Iraq Hearing with Secretary Rice: Waxman on Closed Hearings
Condi Rice admits that corrupt money, funnelled through Iraq, is funding 'militias' in the south of Iraq - because if the US dooesn't fund the militias in the south of Iraq, then Iran will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op5XJEByJfk
The politics of hypocrisy
UK business interests in Burma are more important to this government than justice
John Pilger
Saturday October 27, 2007
The news is no more from Burma. The young monks are quiet in their cells, or they are dead. But words have escaped: the defiant, beautiful poetry of Aung Than and Zeya Aung; and we know of the unbroken will of the journalist U Win Tin, who makes ink out of brick powder on the walls of his prison cell and writes with a pen made from a bamboo mat - at the age of 77. These are the bravest of the brave. What shame they bring to those in the west whose hypocrisy and silence helps to feed the monster that rules Burma.
Condoleezza Rice comes to mind. "The United States," she said, "is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place in Burma." What she is less keen to keep a focus on is that the huge American company, Chevron, on whose board of directors she sat, is part of a consortium with the junta and the French company, Total, that operates in Burma's offshore oilfields. The gas from these fields is exported through a pipeline that was built with forced labour and whose construction involved Halliburton, of which Vice-President Cheney was chief executive.
For many years, the Foreign Office in London promoted business as usual in Burma. When I interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi a decade ago I read her a Foreign Office press release that said, "Through commercial contacts with democratic nations such as Britain, the Burmese people will gain experience of democratic principles." She smiled sardonically and said, "Not a bit of it."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2200311,00.html
Russian Missiles (at 18:40 - 22:15)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4670000/newsid_4679900/4679986.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6
That Old Time Religion
Published: October 27, 2007
President Bush was back in campaign mode this week, resurrecting two tried-and-true red-meat issues to rally the cadres in his dispirited Republican Party — fervent supporters of missile defense and of squeezing Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Seven years in the White House have done nothing to change his views. Campaigning now for his legacy, he is still wrong on both issues.
Mr. Bush has brought his 1960s Cuba policy into the Internet age by allowing private organizations to send computers to Cuban youths — if the government does not control their use. That is unlikely. And he proposed an international fund to provide grants, loans and debt relief to the Cuban government — but only after it allows free speech and open elections. Until then, Mr. Bush will cling stubbornly to the half-century-old economic embargo that has failed to unseat Mr. Castro while giving him an ever ready excuse for his government’s economic failings and repression.
No one knows what will happen when Mr. Castro, who is ailing, dies. The United States is denying itself any chance to help influence Cuba’s future by sticking to the failed policies of the past. Its overriding interest should be in a peaceful transition to the democratic and economically dynamic society that Cubans have dreamed of for decades.
Easing the embargo could strengthen Cuba’s battered middle class and help it play a more active role in whatever comes next. Mr. Bush’s call for the Cuban people to rise up is more likely to persuade the government’s supporters — the only ones with guns — to hang on even more stubbornly or brutally.
Mr. Bush’s blind faith in missile defense is equally disquieting. The president has already wasted billions on a small and unproven system in Alaska. Now he wants to build one in Europe to guard against a possible attack on American allies by Iran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/opinion/27sat1.html?ref=opinion
Corporate corruption of the Average American to invest them in destroying their own planet
http://www.energytomorrow.org/
It's not who you think. As Congress debates national energy policy, a new study finds that ownership of oil and natural gas company shares is made up of a broad cross section of Americans.
http://www.energytomorrow.org/
The Distrubution of Ownership of U.S. Oil and Natural Gas Companies
http://www.energytomorrow.org/media_center/Shapiro_Pham_Study.pdf
The more there are Bush Cronies involved in acquisitions of USA companies the less chance of ridding the country of immoral agendas of war while running skyhigh deficits.
Allison Transmission excited about new ownership
By: James Menzies
TORONTO, Ont. -- Allison Transmission has announced its change of ownership signals a positive change for the company.
The company issued a release saying it plans significant business growth under its new owners, The Carlyle Group and Onex Corporation. Formerly, the manufacturer of fully-automatic transmissions was owned by General Motors. The transaction has now been completed.
“Under our new owners, Allison remains committed to the fulfillment of its brand promise of providing an unrivalled combination of quality, reliability, durability, vocational value and customer service,” said Larry Dewey, CEO, Allison Transmission.
The company said it is coming off a record year for global transmission sales in 2006, generating revenue of more than US$2.3 billion. The company plans to expand into new vocations under its new ownership group, said Dewey.
http://www.trucknews.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=74293&issue=09282007
FCC’s Secret Studies — Reading Between the Lines
From StopBigMedia.com, October 7, 2007
By Craig Aaron
On Friday, the FCC’s Inspector General released a report on two studies reportedly deep-sixed by the agency because they didn’t support former Chairman Michael Powell’s views on media consolidation.
The IG’s conclusion: Move along, nothing to see here.
Not so fast.
History of the Hidden Research
The first secret study surfaced after a whistleblower contacted California Sen. Barbara Boxer — who grilled FCC Chairman Kevin Martin about the missing report at his September 2006 reconfirmation hearing. (You can watch him squirm here.)
That spiked study showed that locally owned stations do more local news. Since the conclusions contradicted Powell’s pro-consolidation agenda, they were shelved.
As Adam Candeub, who worked as a lawyer in the FCC’s Media Bureau, explained to the Associated Press:
Senior managers at the agency ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed. “The whole project was just stopped — end of discussion.”
Soon a second secret study turned up. This one tackled the negative impacts of radio consolidation, showing that the 1996 Telecom Act had diminished the number of radio station owners — even as the actual number of commercial stations increased.
http://www.freepress.net/news/26838
Brevard police to enforce mask ban
Brevard robberies revive 1951 law used against KKK
BY JEFF SCHWEERS
FLORIDA TODAY
As Halloween nears, police departments throughout Brevard County are dusting off a law regulating the use of masks by adults that was drafted in 1951 in part to combat Ku Klux Klan members.
According to sections of the Florida statute titled "Criminal Anarchy, Treason and Other Crimes Against Public Order," wearing a mask in public if you are 16 or older is a misdemeanor and makes the wearer subject to arrest.
In Cocoa, where masked culprits have robbed several hotels recently, enforcing the law is a matter of public safety -- not a plan to rid Halloween of its spooky fun, police say.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071025/NEWS01/710250337/1006
Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract
Experts Question Official's Deal With Nonprofit
By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 1, 2007; Page A01
While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews.
For two months, Riechers held the title of senior technical adviser and received about $13,400 a month at Commonwealth Research Institute, or CRI, a nonprofit firm in Johnstown, Pa., according to his resume. But during that time he actually worked for Sue C. Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, on projects that had nothing to do with CRI, he said.
Charles Riechers, an Air Force procurement official, says he had no problem with his interim contract. (U.s. Air Force Photo - U.s. Air Force Photo)
TOOLBOXRiechers said in an interview that his interactions with Commonwealth Research were limited largely to a Christmas party, where he said he met company officials for the first time.
"I really didn't do anything for CRI," said Riechers, now principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. "I got a paycheck from them."
Riechers's job highlights the Pentagon's ties with Commonwealth Research and its corporate parent, which has in recent years received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants and contracts from the military, and more than $100 million in earmarks from lawmakers.
Commonwealth Research and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies, are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as tax-exempt charities, even though their primary work is for the Pentagon and other government agencies. In a recent report Concurrent, also based in Johnstown, Pa., said it was among the Defense Department's top 200 contractors, with a focus on intelligence, surveillance, force readiness and advanced materials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001402.html
Suicide Is Not Painless
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 21, 2007
IT was one of those stories lost in the newspaper’s inside pages. Last week a man you’ve never heard of — Charles D. Riechers, 47, the second-highest-ranking procurement officer in the United States Air Force — killed himself by running his car’s engine in his suburban Virginia garage.
Mr. Riechers’s suicide occurred just two weeks after his appearance in a front-page exposé in The Washington Post. The Post reported that the Air Force had asked a defense contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, to give him a job with no known duties while he waited for official clearance for his new Pentagon assignment. Mr. Riechers, a decorated Air Force officer earlier in his career, told The Post: “I really didn’t do anything for C.R.I. I got a paycheck from them.” The question, of course, was whether the contractor might expect favors in return once he arrived at the Pentagon last January.
Set against the epic corruption that has defined the war in Iraq, Mr. Riechers’s tragic tale is but a passing anecdote, his infraction at most a misdemeanor. The $26,788 he received for two months in a non-job doesn’t rise even to a rounding error in the Iraq-Afghanistan money pit. So far some $6 billion worth of contracts are being investigated for waste and fraud, however slowly, by the Pentagon and the Justice Department. That doesn’t include the unaccounted-for piles of cash, some $9 billion in Iraqi funds, that vanished during L. Paul Bremer’s short but disastrous reign in the Green Zone. Yet Mr. Riechers, not the first suicide connected to the war’s corruption scandals, is a window into the culture of the whole debacle.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/opinion/21rich.html?hp
Preschoolers? Come on, knock it off !
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
More Preschoolers Facing Increased Academic Pressure.....
Chicago, IL-When architect Joan Wallace dropped her 3-year-old daughter Hannah off at preschool this morning, she hugged her, handed over her lunchbox, and took one more opportunity to go over a few flash cards.
"A caterpillar!" Hannah exclaimed proudly as her mother held up a card featuring a lepidoptera in its larval form. Her mother sighed. "Caterpillar won't get you into Harvard sweetheart."
"Flowers!" She excitedly yelled out, a frown formed on her mother's face. "It's only partial credit. These are Siam Roses. Come on Hannah, you know these!"
http://knudsensnews.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-preschoolers-facing-increased.html
Resistance is Futile
October 22, 2007
Resistance is futile: You will be (mis)informed.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/resistance-is-futile.htm
Islamo-Facism Week?
Writer outlines terrorist links
Journalist explains the apparent ties between American groups and Islamic fundamentalists
...The council was founded by Hamas, an Islamic militant organization. Both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, a multinational Islamic political group, have helped start many Islamic groups across the world, according to Kaufman, including the Muslim Student Association.
Monica Rowand, a first-year communication studies student, said she came to the event to hear a different point of view from her own.
“I don’t agree with what the Bruin Republicans are saying and I want to know the logic behind their statements,” Rowand said.
Salomon Hossein, a member of MSA, said Kaufman rarely mentioned the club in his speech, and when he did, he lumped them in with Islamic radicals.
“(The speech) hardly ... was about MSA. He went on about known terrorist organizations,” which MSA is not, Hossein said.
Later in his speech, Kaufman was especially concerned with a past issue of Al-Talib, the UCLA newsmagazine geared toward the Muslim community. In a July 1999 editorial titled “Jihad in America,” the Al-Talib staff wrote, “When we hear someone refer to ... Osama bin Laden as a ‘terrorist,’ we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter.”...
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2007/oct/26/writer-outlines-terrorist-links/
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Valerie Plame Wilson: The real reason to blow the cover of a CIA operative
Fair Game by Valerie Plame Wilson
The latest entry into the Newsnight Book Club is Valerie Plame's Fair Game.
Valerie Plame Wilson is the woman at the centre of the scandal that, ultimately, led to the downfall, prosecution and conviction of the former White House chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, for revealing her identity as a CIA spy.
In Fair Game, Valerie Plame Wilson tells her side of the story, and details her life as a spy. The following extract covers the moment her identity was revealed. Click here to read more.
http://ledaro.blogspot.com/2007/10/valerie-plame-wilson-real-reason-to.html
Plame Fights Back Against White House in CIA-Censored Memoir
By Charles Taylor
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Reading Valerie Plame Wilson's memoir ``Fair Game'' is like trying to listen to a radio broadcast in which the signal keeps fading in and out.
The former CIA operative, whose undercover identity was revealed by the columnist Robert Novak after a carefully orchestrated campaign emanating from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, submitted her memoir to the CIA before publication, as the agreement she signed on joining the agency required her to do. Censors there expurgated sentences, whole batches of pages, even chapter titles.
Plame and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, are suing, claiming the redactions go far beyond the terms of the agreement. But in a middle-finger gesture, the book has been published with the offending passages left in but hidden behind gray bars.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aV.krs0brRzI&refer=home
Fair Plame
After years of enforced silence, Valerie Plame Wilson finally tells all -- except for the stuff the CIA blacked out.
By Rebecca Traister
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Background photo: Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joseph Wilson, hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, July 14, 2006.
For four years, Valerie Plame Wilson has existed for most Americans largely as a one-dimensional figure, a symbol at best. She was a misspelled scrawl -- "Valerie Flame" -- in New York Times reporter Judith Miller's notebook. She was a beautiful woman swathed in shades and scarf in a Vanity Fair photo spread. She was deemed "little more than a glorified secretary" by a Republican congressman, trying to defuse growing suspicion that her outing as a CIA covert operative, by someone high up in the Bush administration, had been an illegal breach of national security. By the left, she and her husband, former ambassador and weapons of mass destruction whistle-blower Joe Wilson, were lionized as martyrs to the antiwar cause.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/10/24/valerie_plame/index_np.html
Plame Dares Call It Treason
Posted October 26, 2007 10:32 AM (EST)
On MSNBC last night Valerie Plame called the Bush Administration's outing of her undercover CIA status TREASON. Asked if she anticipated that Bush and Cheney would retaliate for Joe Wilson's Op-Ed article outing the Administration's case for the Iraq War by attacking her, she said that that was not on their list of contemplated consequences of speaking the truth to power. Never, she said, did she think that the Administration would compromise national security for domestic political gain.
Parenthetically, we have learned how gigantic the fraud perpetrated by the Administration was. Hans Blix, the weapons' inspector leader whose mission was cut short by the US invasion, said that IAEA knew in a day that the claimed Niger connection was a complete fraud. Blix was astounded that such an obvious fraud nonetheless made its way from Italian intelligence to the British and then to the Americans.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/plame-dares-call-it-treas_b_69979.html
Rudy's Secretary of Health and Human Services
Senate approves Frist for international aid board
Date created: 10/26/2007 11:30:34 PM
Last updated: 10/26/2007 11:31:05 PM
The U.S. Senate has approved the nomination of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the board of an international aid program that seeks to encourage democracy and openness in poor countries.
Frist, a Nashville Republican, was nominated by President Bush to replace former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman on the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Bush in 2002 announced the creation of the Millennium Challenge to distribute foreign aid to poor countries committed to tackling corruption and to dedicating themselves to certain economic policies and human rights.
The idea was that little good comes from pouring aid into a country that has corrupt or unstable leadership. The program was formally launched in 2004.
Frist, a surgeon, abandoned a widely expected presidential bid last year. He is now focusing on global health issues.
http://www.wbir.com/news/regional/story.aspx?storyid=50592
Friday, October 26. 2007
NOTED: US Government states 63 Million, 20% of population!, has wagered online and other oddness
The Guardian Unlimited has an interesting article by John Sterlicchi about the aftermath of the signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act UIGEA.
The most surprising information was that the US Government claims that 63 Million citizens have wagered online (20% of the population!). I suspect this number is... "hokum" (see previous article about the RCMP and their interesting counterfeiting numbers). 20% of the population would probably map to around 1/3 of the total population that wagers in a casino or other legal, face-to-face venue if scaled to the 70 odd percent of the population that is online.
Now, if the government REALLY BELIEVED THIS, you'd think that they would have put more thought into a piece of legislation that was slipped into the Port Security Act by former Senator Bill Frist.
There is some other interesting, but well-known information about the several bills to legalize skill games and poker in the US and Antigua's victory in the WTO. The WTO case is very interesting as the US is one of the major advocates of free trade, but is being sued for billions in damages for restricting free trade in online gambling. And a lot of countries are looking for US blood including: the European Union, India, Antigua and Barbuda, Japan, Costa Rica, Macao, Canada and Australia.
http://playnoevil.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1694-NOTED-US-Government-states-63-Million,-20%25-of-population!,-has-wagered-online-and-other-oddness.html
New Jersey Prescription Drug Price Registry
By Flexo on Friday, October 26th, 2007 in Consumer
Over 100 of the most common prescription drugs are listed in the New Jersey Prescription Drug Price Registry, maintained by the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. This website lets you search by medication name, type, and form to find the prices for these drugs by zip code.
http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2007/10/26/new-jersey-prescription-drug-price-registry/
Nursing homes owned by private equity face U.S. inquiries
By Charles Duhigg
Published: October 24, 2007
Two U.S. congressional committees have announced that they will investigate business practices at nursing homes owned by private investment groups.
The inquiries will be led by two Democratic representatives, John Dingell of Michigan, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts, head of the Financial Services Committee. The scope of the inquiries is still being determined, but will probably include hearings and proposed legislation, a committee spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The investigations are the latest scrutiny of private equity investments in nursing homes.
Last week, two senators - Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, and Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican and the committee's ranking minority member - sent letters to five private investment firms seeking information on their ownership and management of nursing home chains.
The senators also asked the agency that is responsible for many payments to nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, about its oversight of such homes.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/24/business/nursing.php
Plight of Afghan Children
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4670000/newsid_4679900/4679986.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6
Supreme Court Justices Unethical Behavior?
We have all read about Jack Abramoff and how lobbying is done in Washington. Trips, dinners, campaign funding, and other perks paid for by lobbyists in return for favors the politicians can do for their clients.
But our Supreme Court Justices should be beyond reproach. They are not elected, but appointed. They are in that position for life or until they decide to retire. They also should go out of their way to be unbiased and out of the reach of special interest groups, people whose cases might come before the Supreme Court, and lobbyists.
While other Justices may walk the line of impropriety, Justice Scalia proudly struts over the ethical line and is smug about it. Remember Leona Helmsly when arrested for income tax evasion? She said "taxes are for the little people", or something to that effect. Justice Scalia has a similar attitude when questioned about his activities.
Not too long ago, the Supreme Court was hearing a case that affected the ability for the Bush administration to hold prisoners indefinitely. Just before the case was to be heard, Justice Scalia went on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney that didn't cost Scalia a dime. When asked if that might present a conflict of interest and that he should possibly recuse himself from the case, he called the idea ridiculous and stayed on the case. His vote favored the Bush Administration.
Yes, it might have been in favor of them anyway. No, the trip may not have influenced him in any way. However the appearance of impropriety, unethical behavior, or conflict of interest is enough to make going on that trip the wrong theng to do. And after doing so, thumbing his nose at people who raised the question was also the wrong thing to do.
Now, all the justices were at the swearing in of Justice Roberts, well all of them but Antonin Scalia. He was playing tennis and going fly fishing at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bachelor Gulch, Colo, all on the dole. All paid for by the Federalists Society.
"I was out of town with a commitment that I could not break, and that's what the public information office told you," he said.
http://cuttingedgers.blogspot.com/2007/10/supreme-court-justices-unethical.html
The Pro-War Constituents of the Right Wing can't take issue with the war so they take issue with the 'personalities' of the activists. Cindy Sheehan as well left a former life to become a leader toward peace. Perhaps Ms. Fairozz should seek the opportunity to run for office as Cindy has.
Activist group Code Pink scored a fantastic photo with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week. The message is a simple one we have heard before: Condi and her President have blood on their hands from the Iraq War. The remarkable thing I think is the crazy look in that lady's eyes. (via Rob Thurman)
http://www.omgblog.com/2007/10/code_pink_and_condi_rice.php
Arlington woman nurturing Code Pink activists in D.C.
Teacher leaves job behind for role as 'den mother'
10:55 PM CDT on Friday, June 22, 2007
By CHRISTINE MacDONALD / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – Desiree Fairooz has never been "a pink person," but her new home is replete with pink lampshades, pink throw pillows and pink quilts. The back yard has pink flowers.
MICHAEL TEMCHINE/Special Contributor
Desiree Fairooz quit her job as a Grand Prairie teacher and left her family in Arlington to serve as 'den mother' for Code Pink activists in Washington, D.C. She manages a house that serves as Code Pink's Washington operations base and provides lodging and meals for members in town to participate in Code Pink protests.
It's appropriate for Code Pink, an anti-war group known for using humor and outlandish costumes to publicize its views.
Stored in the basement are pink slips to suggest that President Bush and his vice president should be fired, pink police uniforms to push for the arrest of Attorney General Al Gonzales, and pink hospital scrubs and prescription pads to promote the message that the country is ailing.
And in the middle of all this pink activism is Ms. Fairooz, who quit her teaching job in Grand Prairie and left her family behind in Arlington to become den mother to the women of Code Pink.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/062307dnnatcodepink.34f0383.html
The Ban on Meatpacker Ownership should go forward as it would benefit the Small Family Farmer.
Pretty much business as usual
The Senate Ag Committee's Farm Bill
Posted by Tom Philpott at 4:26 PM on 26 Oct 2007
No jaded observer will be surprised: The Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday released its version of the 2007 Farm Bill, leaving the subsidy mechanisms in the 2002 bill pretty well intact. I'm still trying to chase down details of the proposal, but here are a couple of tidbits.
The big news is that the version contains a ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock. This is (potentially) huge. Currently, dominant meatpackers like Smithfield Foods and Tyson also raises hundreds of thousands of animals themselves each year. These "captive herds" give them enormous leverage over independent farmers, allowing these corporate giants to dictate price, growing conditions, etc. A so-called "packer ban" would go some way in leveling the playing field between farmers and corporate giants.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/10/26/82852/556
University of Minnesota graduate student searches for answers in the abduction of his nieces in Sudan
For Gabriel Solomon - who was kidnapped at age 6 in his native Sudan and forced to become a soldier - the abduction of his nieces has made his quest to defend children's rights personal.
RUBÉN ROSARIO
Article Last Updated: 10/21/2007 01:12:20 AM CDT
Gabriel Kou Solomon, one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," has already undergone quite a schooling in his young life. The 27-year-old African refugee graduated from Oak Grove Lutheran High School in Fargo, N.D. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year with a degree in international studies and history. He is pursuing a graduate degree in a similar professional discipline at the University of Minnesota.
But it's the education he got back home that no child or adult should ever receive. Solomon was taken from his parents' village 21 years ago by roving members of the southern Sudan Liberation Army.
Solomon, then 6, and many other boys were eventually transported to Ethiopia under the thinly disguised ruse that they would be schooled in the three R's. Instead, they were taught how to shoot an AK-47, fling grenades and hopefully take lives without hesitation, conscience or remorse.
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_7233502
TV Ratings for High Court Arguments Would Be Awful, Alito Says
Mark Sherman
The Associated Press
10-22-2007
Justice Samuel Alito doubts the public is clamoring for Supreme Court sessions to be televised and predicts they would battle Congress for last place in the ratings.
Alito said Friday that the same-day availability of oral argument transcripts on the Internet and extensive media coverage means the "only thing missing is pictures of the justices and the lawyers with their lips moving as they ask and answer questions."
"I am concerned that if our arguments were televised we'd be competing neck and neck with Congress ... for the lowest ratings that have ever been recorded by the Nielsen system," Alito said in an often humorous speech at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics conference on the need for major changes to the Constitution.
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/LawArticleFriendly.jsp?id=1192784613440
New Orleans DA hit with one problem after another
NEW ORLEANS -- Confidence in beleaguered District Attorney Eddie Jordan slipped further this week as city officials said they aren't inclined to pay off $3.7 million his office owes in a discrimination lawsuit, and as news broke that a robbery suspect briefly took refuge at an unsuspecting Jordan's home.
Now a pair of lawmakers are threatening to begin impeachment proceedings against Jordan.
"There is a widely held perception that the office is ineffective," said John Penny, chair of the criminal justice program at Southern University-New Orleans. "There seems to be a lack of efficiency and organization. Citizens' confidence in the office is definitely shaken, and Mr. Jordan has not done much to restore it."
That failure in confidence is one of the reasons the state Legislature should impeach Jordan, said Rep.-elect Cameron Henry, whose district includes Orleans and Jefferson parishes.
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7272066
The Master Liquidity Enhancement Con (duit)
In a stunning editorial leap of faith, the New York Times headlines that “3 Major Banks Offer Plan to Calm Debts in Housing.” What three major banks have actually suggested, with Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson safely in tow, is that someone else sail in to save their considerably-at-risk bacon.
Paulson, to his credit, is able to announce the laughably named Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit without so much as the hint of a smile. Not even a little smirk at the corner of the lip. Hank is not a fan of irony, nor does he much embrace nuance. Liquidity enhancement is, in this master-stroke of name over content, a fund to keep a bunch of banks from losing their collective asses on bad loans they made. Loans dashed off, knowing full well they weren't worth anything and had little chance of being paid. Greed was the engine of their penmanship, pure greed.
http://www.opinion-columns.com/praguewriter/2007/10/the-master-liqu.html
At Law Center Talk, Paulson Bemoans Housing Market
The picture of housing and mortgage markets nationwide isn't rosy, Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson told a Law Center audience on Oct. 16.
Sales of existing single-family homes are down 25 percent from their 2005 peak, he said, and the number of unsold homes has increased to early 1990s levels. Mortgage defaults and foreclosures are on the rise -- and with today's decentralized mortgage system, a homeowner on the verge of default may not know where to go for help.
"Buying a home today is a complex process, but that in no way excuses homebuyers from their obligation for due diligence," he said. "Just as investors in the stock market have a responsibility to understand the risks associated with their investment, homebuyers have a responsibility to understand their mortgages."
http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=28594
Treasury's Paulson wants faster China yuan rise
Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:49pm EDT
By Glenn Somerville
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged China on Tuesday to let its currency rise faster in value and warned that rising protectionism threatened U.S.-China relations.
"Policy-makers in both countries must resist the impulse to discard the hard-fought and long-term gains of open economies by pursuing short-term and misguided policy responses," Paulson told the George H.W. Bush U.S.-China Relations Conference.
There would be greater chances of balanced economic growth in China and the world if China let its yuan currency rise faster in value immediately and let markets set its value completely in the medium term, he said..
"Accelerating the rate of appreciation and introduction of flexibility will help China deal with the imbalances that have grown in the economy and make monetary policy much more effective in responding to inflation," Paulson said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2332620920071024
Makes excuses if you want, but, Goldman Sachs as benefitted from insider information in the US Secretary of the Treasury office. It's just too obvious.
Goldman Sachs is promotion-happy
While most investment banks are struggling, Goldman Sachs is doing well enough to promote 299 employees to managing director. Amy Scott deciphers the true meaning behind the title.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/10/26/goldman_sachs_promotes_record_numbers
Goldman, Macquarie to invest in PTC Inida arm-paper
Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:30am EDT
MUMBAI, Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Australia's Macquarie (MBL.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) are close to buying 40 percent in the investment arm of state-run PTC India (PTCI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) for about 1.2 billion rupees ($30 million), the Economic Times said on Friday.
"We have reached an advanced stage of negotiations. But I would not like to comment on the details at this point," the company's chairman, T.N. Thakur, told the paper.
Quoting sources close the development, the paper said the deal would be signed shortly, with Goldman Sachs and Macquarie to each take a 20 percent stake in PTC Financial Services.
Goldman Sachs spokesman Edward Naylor declined comment while a spokeswoman at Macquarie could not be reached. ($1 = 39.6 Indian rupees)
http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSBOM19383420071026
Goldman Sachs investing $100m in startup Mobileye
By Eran Gabay and Raphael Fogel
Another huge deal for Israeli high-tech: Only two days after the sale of Traiana for $247 million to British firm ICAP, U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs is investing $100 million in the Israeli company Mobileye. This reflects a valuation of $600 million.
Mobileye develops vision systems to prevent imminent accidents and assist drivers. These systems work as a "third eye" for the driver. Applications support the driver in performing several routine driving tasks, such as keeping distance between vehicles and dynamic cruise control, and provide timely warnings in dangerous situations.
Mobileye develops the chips and algorithms for the systems.
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The company was founded in 1999 by Professor Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram. Aviram is CEO, and Chairman Shashua is a professor of computer science at the Hebrew University, and is an expert in 3D vision and pattern recognition.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/912422.html
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