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http://www.cnbc.com/id/44894853 The idea that the sentence handed down Thursday to fallen-hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam resembles anything like the proper administration of justice depends on a very common factual error.
The error: Investors are victimized by insider traders.
Rajaratnam received the longest prison sentence ever for insider trading . But unlike those convicted of any other kind of fraud, Rajaratnam’s sentence is not at all linked to the harm he inflicted on his victims.
The reason why Rajaratnam’s sentence isn’t linked to any victims is because no one has found any victims. They just don’t exist.
(end snip)
Hey, asswipes, Y U No do the time if you do the crime?
Which is Acting at the Behest of the Mayor http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13076 According to the New York Times, Mayor Bloomberg's girlfriend, Diana L. Taylor, sits on the board of Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zucotti Park (AKA Liberty Park). But that's hardly the ownly tie that has resulted in Brookfield becoming an active partner in Bloomberg's efforts to close down Occupy Wall Street. The current gambit of, in essence, closing the public headquarters of the movement under the guise of "cleaning up" the park, and then imposing rules that would prohibit anything other than pedestrian traffic and sitting on benches, is now delayed. (It had originally been scheduled for 7 AM EST Friday.) (snip) Bloomberg had first tried to use the NYPD -- and perhaps others -- to infiltrate and perhaps bait the Occupy Wall Street protesters into some sort of violent act, which would turn public opinion against them, and allow him to use the sort of excessive police force employed in "The Battle of Seattle" several years ago to cut off the head of the populist surge that has put corporations and Wall Street on the defensive. That didn't work, even though hundreds of people were arrested after claiming that the police led them onto the street level of the Brooklyn Bridge and then arrested them. But plan "B" was for Brookfield Properties, which technically owns the public park as a result of it being built in return for zoning variations in the area, to "ask" for police help if plan "A" didn't pan out. (end snip) Whazzup with mayors of NYC and their girlfriends?
Source: The New York TimesTOPEKA, Kan. — The startling vote came up at a City Council meeting here on Tuesday, provoked by a run-of-the-mill budget dispute over services that had spun out of control: decriminalize domestic violence. Three arms of government, all ostensibly representing the same people, have been at an impasse over who should be responsible for — and pay for — prosecuting people accused of misdemeanor cases of domestic violence. City leaders had blamed the Shawnee County district attorney for handing off such cases to the city without warning. The district attorney, in turn, said he was forced to not prosecute any misdemeanors and to focus on felonies because the County Commission cut his budget. And county leaders accused the district attorney of using abused women as pawns to negotiate more money for his office. After both sides dug in, the dispute came to a head Tuesday night. By a vote of 7 to 3, the City Council repealed the local law that makes domestic violence a crime. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/topek...
Apparently, they think they have to endanger the victims in order to save them. By repealing the law, they think that will force the county to keep prosecuting the cases because it is still a crime in Kansas, for the time being. Meanwhile, as the article says, 18 cases have been released since September because no agency will take new cases or file charges.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/ru... Rupert Murdoch's reputation precedes him—but one thing he's not well known know for is his education reform advocacy. But that could soon change. Next month, Murdoch will make an unusual public appearance in San Francisco, delivering the keynote address at an education summit hosted by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has lately been criss-crossing the country promoting his own version of education reform. The high-profile speech to a collection of conservative ed reformers, state legislators, and educators is just the latest step in Murdoch's quiet march into the business of education, which has been somewhat eclipsed by the phone-hacking scandal besieging his media empire. (On Tuesday, word of Murdoch's appearance at Bush's conference came just hours after reports that News Corp. had agreed to pay more than $4 million to the family of a 13-year-old British murder victim, Milly Dowler, whose voicemail was hacked by reporters for Murdoch's News of the World. ) But Murdoch has made it very clear that he views America's public schools as a potential goldmine. (snip) News Corp.'s entrance into the education sector raises broader education policy questions, says University of Arizona education professor Kenneth Goodman. Having a multinational corporation in charge of assessing kids' reading skills, he notes, shows that "decision making in education is so far removed from people who have anything to do with kids." And like many educators, he is suspicious that Murdoch will bring his conservative ideology to his education ventures: "They'd like everything to be privatized." Already, Murdoch's phone-hacking baggage is hurting his bottom line. In late August, New York rejected its plans to contract with Wireless Generation. The reason, according to the state's comptroller: "vendor responsibility issues involving the parent company of Wireless Generation."
Source: International Business TimesSecurities regulators have sent subpoenas to hedge funds and other trading firms in a probe of possible insider trading before the U.S. government's long-term credit rating was cut last month, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Securities and Exchange Commission officials demanded more information about specific trades made shortly before Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's rating to AA-plus from AAA on Aug. 5, the paper said. SEC officials are zeroing in on firms that bet the stock market would tumble, the Journal said. It is unclear which investment firms are being investigated, but the subpoenas are unusually broad, seeking information about why certain trades were made, a person told the Journal. An SEC spokesman declined to comment to the Journal. Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/216581/201...
American Corporatocracy - Y U No Bet for America? #ourwallstreet
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/14/1... Steven Benen riffs on this great chart from the Census bureau, highlighted by Suzy Khimm. The increase in the past decade in the poverty rate for children, shown in the blue line, now at 22 percent, is horrendous, and should be keeping policy-makers up nights. But look at the red line, the poverty rate for seniors, which has dropped from 35.2 percent in 1959 to just 9.0 percent. Benen: As of 2010, despite growing poverty throughout the economy, Khimm noted, “ lder Americans are even less likely to be in poverty than they were during the start of the recession. <...> he poverty rate for seniors is at a record low: in 2009, it was at 8.9 percent, and it’s remained essentially flat since then.”
This isn’t an accident and it’s not a fluke. Indeed, note that on the left side of the chart, as of a half-century ago, those most likely to be in poverty were seniors.
So what happened? Social Security and Medicare happened. These pillars of modern American life have brought a degree of stability and economic security to millions of older people who've left the workforce.
Those are necessary, but so is this. Although we used to call it a superhighway of sorts. American internet speed sucks, unless you pay for it. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/downl... POTLATCH, Idaho — Barry Ramsay, who owns a small manufacturing company here between two mountains, remembers the day his Internet connection crashed for several hours. Work crews had to ride up in snowmobiles to discover the problem. “They said that bears had been rubbing against the towers,” Mr. Ramsay said. In this mountainous state, where some connections depend on line of sight, even snow and fog can disrupt the signals. “These are the kind of problems you probably don’t have in an urban area,” he said. (snip) The United States as a whole lags in speed, coming in 25th behind South Korea, which has the fastest speeds in the world. Even Romania clocks in ahead. (snip) Indeed, speeds for Idaho’s businesses can be as fast as those anywhere, if customers pay for it. The federal government says Idaho is among the states with the greatest disparity in speeds available in urban areas versus rural areas. (end snip) I guess, like in the article, we minions should be happy just to get e-mail, right? That would be the rethuglican response, and with all this bipartisanship, we just need to accept mediocrity? Yes, we can, but I'm waiting for it to download?
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/09/3... / A stunning new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) concludes: In summary, our results show that the substitution of gas for coal as an energy source results in increased rather than decreased global warming for many decades…. The fact that natural gas is a bridge fuel to nowhere was first shown by the International Energy Agency in its big June report on gas — see IEA’s “Golden Age of Gas Scenario” Leads to More Than 6°F Warming and Out-of-Control Climate Change. That study — which had both coal and oil consumption peaking in 2020 — made abundantly clear that if we want to avoid catastrophic warming, we need to start getting off of all fossil fuels. But what NCAR’s new study adds is more detailed modeling of all contributors to climate change from fossil fuel combustion — positive and negative. The study (subs. req’d) is here, an early version is here, the news release is here. It’s by senior research associate Tom Wigley, one of the country’s leading experts on climate modeling. “Relying more on natural gas would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, but it would do little to help solve the climate problem,” says Wigley, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia. “It would be many decades before it would slow down global warming at all, and even then it would just be making a difference around the edges.” (end snip) Frack, baby, frack.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/dailyfray/d... As the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 looms, many of us are remembering the intense emotions we felt on that day. The American Enterprise Institute hosted a talk with former Vice President Dick Cheney -- who's been promoting his controversial memoirs -- moderator Stephen Hayes talked about how President Bush nearly cried in public, Condoleezza Rice burst into tears at home, and Hayes himself "broke down crying." Did Cheney have his own tearful moment? No. "Not really," Cheney said. The audience laughed. "You understand people will find that peculiar," Hayes said. Cheney says he was focused at the task at hand, like "what the targets might be and how we might go after him." Cheney says he'd been trained in "continuity of government" -- you know, like in case the president is shot -- so he was prepared. (video at the link) Many might find that sociopathic, let alone peculiar. He has no pulse, and no tears.
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/... / MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell ripped former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for choosing to put the city’s Emergency Command and Control Center in the World Trade Center despite being advised by professionals in his administration not to place it in an “obvious terrorism target.” “Rudy Giuliani learned absolutely nothing from the first deadly attack on the World Trade Center,” he said. “As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, most of the media will continue to portray him as one of the heroes of 9/11. Know this. There is no more fraudulent public image in our politics than Rudy Giuliani, hero Of 9/11.” video at the link.
http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201108... Today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) affirmed his opposition to federal disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Irene without offsetting budget cuts. "Just like any family would operate when it's struck with disaster," Cantor said on Fox News, "it finds the money to take care of a sick loved one or what have you, and then goes without trying to buy a new car or put an addition onto the house." That's a badly flawed analogy: Cantor's desired cuts aren't analogous to not buying a new car, but rather selling the family station wagon for parts. Nonetheless, it's worth pointing out that Cantor didn't always prioritize fiscal "discipline" over helping his constituents recover from disasters. After Tropical Storm Gaston hit the Richmond, VA area in 2004, Cantor appealed to President Bush and DHS Director Tom Ridge for disaster assistance and took credit for securing federal funds when they became available: (snip) I respectfully request immediate action be undertaken by your Department to determine if Richmond and the Central Virginia region affected by yesterday's storm meets the criteria for a federal presidential disaster declaration. Time is of the essence, and it is important to start working on this matter so my constituents can receive help in this time of need.
(snip)
Note that Cantor did not call for offsetting budget cuts in any of those statements. It's not clear exactly when Cantor decided that federal disaster relief is too costly to support without strings attached, but his austere approach today is consistent with the Republican Party's demonstrated commitment for using unfortunate circumstances to advance their ideological agenda.
(end snip)
Eric Cantor is a political opportunist. He is a flim flam man. He extorts money and fame from taking Americans hostage. He is a terrorist - living off the fear he creates that Americans will not receive the help they need unless his (is it really his?) agenda is met.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/r... (snip) The governor's office was even prepared to put down a little cash up front. If retirees balked at the notion of the state profiting from their deaths, Perry's budget men suggested they could be persuaded for the cost of a pair of shoes, according to the meeting notes. If a retiree signed a contract allowing the state's teacher pension fund to buy life insurance on them, the governor was prepared to give them between $50 and $100."Precious little for what they were giving up," said the meeting attendee. The notes make clear that the governor's proposal deliberately targeted the elderly. The state was only seeking to take out life insurance on people between the ages of 75 and 90. At a separate meeting five days later, the plan's proponents discussed the "mental capacity" of these retirees to grant consent as one of three major technical obstacles to the plan, according to notes from that meeting. At the first meeting, Morrissey said it could take 10 to 12 years for Texas to "earn" money from the scheme, but insisted the deal could be worth up to $700 million for the state if the retirement fund could sign up 40,000 retired teachers. (end snip) The more I read about this Perry 'dead teachers' scheme, the more I find despicable. It's a fine line (if at all) anymore between the government swindlers and the non government swindlers.
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Profile Information deminks
6749 posts Member since Thu Oct 28th 2004 Latest Threads
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The Seattle TimesThe hidden big business behind your doctor's diagnosis By Susan Kelleher and Duff Wilson · Seattle Times staff reporters You walk into your doctor's office for a physical exam and step on the scale. Last year, the doctor said you were overweight. Now he says you are obese — at the same weight. A nurse takes your blood pressure. You have hypertension — with the same previously healthy reading you've had for years. The doctor scans your wrist bone. You have a condition called "osteopenia" — with the same bone density that was fine last time you were measured. You are suddenly sick, simply because the definitions of disease have changed. And behind those changes, a Seattle Times examination has found, are the companies that make all those newly prescribed pills. (end snip) Oh so much more at the link. Three Years of War in Iraq: A Timeline
Think ProgressMARCH 19, 2003: Bush launches invasion of Iraq MARCH 30, 2003: Donald Rumsfeld: We know where the WMD are We know where the weapons of mass destruction are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
(snip)
MAY 1, 2003: Mission Accomplished
My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
MAY 9, 2003: Paul Wolfowitz: We agreed on WMD rationale for bureaucratic reasons
The truth is that, for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason to go to war.
(snip)
EFF defends liberties in high-tech world
tribune-cnronicle.comSAN FRANCISCO — In March 1990, when few people had even heard of the Internet, U.S. Secret Service agents raided the Texas offices of a small board-game maker, seizing computer equipment and reading customers’ e-mail stored on one machine. And thus the Electronic Frontier Foundation was born — 16 years ago today — taking on the Secret Service as its first case, one the EFF ultimately won when a judge agreed that the government had no right to read the e-mails or keep the equipment. Today, after expanding into such areas as intellectual property and moving its headquarters twice along with its focus, the EFF is reemphasizing its roots of trying to limit government surveillance of electronic communications, while keeping a lookout for emerging threats even as the Internet and digital technologies become mainstream. In one of its highest-profile lawsuits to date, the EFF has accused AT&T Inc. of illegally cooperating with the National Security Agency to make phone and Internet communications available without warrants. Cnn: Putin blasts U.S. on terror stance
From CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty Tuesday, September 7, 2004 Posted: 2:48 AM EDT (0648 GMT) MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that mid-level officials in the U.S. government were undermining his country's war on terrorism by supporting Chechen separatists, whom he compared to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Putin's charge, made in a meeting with a group of western foreign policy experts, came just days after hundreds of people, mostly children, died in the bloody end to the Beslan siege. But Putin said each time Russia complained to the Bush administration about meetings held between U.S. officials and Chechen separatist representatives, the U.S. response has been "we'll get back to you" or "we reserve the right to talk with anyone we want." Putin blamed what he called a "Cold War mentality" on the part of some U.S. officials, but likened their demands that Russia negotiate with the Chechen separatists to the U.S. talking to al Qaeda. cnn.comLord Goldsmith reveals meeting with US chiefs helped change his view on Iraq war
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2... / Tony Blair's law chief changed his mind to give the green light for war after meeting US politicians. Lord Goldsmith told the Chilcot inquiry he had originally warned Mr Blair military action against Saddam Hussein's regime would be illegal without United Nations' authority. But the then Attorney General dramatically reversed his view after he flew to Washington for secret talks two months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Lord Goldsmith yesterday said that meeting, plus a conversation with Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary at the time, were the main reasons which led him to declare the invasion lawful. His evidence reignites claims Britain was browbeaten by then US President George Bush into backing the conflict and it piles pressure on Mr Blair ahead of his appearance before Sir John Chilcot's inquiry tomorrow. Visitor Tools
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