reduced taxes or even NO taxes whatsoever.
It's time to chooses sides. Don't kid yourselves - you are effected. Sooner or later you will be poisoned by GMOs or have your water poisoned or have your food poisoned or have one of your benefits cut or completely cancelled. One thing is for sure: Unless you are rich rich rich your concerns are not addressed by the Amerikkkan government and you are NOT represented no matter who you vote for (there are some exceptions, but even the senators from Vermont and Massachusetts have their pleas for a clean-up of corruption and pollution fall on deaf ears in D.C.). Now they have doubled student loan rates, closed schools in Chicago and elsewhere because they want to dumb down the populous..and it is working. They want you to work for them for less and less and less and not be represented for redress of grievances in any way. The courts and legal system is a joke. The right wing is pumping money into colleges to prop up their unregulated free market ideas, disguised as education. They think clean energy is their enemy. They know, and have said as much, that "One Person - One Vote" is their enemy, the only thing holding back their full court press for gobbling up all the money and all the power while leaving a dying planet in their wake filled with dying plants, air, water, animals and people worldwide. They got theirs and the hell with everyone else, and everything else, even the air they breathe and their children's planet.
The American government system is on its way out. At this point, 100%, without massive reform, has ceased to represent citizens and , in fact, represents special interests like big oil, fracking pigs, money moving companies like Goldman Sachs (who do not pay taxes), big pharm, and the military industrial complex. The NRA wants to sell us more guns and obstruct and regulation to keep them out of the hands of lunatics who kill on U.S. streets and homes EVERY DAY. They tell you that video games and Hollywood cause the violence. Tell that to the hundreds who died in school shootings in the U.S and Canada in the past 20 years. Because video games are violent we should allow people on the terrorist no-fly list to buy all the guns and destructive material they can carry? Wake up!
If you are a woman, an ethnic minority, LGBT, elderly, a child of anyone who makes under $200K or their parents, a teacher, a cop, a firefighter, a government employee, a soldier, disabled or know anyone in one of these unfortunate situations you owe it to yourself, the planet and the next generation to stand up to the system. Spread the word. Engage your friends and family with the REAL story..the REAL news. Call out liars and flip-floppers and legislators who are on the take and talk one way and vote in the Senate and The House a totally different way. Stand up for yourself, your children, your money, your planet and for the truth! Don't accept lies from the media and from slick politicians. Call them out. Tell them that they are full of crap and you know it.
Stop the systematic destruction of the U.S constitution and Bill of Rights, the destruction of the planet, the destruction of representative government, the destruction of Truth and fair play, due process, privacy negotiating rights, voting rights, marriage rights, the right to have clean non-poisoned land, water, food and government. Don't like Big Government? Help get them out of our emails, phone calls and texts. Get them out of your GF's uterus. Don't let them hand over our water, food, prisons, schools and military over to private companies that have no rules or ethics. And, above all, share all of my posts. Even if you win over one victim who has drank the Kool-Aid before they are too far gone, it will be worth it.
It's time to chooses sides. Don't kid yourselves - you are effected. Sooner or later you will be poisoned by GMOs or have your water poisoned or have your food poisoned or have one of your benefits cut or completely cancelled. One thing is for sure: Unless you are rich rich rich your concerns are not addressed by the Amerikkkan government and you are NOT represented no matter who you vote for (there are some exceptions, but even the senators from Vermont and Massachusetts have their pleas for a clean-up of corruption and pollution fall on deaf ears in D.C.). Now they have doubled student loan rates, closed schools in Chicago and elsewhere because they want to dumb down the populous..and it is working. They want you to work for them for less and less and less and not be represented for redress of grievances in any way. The courts and legal system is a joke. The right wing is pumping money into colleges to prop up their unregulated free market ideas, disguised as education. They think clean energy is their enemy. They know, and have said as much, that "One Person - One Vote" is their enemy, the only thing holding back their full court press for gobbling up all the money and all the power while leaving a dying planet in their wake filled with dying plants, air, water, animals and people worldwide. They got theirs and the hell with everyone else, and everything else, even the air they breathe and their children's planet.
The American government system is on its way out. At this point, 100%, without massive reform, has ceased to represent citizens and , in fact, represents special interests like big oil, fracking pigs, money moving companies like Goldman Sachs (who do not pay taxes), big pharm, and the military industrial complex. The NRA wants to sell us more guns and obstruct and regulation to keep them out of the hands of lunatics who kill on U.S. streets and homes EVERY DAY. They tell you that video games and Hollywood cause the violence. Tell that to the hundreds who died in school shootings in the U.S and Canada in the past 20 years. Because video games are violent we should allow people on the terrorist no-fly list to buy all the guns and destructive material they can carry? Wake up!
If you are a woman, an ethnic minority, LGBT, elderly, a child of anyone who makes under $200K or their parents, a teacher, a cop, a firefighter, a government employee, a soldier, disabled or know anyone in one of these unfortunate situations you owe it to yourself, the planet and the next generation to stand up to the system. Spread the word. Engage your friends and family with the REAL story..the REAL news. Call out liars and flip-floppers and legislators who are on the take and talk one way and vote in the Senate and The House a totally different way. Stand up for yourself, your children, your money, your planet and for the truth! Don't accept lies from the media and from slick politicians. Call them out. Tell them that they are full of crap and you know it.
Stop the systematic destruction of the U.S constitution and Bill of Rights, the destruction of the planet, the destruction of representative government, the destruction of Truth and fair play, due process, privacy negotiating rights, voting rights, marriage rights, the right to have clean non-poisoned land, water, food and government. Don't like Big Government? Help get them out of our emails, phone calls and texts. Get them out of your GF's uterus. Don't let them hand over our water, food, prisons, schools and military over to private companies that have no rules or ethics. And, above all, share all of my posts. Even if you win over one victim who has drank the Kool-Aid before they are too far gone, it will be worth it.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Off with their heads! Throw the motherfuckers in jail!
Off with their heads! Throw the motherfuckers in jail! Take their money after that and give it right to the social programs and clean energy programs and education programs and world hunger solving programs that these scumbags (you know, their political butt-boys in the US congress) are saying "we can't afford."
Basically. they ARE crime. They ARE terrorism. It comes back to bite us on the ass in a myriad of ways...terrorism...they are, in-effect, financing the next 9-11. And making a ton of cash doing it. Our government regulators are a bunch of on-the-take pussies, and so are the British. So what do we do? Freeze their assets until the investigation is over, a REAL investigation. Go in and confiscate all their computer hard drives and papers. Detain all suspects. And the dirty money they find? Give it to president Obama and say "Here. Now go and do everything you said you were going to do but congress said we couldn't afford it."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214
Friday, January 18, 2013
Nebraska has been splitting their electoral college votes for years. Obviously, the whole electoral college is internationally recognized American stupidity. What ever happened to one person one vote? So, my opinion is that either all the states split their electoral votes, or none of them do. And that would take, yeah, you guessed it, Federal meddling in state affairs. But is it really a state affair? Not when it effects the federal congress and effects actual fair balance of representation in that congress, especially in the house. So the solution is either 1. a federal legislation to end the electoral college completely (back to one person one vote) or 2. make all of the states split their electoral votes. When they are done doing one of those solutions, they can immediately tackle jerrymandering because nothing will work fairly in elections until the Fed ends jerrymandering. So in case you are wondering why your State elected President Obama, but the GOP "took the House" it wasn't because most of the people voted that way. Surprised?
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Trickle down tax break criteria by GW
How about this? Trickle down? "Job creators?" Fine Take them at thier word. Any "Job creator" who can PROVE a certain amount of decent AMERICAN paying jobs, WITH benefits, and actually show that, can have a nice tax break and a loophole. They can't fire, lay off, reduce pay or benefits, bust unions, pollute the environemtn, or give any huge and/or undisclosed political contributions to campaigns or pacs or superpacs. They can't ship more than 10% of the jobs overseas, after they've net thier American hiring quota, and they can't accept government subides (because that would be "socialist" , wouldn't it?). If they want an additional tax break, they can provide day care, job training, and scholarships/ financial aid for children of employees. If they want additional tax breaks, they can GO GREEN. If they want even more tax breaks they can stop being greedy , lying polluting candidate-purchasing biggot slimebucket assholes.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Political foes fail to stop terror bill
Political foes fail to stop terror bill
Senate panel - Feinstein, Paul against - cuts rights of citizen terror suspects
By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD, Hearst Newspapers
Published 11:41 p.m., Tuesday, November 29, 2011
WASHINGTON — California Democrat Dianne Feinstein joined Tea Party-backed Kentucky Republican Rand Paul Tuesday in a failed attempt to block Senate legislation that would allow the U.S. military to imprison American citizens indefinitely without trial if they are suspected of terrorism.
An amendment they backed to strip the provisions from a broad defense bill failed 38-60.
"The U.S. government should not have the ability to lock away its citizens for years and perhaps decades without charging them," Feinstein said, comparing the legislation to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. "We don't pick up citizens, we don't incarcerate them for 10 or 15 or 20 years until hostilities end — and no one knows when they will end — without giving them due process of law."
Speaking as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Feinstein declared that the nation "is safer than it has ever been before" from terrorist attack and that some 300 civilian terrorism prosecutions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks prove the U.S. court system is working.
Feinstein cited the so-called "American Taliban," John Walker Lindh, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Jose Padilla, also a U.S. citizen convicted of plotting a radiological or "dirty bomb" attack and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Paul was the only Republican who voted to strip the so-called detainee provisions, while 17 Democrats voted with the rest of Republicans to keep them in the broader legislation.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., voted to delete the detainee provisions.
The bill has drawn a veto threat from the Obama administration and raised an outcry on the left and the right, opening a crack in what has been — since the 9/11 attacks — a united Republican front favoring broad war-making and detention powers by the executive branch.
In an emotional debate, Sens. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee, and the panel's top Republican, John McCain of Arizona, joined by Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the new laws are vital to fighting terrorism.
"If you join al-Qaida, you will suffer the consequences," Graham said. "If you're an American citizen and you betray your country, you're not going to be given a lawyer." Graham said terrorism is not a crime but an act of war.
Paul compared the legislation to Egypt's "emergency law" of 1958 allowing indefinite imprisonment of citizens that helped foment Egypt's revolution last spring.
"We could see American citizens being sent to Guantanamo Bay," Paul said, referring to the U.S. military installation in Cuba where terrorism suspects are held without trial. "We should not have to sacrifice our liberty to be safe."
The defense bill is expected to pass the full Senate next month. A House version passed earlier this year. The House bill also continues the authorization of the use of force that Congress granted the president in order to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., waged an unsuccessful fight last spring to strip that authority. Garamendi said the provision "gives continuing authority for the president to intervene militarily anywhere in the world.''
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Political-foes-fail-to-stop-terror-bill-2311134.php#ixzz1ikpAWww1
Monday, November 21, 2011
Everyone should be middle class
How can there even be a poor class. Everyone should be middle class, and if you make more than a million, pitch in your fair share. Right now there are millionaires in DC BEGGING to be taxed (literally). Why won't congress take them seriously? So G.E. Can pay NO (zero$) taxes again? It's gone too far. The Emporer has no clothes! Occupy CONGRESS!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: MERS Problems (Continued)
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: MERS Problems (Continued): Let's say you make out a check to your friend, let's call him Oscar Originator, for $10,000.00. In return, Oscar will install in your back ...
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: MERS Problems (Continued)
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: MERS Problems (Continued): Let's say you make out a check to your friend, let's call him Oscar Originator, for $10,000.00. In return, Oscar will install in your back ...
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: An alternative way to challenge MERS.
Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: An alternative way to challenge MERS.: In my prior posts on MERS here , here , and here , I likened the MERS system to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) used by brokers in the re...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/sopa_testimony/?page=154&referring_akid=1018.467892.fkprbR&source=mailto
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/sopa_testimony/?page=154&referring_akid=1018.467892.fkprbR&source=mailto
Monday, November 14, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The 99% (occupy Wall st )movement has DWARFED the asshole tea party movement. It's about damn time!
The 99% (occupy Wall st) movement has DWARFED the asshole tea party movement. It's about damn time!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Laurence reams and bans deadbeat dad congress-rat
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43951894#43951894
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
GW comment on thread regarding deficit reduction discussion
GW comment on thread regarding deficit reduction discussion
by Gershon Wolf on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 10:00am
Comment regarding following discussion:
http://front.moveon.org/wow-the-one-chart-that-should-accompany-debt-ceiling-discussions/?rc=fb.fan
Everyone interested in this discussion and the future of America should listen to The President's speeches very carefully. If you like, I also have the transcripts, but you can just Google them also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWJL71CRMQg
The right wingnuts say that Obama has not put forth a plan. This is a lie. He is very specific about his plan to reduce the deficit, while at the same time not robbing the poor, elderly and handicapped, kids who can't pay for college, and important government departments such as the EPA and the people who inspect our food so we don't get poisoned.
The right wing, especially House Speaker Boner, just comes right out and lies. It's so transparent. here, President Obama speaks long and clear and honest about the deficit reduction plan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF8khACkapA
he's the President. We elected him to apply his solutions to the problems facing the nation. The GOP and their on-the-take liar Party Of NO greedy hatemongers will not even give him a chance to trey his solutions, but yet they criticize him for "not doing anything".
The cat is out of the bag. The emperor has no clothes (Speaker Boner and the other talking points/ slogan/ lie robots who call themselves GOP congressional reps)
We have The Internet now, but they don't know it, I guess. the exchange of this information is instant and viral. Please share. The servers and phone lines in Washington are jammed with calls from citizens supporting The president's plea for rational compromise to avert disaster, just like we have done in the past. Not just No NO NO NO and pandering to the greedy pigs whop want tax breaks on their tax breaks so they can fly around in their private jets fro free while our grandparents cannot even pay for their medicine because Boner wants to pick their pockets, and blame the poor for being poor.
It makes me sick. Please consider what our President is saying.
And admit that this proves that the GOP are lying and stalling.
Thank you.
the new logo
just seeing if anyWednesday, July 13, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
bernie Sanders 90 minue speech on the Senate Floor 6-27-11 MUST SEE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcZ-msu27ew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FsVYqqyiP0
How can anyone even consider being a Republican or "fiscal conservative" or tea party asshole-shithead or a Bachman supporter or anything like all that ridiculousness after seeing this speech, which is all true and well-researched, of sanders on the Senate Floor. He simply tells it like it is and appeals to the American people and The President to be non-ridiculous and have a heart. It's so simple to understand. Anyone subscribing to the GOP and GOP related bullshit is either brainwashed or a psycho-SCROOGE or both!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FsVYqqyiP0
How can anyone even consider being a Republican or "fiscal conservative" or tea party asshole-shithead or a Bachman supporter or anything like all that ridiculousness after seeing this speech, which is all true and well-researched, of sanders on the Senate Floor. He simply tells it like it is and appeals to the American people and The President to be non-ridiculous and have a heart. It's so simple to understand. Anyone subscribing to the GOP and GOP related bullshit is either brainwashed or a psycho-SCROOGE or both!
Monday, June 13, 2011
ragging about climate change and tornados
Source: www.youtube.com
an op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.com http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Saturday, June 4, 2011
also my crazy day part 2, trying to post a vid
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=187045178011714
Friday, June 3, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Comment on Rolling stone article about busting Goldman-Sachs
Deregulation is one of the things at the root of this mess. it's like letting bratty kids do whatever they want, and they burn your house down and take all your money, PLUS max out your credit cards. In the next election let's not talk "too much government"..let's talk REGULATE THESE PIGS NOW. And we all know who is the reform candidate. Obama 2012. He just talks plain sense. Listen to him speak. On Immigration, on financial reform, on anything. WE should give him the chance to put his plans, for reform on health care, budget, regulation, immigration, you name it - in effect, with a Dem congress to back him up this time. My GOD! I read this article in awe. It was a very well-written article I want to congratulate you. But the content..DAMN! These piggie investment bankers and suits on wall street, they are sucking money from social programs and costing REAL LIVES. The money we bail them out with could have gone to children's hospitals or to house homeless people. How about unboarding some of those boarded up houses and letting people live in them instead of pushing shopping carts around town? In my town thousands of houses are boarded up and people are living on the street. The wall street piggies have no right to be so (Holy Moly!) irresponsible with all of the money and housing. Couldn't the government handle housing loans and student loans? Why not? They have ruined it for everyone, these wall street piggies. it's time to give out loans for education, housing, cars, and even improving the life of our senior citizens and not try to make a huge profit off of it.
I was surprised when I found out that my student loan had been "sold" to Fannie Mae. No. I made a deal with my bank. I never said they were allowed to "sell" my loan. It should be illegal. Look what happened! Don;t get me started. Did you see the movie Zeitgeist - Moving Forward? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w let more articulate people talk to you, more articulate than me (I tend to babble) . Check it out.
I was surprised when I found out that my student loan had been "sold" to Fannie Mae. No. I made a deal with my bank. I never said they were allowed to "sell" my loan. It should be illegal. Look what happened! Don;t get me started. Did you see the movie Zeitgeist - Moving Forward? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w let more articulate people talk to you, more articulate than me (I tend to babble) . Check it out.
Rolling Stone (online) article busting Goldman-Sachs
Go to this webaddress and check out this awaesome story. When you get to the bottom of the webpage, clcik the numbers for more pages. It is a long long article. And don't forget to check out the photo gallery
Gershon Wolf GW: It's like I want to dip the whole article in highlighter. This is a MUST READ article.
a few seconds ago · Like
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?link=mostpopular4&page=1
The People vs. Goldman SachsMatt Taibbi: A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein tesifies before the Senate in April 2010
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
238 Comments
By MATT TAIBBI
MAY 11, 2011 9:30 AM ET
They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.
Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.
This article appears in the May 26, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive May 13.
The great and powerful Oz of Wall Street was not the only target of Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse, the 650-page report just released by the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, alongside Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Their unusually scathing bipartisan report also includes case studies of Washington Mutual and Deutsche Bank, providing a panoramic portrait of a bubble era that produced the most destructive crime spree in our history — "a million fraud cases a year" is how one former regulator puts it. But the mountain of evidence collected against Goldman by Levin's small, 15-desk office of investigators — details of gross, baldfaced fraud delivered up in such quantities as to almost serve as a kind of sarcastic challenge to the curiously impassive Justice Department — stands as the most important symbol of Wall Street's aristocratic impunity and prosecutorial immunity produced since the crash of 2008.
Photo Gallery: How Goldman top dogs defrauded their clients and lied to Congress
To date, there has been only one successful prosecution of a financial big fish from the mortgage bubble, and that was Lee Farkas, a Florida lender who was just convicted on a smorgasbord of fraud charges and now faces life in prison. But Farkas, sadly, is just an exception proving the rule: Like Bernie Madoff, his comically excessive crime spree (which involved such lunacies as kiting checks to his own bank and selling loans that didn't exist) was almost completely unconnected to the systematic corruption that led to the crisis. What's more, many of the earlier criminals in the chain of corruption — from subprime lenders like Countrywide, who herded old ladies and ghetto families into bad loans, to rapacious banks like Washington Mutual, who pawned off fraudulent mortgages on investors — wound up going belly up, sunk by their own greed.
Read Matt Taibbi on Goldman Sachs, the 'great vampire squid'
But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.
Read Taibbi's 2010 piece on how bailed-out banks are recreating the conditions for a crash
Defenders of Goldman have been quick to insist that while the bank may have had a few ethical slips here and there, its only real offense was being too good at making money. We now know, unequivocally, that this is bullshit. Goldman isn't a pudgy housewife who broke her diet with a few Nilla Wafers between meals — it's an advanced-stage, 1,100-pound medical emergency who hasn't left his apartment in six years, and is found by paramedics buried up to his eyes in cupcake wrappers and pizza boxes. If the evidence in the Levin report is ignored, then Goldman will have achieved a kind of corrupt-enterprise nirvana. Caught, but still free: above the law.
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Gershon Wolf GW: It's like I want to dip the whole article in highlighter. This is a MUST READ article.
a few seconds ago · Like
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?link=mostpopular4&page=1
The People vs. Goldman SachsMatt Taibbi: A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein tesifies before the Senate in April 2010
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
238 Comments
By MATT TAIBBI
MAY 11, 2011 9:30 AM ET
They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.
Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.
This article appears in the May 26, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive May 13.
The great and powerful Oz of Wall Street was not the only target of Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse, the 650-page report just released by the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, alongside Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Their unusually scathing bipartisan report also includes case studies of Washington Mutual and Deutsche Bank, providing a panoramic portrait of a bubble era that produced the most destructive crime spree in our history — "a million fraud cases a year" is how one former regulator puts it. But the mountain of evidence collected against Goldman by Levin's small, 15-desk office of investigators — details of gross, baldfaced fraud delivered up in such quantities as to almost serve as a kind of sarcastic challenge to the curiously impassive Justice Department — stands as the most important symbol of Wall Street's aristocratic impunity and prosecutorial immunity produced since the crash of 2008.
Photo Gallery: How Goldman top dogs defrauded their clients and lied to Congress
To date, there has been only one successful prosecution of a financial big fish from the mortgage bubble, and that was Lee Farkas, a Florida lender who was just convicted on a smorgasbord of fraud charges and now faces life in prison. But Farkas, sadly, is just an exception proving the rule: Like Bernie Madoff, his comically excessive crime spree (which involved such lunacies as kiting checks to his own bank and selling loans that didn't exist) was almost completely unconnected to the systematic corruption that led to the crisis. What's more, many of the earlier criminals in the chain of corruption — from subprime lenders like Countrywide, who herded old ladies and ghetto families into bad loans, to rapacious banks like Washington Mutual, who pawned off fraudulent mortgages on investors — wound up going belly up, sunk by their own greed.
Read Matt Taibbi on Goldman Sachs, the 'great vampire squid'
But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.
Read Taibbi's 2010 piece on how bailed-out banks are recreating the conditions for a crash
Defenders of Goldman have been quick to insist that while the bank may have had a few ethical slips here and there, its only real offense was being too good at making money. We now know, unequivocally, that this is bullshit. Goldman isn't a pudgy housewife who broke her diet with a few Nilla Wafers between meals — it's an advanced-stage, 1,100-pound medical emergency who hasn't left his apartment in six years, and is found by paramedics buried up to his eyes in cupcake wrappers and pizza boxes. If the evidence in the Levin report is ignored, then Goldman will have achieved a kind of corrupt-enterprise nirvana. Caught, but still free: above the law.
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Sunday, May 8, 2011
Vermont passes healthcare
First Universal Health Care Bill in U.S. Marks Success of Vermont's Human Rights Movement
Posted: 05/ 7/11 01:29 PM ET
Important
On May 5 the Vermont House followed the Senate in passing the final version of a health reform bill that creates a path for a universal, publicly financed health care system in Vermont. Governor Peter Shumlin has confirmed he will sign the bill into law.
This makes Vermont the first state in the country to move toward a universal health care system that will provide health care as a public good for everyone. Legislators and advocates alike have compared Vermont's role to that of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, which half a century ago spearheaded the establishment of universal health care in Canada.
The bill states that Vermont will create a publicly financed health care system, Green Mountain Care, to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage as a public good for all Vermont residents, regardless of income, health status, or employment. Green Mountain Care will be implemented once the requirements of the federal health reform law have been fulfilled, along with several other conditions imposed by the bill. Some key decisions have been postponed to future legislative sessions, including the development of a financing mechanism for the system and the design of a health benefits package.
The pioneering nature of Vermont's health reform has its roots in a people's movement, which caused reform efforts to be driven by principles, rather than political calculation, industry interests, or professional advocates and lobbyists. While strong attempts were mounted to divert and hijack the reform process, especially by large corporations and the insurance industry, it was the growing vision of health care as a human right that captured the public imagination and created the political space for action by the administration and legislature. Observers largely credit this achievement to the grassroots organizing by the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign, led by the Vermont Workers' Center, which engaged many thousands of ordinary Vermonters in demanding their human right to health care.
The Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign has built a broad-based people's movement guided by principles, such as universality and equity, rather than by specific policy or legislative proposals, such as single-payer. By shifting the focus from cost containment (which has dominated debates on health care and other public goods) to people's collective needs and rights, the campaign placed people at the center of policy and practice, challenging the powers that be. When viewed as a human right, health care becomes a unifying concern for everyone, not just for the uninsured, or for individual "consumers" struggling to pay their bills, or for workers seeking to hold on to benefits. This unity the campaign achieved at an organizing level has helped to embed human rights principles in public and political discourse, which in turn has advanced the goal of treating health care (and potentially other human needs) as a public good, financed through taxation, rather than a market commodity.
The success of this emerging grassroots organizing model -- led by the people, inclusive, based on human rights principles -- became particularly clear when pressure from the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign prompted legislators to drop a last-minute amendment that would have excluded undocumented people from universal health care. The Campaign mobilized hundreds of Vermonters to stand up for the human rights principle of universality, and after days of constituents' phone calls, protests, and a large rally on May 1st, the exclusionary amendment was struck.
Vermonters clearly set an example with their steadfastness and unflinching readiness to take a moral stance and reject the effort to divide the community along lines of race, ethnicity or national origin. Their stance raises the bar for people elsewhere when confronted with the use of immigration as a wedge issue.
There is no doubt that strong solidarity and a principled stance will be needed as the struggle for universal health care continues, in Vermont and beyond. If the deliberate exclusion of undocumented people presented a clear line in the sand, the maneuvering of private insurance companies has been harder to detect and defeat. The industry and its corporate allies are a formidable opponent, with deep pockets and well-trained patience. In Vermont's bill, private insurance companies, whose business model depends on restricting our access to care, managed to keep a foot in the door. This means that the development of the new system's financing mechanism may well be the most important struggle yet to come. Unless Green Mountain Care will be funded as a public good, through equitable contributions from all of Vermont's people and businesses, the system could be downgraded to a "public option", torn apart by opt-outs before it even starts.
Well aware of these challenges, human rights campaigners are prepared to take on corporate forces. While the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign does not rely on legislative actions to boost its organizing, it has grown with each legislative success. As people across the country look closer at Vermont's most recent achievement, it may inspire them to help build the movement for health care as a human right. Such an impact would rival the significance of the universal health care bill itself.
Photo of rally on May 1, 2011, by Dylan Kelley, Vermont Workers' Center
Thursday, May 5, 2011
more hamas/fatah bullshit
"Our first and true battle is with the Israeli enemy and not with Palestinian factions or among sons of one homeland," stated Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal after the pact was signed.
Palestinians consolidate as Fatah and Hamas sign peace agreement — RT
rt.com
The two major Palestinian political forces have clinched a historic deal, agreeing to form a unified government.
19 hours ago · · Like · · Share
Gershon Wolf if they can also stop fighting Israel, and not just each other AND stop fighting human rights (i.e) shooting people at a wedding for having music there), then maybe then they would actually have right to have a country of their own. Until then, they are just the same oppressive pig warlords cut from the same cloth as the late Bin laden, may he rot in hell. And as usual, while they take forever to decide to stop being dickheads, the little guy always loses, not to mention the little ladies, who have no rights at all in so called "Palestine". They finally got a chance to have an election a few years ago and they elected Hamas, a terrorist organization (In Gaza). Things that make you go "hmmmm.". So they voted so have a government that would oppress them. Not good. or was it rigged? Hmmm. And now they are voting to unite, fatah and Hamas. Against Israel. Gee, isn't that newsworthy. let's party.
2 seconds ago · Like
Palestinians consolidate as Fatah and Hamas sign peace agreement — RT
rt.com
The two major Palestinian political forces have clinched a historic deal, agreeing to form a unified government.
19 hours ago · · Like · · Share
Gershon Wolf if they can also stop fighting Israel, and not just each other AND stop fighting human rights (i.e) shooting people at a wedding for having music there), then maybe then they would actually have right to have a country of their own. Until then, they are just the same oppressive pig warlords cut from the same cloth as the late Bin laden, may he rot in hell. And as usual, while they take forever to decide to stop being dickheads, the little guy always loses, not to mention the little ladies, who have no rights at all in so called "Palestine". They finally got a chance to have an election a few years ago and they elected Hamas, a terrorist organization (In Gaza). Things that make you go "hmmmm.". So they voted so have a government that would oppress them. Not good. or was it rigged? Hmmm. And now they are voting to unite, fatah and Hamas. Against Israel. Gee, isn't that newsworthy. let's party.
2 seconds ago · Like
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