Ultra Post

Very Large

Fraudulent
So the man responsible for investigating fraud in the Pentagon in the Bush administration is going to jail.

For fraud.

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Richard T. Race, the Pentagon inspector general's chief investigator of procurement fraud and official misconduct, quit his job and pleaded guilty last month to violating U.S. banking laws.

The previously unpublicized case was filed Feb. 26 in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, according to court papers. Race, 61, admitted he made cash deposits at the Pentagon's credit union on three straight days in March 2007 that were designed to evade laws that track large currency transactions. The government seized the total of $20,000 in deposits as part of the plea deal.

Race, who will be sentenced May 2, faces as long as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He voluntarily retired Feb. 16, the inspector general's office said in a statement.

The whole situation seems fishy to me. Why are they going after a man this hard for a simple structuring case? For that matter, why did he go to this trouble?

He told a credit union teller that he had sold a car for $20,000 and reported that on his tax returns, according to court papers. Race told the teller he was making three separate deposits -- two for $9,000 and one for $2,000 -- that were ``to avoid generating a report to the government, which he believed could result in tax being assessed twice on the same sale,'' the papers said.

Race pleaded guilty to one count of structuring cash transactions to evade reporting requirements. Federal law requires that banks tell the Treasury Department about any single-day deposit of at least $10,000.

It makes no sense. Something else is going on here. I bet the car sale was cover for a bribe of some sort, the way he received money for services rendered. Either that, or a complete fiction cover story.

Source: Bloomberg

Cartoonish
Osama Bin Loser is up to his old tricks again.

In a new audio message purportedly from Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader threatens the EU over the re-printing of a cartoon offensive to Muslims.

The voice on it says the cartoon, re-published recently in all major Danish newspapers, was part of a crusade involving Pope Benedict XVI.

The drawing, first published in 2005, depicts the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Hehe. Awww, a cartoon makes him mad.

Actually, the article suggests he doesn't give a damn. It's just a good way to remain 'relevant', hip with today's younger, trendier bomb throwers.

Or something like that.

Source: BBC News

Hep Cat
So the investigation into the Chinese heparin that's sickened a bunch of people continues.

A modified form of a cheap and widely used dietary supplement sold to relieve joint pain was identified as the contaminant found in tainted and at times lethal heparin produced in China for American patients, Food and Drug Administration officials said yesterday.

Agency officials said they were investigating whether the compound, chemically modified chondroitin sulfate, was intentionally added to cut costs and boost profits or was mixed in by mistake. In either case, they said, it was not part of the prescribed manufacturing process.

"This is a biological compound that is not found in nature," said Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "At this point, it's still to be determined if it was introduced intentionally or by accident."

The announcement drew an immediate and worried response from members of Congress and drug experts, who said the tainted heparin is a sign of a much larger problem.

"I have no doubt that there are other contaminated or counterfeit drugs like heparin coming into the country, because there's really no system in place to stop them," said William Hubbard, a top official at the FDA until 2005 and part of a consumer and industry group lobbying -- so far unsuccessfully -- to get more resources for the agency to address the dangers of foreign-made drugs.

Ahh, the Bush administration. Making you less safe since January 2001.

Source: The Washington Post

Limits at Fox?
It would seem that some of the tools working for Fox News have ethical limits after all. Who knew?

Veteran journalist Chris Wallace admonished Fox & Friends over their characterization of a comment in which Obama referred to his grandmother as a "typical white person."

"I love you guys, but I want to take you to task if I may respectfully for a moment," Wallace began. "I have been watching the show..., and it seems to me that two hours of Obama-bashing on this 'typical white person' remark is somewhat excessive, and frankly, I think you're somewhat distorting what Obama had to say."

As the F&F hosts began grinning and shifting around in their seats, Wallace continued, "What he said was, 'The point I was making was not that my [grandmother] harbors any racial animosity--she doesn't--but she is a typical white person...,'" which is where you generally have clipped it."

As co-host Steve Doocy denied the charge, Wallace continued, "But what he went on to say is, '...who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes comes out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society.'"

Added Wallace, "I'm not saying that's the most felicitous remark that anybody ever made, but I think it's a little more complicated than we've been portraying."

Meanwhile, as Wallace was forced to take his own network to task on air, another host was driven to walk off the set in protest.

This morning on "Fox and Friends," Brian Kilmeade walked off the set after a dispute with his co-hosts Gretchen Carlson (she who celebrates deadly floods) and Steve Doocy over Obama's comment that his grandmother is a "typical white person." Kilmeade argued that the remark needed to be taken in context and eventually got so fed up with his co-hosts that he walked off set.

Amazing.

Still, they'll always have Bill-O, to express his astonishment that black people can sit down to a meal without gunfire.

Sources: Raw Story
The Huffington Post

Ignorance is Bliss
For rapper DMX, at any rate. (reformatted to make it easier to distinguish questions and answers in this format)

Q-Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

Q-You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Q-Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Q-Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Q-Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Q-Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

Q-You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

Q-I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

Q-So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
Nope.

Q-Is that why you’re not following it?
No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years.

Q-But it would be pretty big if we had a first Black president. That would be huge.
I mean, I guess…. What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, “Here you take it. Take my mess.”

Q-Right, exactly.
It’s all a fuckin’ setup. It’s all a setup. All fuckin’ bullshit. All bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.

Q-We could have a female president also, Hillary Clinton.
I mean, either way it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. No one person is directly affected by which president, you know, so what does it matter.

Q-Yeah, but the country is.
I guess. The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions.

Q-The president…they don’t have that much authority basically?
Nah, never.

Q-But Bush pretty much…
You think Bush is making fuckin’ decisions?

Q-He did, yeah, he fucked up the country.
He act like he making decisions. He could barely speak! He could barely fuckin’ speak!
Can’t be serious. He ain’t making no damn decisions.

Q-Well Barack has a good chance of winning so that might be something.
Good for him, good for him.

Right, because the PRESIDENT doesn't have any power.

Wow. Lol. What a moron. El Presidente and his handlers have killed between 350k-1 million people in Iraq, but they don't affect anything.

Sure. Sure.

Now, given that this man is an ignorant tool, should I take the obvious cheap shot?

Sure I will!

Q-There’s talk of a new album for you. When’s that coming out, like what’s up with that? Can you tell me what stage you’re at as far as recording?
Well, I’m bout to start working on the gospel album.

QW-Yeah, the gospel album. It’s like a double album right?
It’s two different albums. Two albums, separate albums. I got a couple more tracks to do on it and that’s done. It’s the first time anybody did anything like this—two separate albums on the same day.

Q-What made you want to release a gospel album now?
I’ve done gospel songs on every album. I figured I’d just dedicate a whole album to it.

Religion and ignorance, religion and ignorance. I don't even need to make jokes here anymore!

Source: XXLmag.com

Nuke Cat
Uncovering the terrifying story of a NUCLEAR CAT.

The unsettling thing about living in a surveillance society isn't just that you're being watched. It's that you have no idea.

That's what struck me about a story told last week by a border agent at a meeting of 200 San Juan Islanders. He was there to explain why the federal government is doing citizenship checks on domestic ferry runs.But near the end, while trying to convince the skeptical audience that the point is to root out terrorists, not fish for wrongdoing among the citizenry, deputy chief Joe Giuliano let loose with a tale straight out of "Dr. Strangelove."

It turns out the feds have been monitoring Interstate 5 for nuclear "dirty bombs." They do it with radiation detectors so sensitive it led to the following incident.

"Vehicle goes by at 70 miles per hour," Giuliano told the crowd. "Agent is in the median, a good 80 feet away from the traffic. Signal went off and identified an isotope [in the passing car]."

The agent raced after the car, pulling it over not far from the monitoring spot (near the Bow-Edison exit, 18 miles south of Bellingham). The agent questioned the driver, then did a cursory search of the car, Giuliano said.

Did he find a nuke?

"Turned out to be a cat with cancer that had undergone a radiological treatment three days earlier," Giuliano said.

Now that they've caught this veterinary menace, the DHS can rest easy.

Seriously, wow. Talk about a useless toy. Imagine all the cancer patients fresh from their radiation treatments at the hospital who are going to end up stopped, searched and humiliated over this.

Big Brother can do no wrong though, naturally.

Source: The Seattle Times

Show Us Your Papers
We really are living in a Proto-Soviet state here.

WASHINGTON — Millions of residents of three states will soon face tougher and longer screening at airport checkpoints if their governors defy a federal law requiring new, more-secure driver's licenses.

Maine, New Hampshire and South Carolina have until March 31 to say whether they plan to comply with the law, which they say is costly and will inconvenience residents by forcing them to get new licenses.

If the states don't comply, the Homeland Security Department will bar travelers from using those state's licenses and ID cards to board airplanes starting May 11.

"We are not bluffing," department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.

Some fear massive confusion and delays at the 15 airports in the three states. Passengers showing unacceptable licenses will be pulled aside for additional screening, possibly including pat-downs.

So in other words, if your state doesn't comply with the new State Security Apparatus' demand for a National ID card, they'll randomly pat-down search and harass you if you try to travel.

Ahh, isn't Democracy grand?

Source: USA Today

Bridges and the GOP
Yet another thing they can't get right.

ld photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two steel connecting plates were visibly bent as early as 2003 — four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.


Minnesota Department of Transportation officials declined to say when the state first knew about the bending in the pieces of steel, called gusset plates.

Two photos, part of a report issued earlier this month by the National Transportation Safety Board, reveal slight bends in gusset plates that hold beams together at two separate connecting points. The plates are in areas believed to be among the first points of failure when the span collapsed.

...

The two photos are believed to have been taken by URS Inc., a San Francisco consulting firm the state hired to examine the bridge from 2003 to 2007.

"URS and the state have both got a lot of explaining to do as far as why (the bending) was not observed, and if it was observed, why that was not immediately investigated," James Schwebel, an attorney representing a group of victims, told the AP on Sunday. "How could it possibly have been missed?"

...

Since the bridge's construction during the 1960s, the state highway department had increased weight on the bridge by adding a layer of concrete to the deck in 1977 and by installing concrete barriers in 1998. And the NTSB said last week that, at the time of the collapse, more than 191 tons of construction material had been piled over the bridge's weakest areas.

Republicans and government do not mix.

Source: Raw Story

Diplomacy in the Bush Era
Seems to consist of threats and espionage.

On March 14, 2003, less than one week before the eventual invasion, Chile hosted a meeting of diplomats from the six undecided governments to discuss its proposal. But U.S. ambassador John D. Negroponte and then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell moved quickly to quash the initiative, warning their governments that the effort was viewed as "an unfriendly act" designed to isolate the United States. The diplomats received calls from their governments ordering them to "leave the meeting immediately," Muñoz writes.

Muñoz said subsequent ties remained tense at the United Nations, where the United States sought support for resolutions authorizing the occupation of Iraq. He said that small countries met privately in a secure room at the German mission that was impervious to eavesdropping. "It reminded me of a submarine or a giant safe," Muñoz said in an interview.

The United States, he added, expressed "its displeasure" to the German government every time they held a meeting in the secure room. "They couldn't listen to what was going on."

Ahh. Nothing like bugging the UN and harassing member countries.

Any wonder the whole world hates us now?

Source: Raw Story

Stoned
Well well well. Turns out the Spitzer investigation really was shady after all.

In the 1970s, he was on the payroll of Richard Nixon's now-infamous Committee to Reelect the President. In the 1980s, he helped George Bush Sr. trounce Michael Dukakis by floating a racially charged ad about the Democratic governor's role in furloughing a black inmate. And in 2000, he organized the so-called "Brooks Brothers" riot, forcing the shutdown of a recount in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that may have turned the election to George W. Bush.

Last November, his lawyer wrote a letter to the FBI. In it, GOP political operative Roger Stone's attorney, Paul Rolf alleged that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer "used the services of high-priced call girls" while in Florida, basing his information on a "social contact."

The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Stone gleaned the information from "a social contact in an adult themed club."

"The governor has paid literally tens of thousands of dollars for these services," Rolf wrote. "It is Mr. Stone's understanding that the governor paid not with credit cards or cash but through some pre-arranged transfer."

It continued, including particular detail -- Stone's lawyer wrote that the governor hadn't taken off his calf-length socks "during the sex act."

It's unclear whether Stone's letter sparked the investigation: court papers say the investigation began "in or about October 2007."

...

The missive's timing -- in November -- was preceded by contact from the FBI. The Miami Herald, which first reported on Stone's lawyer's letter, said the letter was written in response to contact from federal investigators.

"His lawyer wrote the letter containing the call-girl allegations after FBI agents had asked to speak to Stone, though he says the FBI did not specify why he was contacted," Herald reporter Amy Driscoll wrote Friday.

Subsequent reports shed little light on why the FBI sought to speak to Stone before the letter was sent. The Times speculated that the bureau might have wanted to talk to Stone about a threatening message he allegedly left for Spitzer's father, which resulted in his being fired by New York's top Senate Republican.

So it looks like the FBI may have whitewashed a political hit-job on Spitzer.

Of course, Stone wasn't wrong; the Governor really WAS seeing prostitutes.

Still, they probably figured a hollywood story about Honest, Hard-Working Agents Uncovering Corruption would sell better than 'Longtime Hack Takes Down Longtime Sleaze'.

Source: Raw Story

Nightmare
The Austin-American Statesman has an interview with James Yee, the former Army chaplain at Guantanamo who got too uppity defending his charges and as a result was arrested for, err, treason.

After harassing him for 76 days of sensory deprivation and confinement, along with a quarter million in legal bills, they let him go with an honorable discharge.

It's the 'softly, softly' approach, in the Bush administration.

One year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. Army Chaplain James Yee — a converted Muslim, born and raised in America — was sent to the Guantánamo Bay detention facility with the assignment of a lifetime. His job: to minister to the prisoners there, in service to the United States.

It was harrowing work.

"We say that the war on terror is not a war against Islam, but that's not how it felt most days at Guantánamo," Yee writes in "For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire," his 2006 memoir. The environment at Guantánamo "excused, if not encouraged, open hostility toward Islam."

By almost every measure, Yee's tour at Guantánamo was a nightmare, offending his sensibilities as an American and a Muslim. For 10 months, from November 2002 to September 2003, Yee says, he bore witness to man's inhumanity to man as the Guantánamo prisoners were systematically beaten and humiliated by U.S. military police and interrogators.

Yee says he was horrified to see "religion used as a weapon" against Guantánamo detainees — as prisoners told him of detainees being forced to bow down in the middle of a satanic circle in an interrogation room and profess that Satan was their god, not Allah. Detainees were mocked during prayer and taunted or teased sexually by American women while chained. At first, Yee thought it an act of compassion that Guantánamo detainees were allowed to keep a Quran in their cells. But the detainees begged Yee to have them taken away, he says, for American MPs took such delight in mishandling the books or breaking their bindings during random searches.

"I was not willing to silently stand by and watch U.S. soldiers abuse the Quran, mock people's religion, and strip men of their dignity — even if those men were prisoners," wrote Yee, who became an in-house human rights advocate for the detainees. "It was my job to stop those behaviors — it was my duty, even, since the day I took my oath as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army."

And that's just the introduction.

The whole thing's worth a read. Man's inhumanity to man indeed.

Source: The Austin-American Statesman

This is How You Do It
In light of China's Tibet crackdown (which I need to write up here at some point) and their continued oppression of, well, everyone, the decision to host the Olympics there was a bit dicey.

Fortunately for the Chinese government, the Olympics people have been very accomodating with their own repression of civil rights and free speech, to try and quell protests against the Chinese government before the games reach Chinese soil, aka 'Base', where protestors can be quietly thrown in a dark hole forever.

How's that working out?

Protests against China's rights record and crackdown in Tibet disrupted ceremonies on Monday to light the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games.

Three French men from a media rights group breached tight security around Ancient Olympia to unfurl a flag demanding a boycott of the Olympics. Later 10 Tibetan activists staged their own protest in the town's main street before they were detained or chased by police.

...

Three members of Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders -- RSF) staged the first protest as the chief Chinese Olympics organiser, Liu Qi, who is Beijing's communist party chief, made a speech before the flame was lit.

One man unfurled a flag declaring "Boycott the country that tramples on human rights." Another tried to grab the microphone from Liu and shouted "freedom! freedom!" in front of Rogge and other top officials were sat.

Security officers quickly dragged all three away. Greek police had imposed heavy security, including armed police watching down on the site from nearby hills.

Greek state television cut its live broadcast away from the protesters. China's state broadcaster also quickly changed and did not mention the demonstrators.

Actors in ancient Greek costume then carried out the traditional ceremony, lighting the torch using a parabolic mirror to focus the sun's rays.

But as dignatories dispersed, about 10 Tibetan activists, covered in red paint, marched out of a hotel in Olympia and lay down in the town's central street, shouting slogans against China's rule in Tibet. At least two were detained by police and the rest ran away.

"I think it's always sad when there are protests, but they were not violent and that's the most important thing," IOC president Rogge told reporters after the first incident.

Yes, Democracy is such a sad thing, isn't it Rogge?

Go suck a goat.

Speaking before the ceremony, Rogge said that "the major political leaders don't want a boycott." He added: "There is no momentum for a boycott."

"Bush doesn't want a boycott, Sarkozy doesn't want a boycott, Brown doesn't want a boycott," Rogge said, referring to US President George W. Bush, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

But he acknowledged that the torch relay across 20 countries - and Mount Everest and Tibet - might be hijacked.

"Of course it's a concern," he said. "I would hope that potential protesters will understand that public opinion would not want the torch relay painted by political protests. It would be counterproductive."

Aww, your pointless little spectacle might be marred by that silly quest for human rights and freedom.

POOR LITTLE YOU

A crackdown on anti-Chinese protests in Tibet, which exiled Tibetans say have left at least 130 dead, has overshadowed the buildup to the Games.

Various rights groups have drawn up plans aiming to galvanise opposition to China's record on Tibet, Darfur, human rights, religious freedom and other issues in the run-up to the Beijing Games.

The Falungong group is running a rival torch relay to highlight the plight of its followers in China, who it says are subject to brutal persecution.

Dream for Darfur, an organisation set up to pressure China into helping end the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region, is planning protests along the torch relay route.

Thai environmental activist Narisa Chakrabongse, chosen to carry the Olympic torch when it crosses Thailand next month, has declined in protest against Beijing's crackdown.

Yes, there's no momentum for a boycott at all.

Except amongst much of the free world.

Source: Raw Story

El Presidente and the POWs
So El Presidente has found yet another new way to screw over veterans groups.

The facts:
In the first Gulf War, 17 American prisoners of war, held by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, were viciously tortured while in captivity.
On April 4, 2002, the former prisoners filed suit in federal court, seeking remuneration for their ordeal. They had sought to avoid litigation by offering to arbitrate their claims before an international tribunal. Iraq refused.
The United States State Department served process on Iraq; in July 2003, a Federal District Court ruled in favor of the American troops.
The court found that "there must be a premium on protecting POWs because POWs are uniquely disadvantaged and deterring torture of POWs should be of highest priority."
The Bush administration intervened to absolve Iraq of responsibility for torturing the American POWs. The President blocked the POWs from collecting on their judgment.
For over four years the POWs have tried, again and again, to meet with the administration in an effort to come to some kind of resolution. Their efforts have been futile. The administration has didn't even bother to refuse the POW’s humble entreaties... Each and every attempt by the POWs to meet with the administration has been callously and unforgivably ignored. Their letters go unanswered.
During Alberto Gonzalez's confirmation hearings, the issue was raised. He promised to consider meeting with the POWs. The POWs contacted him. He refused to meet.
The Federal District Court urged the government to settle. Several Congress members wrote letters to the administration on the POW’s behalf. The Senate voted unanimously (even the Republicans!!) to urge the administration to work out a solution. Every single effort has been ignored.
The administration won't stand up for the POWs, but they are making every effort to reconcile the claims of foreign corporations that took losses as a result of the Iraq War.
The latest war funding authorization included a provision that would have provided for the POWs. On Christmas Day 2007, George W. Bush announced his attention to veto the bill.
Congress bent to the President's will and passed a new war funding bill without the POW provision.

Seriously, what the hell? We could have easily paid for the POW's suit out of the Trillion Dollar Waste Fund that is Iraq. We did destroy the government that had them tortured; we could assume its debt here without any logical contradiction. It's not like Saddam can pay up; we sort of killed him in a ghoulish hanging.

Source: Daily Kos

JP Morgan and Bear-Stearns Cont.
So when the Fed bailed out JP Morgan's takeover of Bear-Stearns, it was with the understanding that, you know, SOMEONE had to take the blame for this colossal fuckup. That group of someones ended up being the shareholders at Bear, who were going to get one-fifteenth of its worth. A third of the shareholders at Bear are employees, so a lot of people were losing, well, everything. Though they were the same people who sold a pack of lies to cities that now have to lay off teachers and such, so I can't feel too badly for the hucksters.

But, then of course, once the 30 Billion in taxpayer money goes through, why, the bailout gets sweeter and the pay cut for Bear isn't as bad as, well, it was supposed to be.

JPMorgan Chase was in talks on Sunday night for a deal that would quintuple its offer for Bear Stearns, the beleaguered investment bank, in an effort to pacify angry Bear shareholders, according to people involved in the negotiations.

The sweetened offer is intended to win over stockholders who vowed to fight the original fire-sale deal, struck only a week ago at the behest of the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.

Under the terms being discussed, JPMorgan would pay $10 a share in stock for Bear, up from its initial offer of $2 a share — a figure that represented a mere one-fifteenth of Bear’s going market price.

The Fed, which must approve any new deal, was balking at the new offer price on Sunday night after several days of frantic, secret negotiations, these people said. As a result, it was still possible the renegotiated deal might be postponed or collapse entirely, said these people, who were granted anonymity because of their confidentiality agreements.

If the Fed were to reject the new proposal, it could set off a furor among shareholders of both firms that the government was preventing them from making a fair deal.

In an unusual move, Bear’s board was seeking to authorize the sale of 39.5 percent of the firm to JPMorgan in an effort to move closer to majority shareholder approval. Under state law in Delaware, where the companies are incorporated, a company can sell up to 40 percent without shareholder approval.

The renegotiation, which would set a sale price of more than $1 billion, comes after a tumultuous week on Wall Street and in Washington because of the near collapse of Bear and the hastily devised deal to save it.

While the initial agreement appeared to have defused the financial crisis of confidence that undid Bear, the initial terms of the deal — and the government’s controversial role in reaching them — drew criticism from those who say the takeover amounts to a government bailout of Bear, a firm at the center of the mortgage meltdown.

A new deal could raise even more questions about the Fed’s involvement in the negotiations. As part of the original deal, the Fed guaranteed to take on $30 billion of Bear’s most toxic assets. The central bank also directed JPMorgan to pay no more than $2 a share for Bear to assure that it would not appear that the Bear shareholders were being rescued, according to people involved in the negotiations.

In television interviews last week, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who has been closely involved in the negotiations, sought to portray the agreement not as a rescue effort but as a way to provide stability for the entire financial markets.

“Let me say that the Bear Stearns situation has been very painful for the Bear Stearns shareholders,” Mr. Paulson said on Monday on the NBC “Today” show, referring to the $2 a share price. “So I don’t think that they think that they’ve been bailed out here.”

If the price is increased, however, some critics could have more ammunition to complain that taxpayers are helping to bail out a Wall Street firm that should be responsible for its own risky behavior. That is one reason the Fed was hesitant on Sunday night to approve the transaction at $10 a share, people briefed on the talks said.

Gee, I wonder why people would think that, given that Bear was trading at like 5 bucks a share when this deal was negotiated.

Once again, the public pays, the private sector gains. Privatize profits, socialize losses.

Sigh.

Source: The New York Times

This is Not the Way to Do It
So the website for an upcoming film criticizing the Quran has been pulled by its provider.

A Web site where a Dutch lawmaker was promoting an upcoming film that criticizes the Quran has been suspended by its U.S. hosting service.

The site had shown Geert Wilders' film's title, "Fitna," the words "Coming Soon" and an image of a gilded Quran. Now it shows a note that the company is investigating whether the site violates the firm's terms of service.

Wilders has not described the 15-minute movie, due to be released by March 31, in detail but has said it will underscore his view that Islam's holy book is "fascist."

Dutch officials fear the movie could spark violent protests in Muslim countries, similar to those two years ago after the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.

Wilders said he would release his movie on the Internet after television stations refused to air it.

"In this situation with the dialogue that's happening throughout the world we've made the choice to suspend the site as of last night," said Susan Wade, spokeswoman for Network Solutions. "This site is suspended so people can't see the content right now but the customer still has access to their site. They can make whatever changes are necessary as we complete our investigation."

...

Network Solutions' terms of service contain a sweeping prohibition against "objectionable material of any kind or nature."

A Dutch court will hear a complaint lodged by Muslim groups seeking to bar Wilders from releasing the film March 28, but there is no legal barrier preventing Wilders from releasing his film before then.

Look, I can see pulling hate sites that advocate violence, though the White Power people seem to have no trouble finding hosts. But this? This is just a crank exercising his free speech, and you're yanking his site because you don't want to make waves.

That is a jackass thing to do.

As for the Dutch government? Blocking a film whose point of view you don't like? For shame, for even considering it. For shame.

Source: Raw Story

It's Pat!
Pat Buchanan, a regular on MSNBC, made the following remarks recently.

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks - with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Barack talks about new “ladders of opportunity” for blacks.

Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for “deserving” white kids.

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

Give me a break. Seriously. Black people should be GRATEFUL for slavery? White people have it so much harder than blacks?

I'd love to know where he gets his statistics on crime. I don't ever recall seeing uniform stats on the racial characteristics of criminals and their victims, but there is no way, just no way that his lunacy on rapes and robberies are correct. It's absurd. For one thing, there's no way to collect stats like that on rape; 85% or more of rapes go unreported. Rape statistics are a shadowy netherworld in CJUS reporting; there's no way to accurately gauge demographics from the slim percentage of victims who come forward.

I plan to look into this a bit more in depth later, but wow.

Also, Jena was a hoax? Excuse me? So those were fake nooses in that tree? That was fake violence against black students? That was not the mayor of town who sided with the Klan over civil rights protestors?

Give me a damn break. This man is a thug.

Source: African American (Black) Opinion

Beardy
So the other night on Countdown we watched Richardson's endorsement of Obama and the interview he gave on the subject, and I noticed he had a shiny new beard. I commented to my roommate on how sharp said beard looked, and lamented that my own is so terrible. We both observed that Hispanic men can often grow really nice facial hair, and thought that was a good thing, and good for Richardson, since he apparently likes said beard.

Who knew that some people would take this grooming decision and turn it from a very minor racial plus to some kind of radical statement in their heads.

Summary: While discussing on Fox News' The Live Desk New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, Philadelphia radio host Dom Giordano said of Richardson's beard: "I don't know if it's playing into the ethnic card, or whatever." Host Martha MacCallum stated, "[Richardson] said, you know, 'It's hard for me,' he said to me once, 'people don't even know I'm Hispanic,' " and then asked, "So is that part of what he is ... cultivating here?" Giordano replied, "I think so."

Or, he could just be growing a beard. He looks better with one; so did Lincoln.

Nobody accuses Lincoln of trying to pander to white beard wearers; everyone just accepts it as a personal choice.

Yeesh.

Source: Media Matters

Dobbs
While we're on the subject of racist assholes, we have Lou Dobbs.

Summary: Lou Dobbs introduced the March 21 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight by announcing: "Tonight, Senator [Barack] Obama wins the endorsement of the nation's only Hispanic governor, Bill Richardson. Is Obama pandering to ethnocentric special interests again? We'll have complete coverage." The subsequent report included no discussion of whether Obama is "pandering to ethnocentric special interests."

Because all those wetbacks stick together! He's only governor of a major state because he's a lousy border hopping member of the Reconquista!

God, someone get this hack off the air, please.

Source: Media Matters

Halliburton Once Again
This time they were poisoning people en masse.

Hallburton subsidiary KBR told employees at a water injection plant in Iraq a sand-like substance scattered around the plant was just a "mild irritant," workers recall.

It turns out to be sodium dichromate -- a highly toxic chemical which can lead to cancer even with limited exposure.

Now nine Americans are suing KBR, according to a report in Tuesday's Boston Globe. They say they spent 2 1/2 months covered in the substance as they rushed to get the plant online, a key component in Iraq's oil infrastructure.

"Many of the 22 Americans and 100-plus Iraqis began to complain of nosebleeds, ulcers, and shortness of breath," the Globe's Farah Stockman writes. "Within weeks, nearly 60 percent exhibited symptoms of exposure, according to the minutes of a meeting of project managers from KBR, the Houston-based construction company in charge of the repairs."

According to Oxford University, sodium dichromate is a "NTP human carcinogen and IARC human Group I carcinogen. Inhalation, ingestion or skin absorption are harmful, and may be fatal. Exposure may cause cancer."

A material safety data sheet at Fisher Scientific says chronic exposure may lead to ulcers, asthma, cancer and infertiliy.

Ahh, Halliburton. They are scum.

The workers, however, face a daunting task in court. Under a World War II-era law, KBR isn't obliged to pay damages unless workers can prove the exposure was malicious.

But KBR isn't out of the woods. Because the company hired the workers through subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, the workers' lawyers say they shouldn't be protected as a federal contractor.

"KBR's lawyers argued in a legal brief that the workers should be considered employees of KBR because they were part of a corporate subsidiary that was working on a KBR team," Stockman writes. "The company's spokeswoman, Heather Browne, pointed out that the company's projects in Iraq take place in a 'dangerous, unpredictable environment,' but said the firm maintains an 'unwavering commitment to safety.'"

...

The workers say KBR's managers discouraged them from raising safety concerns.

"What was done to us, I believe, it's criminal," Danny Langford , a motor specialist from Texas who worked in the most contaminated room in the facility, told the Globe. "I think it was deliberate. They wanted this six month job - get you in, get you out, and send you on your way, and 10 years later you start dying of cancer."

Sounds like a plan!

So what is this stuff anyway?

Sodium dichromate is the chemical compound with the formula Na2Cr2O7. Usually, however, the salt is handled as its dihydrate Na2Cr2O7·2H2O. Its chemistry, appearance, and behaviour are very similar to those of the more widely encountered potassium dichromate. This chemical is around twenty times more soluble in water than the potassium salt (49 g/L at 0 °C) and its equivalent weight is also lower, which is often desirable.[1]

...

Safety

Like all hexavalent chromium compounds, sodium dichromate is considered hazardous, possibly carcinogenic.

Hexavalent chromium, where have I heard of that before...

Hexavalent chromium is the substance against which Erin Brockovich campaigned. It was found in drinking water in the Southern California town of Hinkley. Chromium(VI) is carcinogenic in groundwater,[5] and the 0.58 ppm in the groundwater in Hinkley exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Level of 0.10 ppm currently set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.[6] A similar case was discovered in 2007 in Asopos River, near Oinofyta, Greece and Brockovich is again focusing on it. [7]

Oh right! It's that really nasty stuff from the movie that gives you all sorts of cancer and eats you alive.

Wonderful!

Toxicity

In an organism's cells, hexavalent chromium undergoes reduction, first to metastable pentavalent chromium, then to trivalent chromium. Trivalent chromium binds to proteins and creates haptens which trigger immune system reaction. Once developed, chrome sensitivity becomes fairly persistent; in such cases, even contact with chromate-dyed textiles or wearing of chromate-tanned leather shoes can cause or exacerbate contact dermatitis.

Hexavalent chromium compounds are genotoxic carcinogens. Chronic inhalation of hexavalent chromium compounds increases risk of lung cancer (lungs are especially vulnerable, followed by fine capillaries in kidneys and intestine).

...

Researchers have recently reported discovering that vitamin C reacts inside human lung cells with chromium(VI), causing massive DNA damage. Low doses of chromium(VI), combined with vitamin C, produce up to 15 times as many chromosomal breaks and up to 10 times more mutations, compared with cells lacking vitamin C. Outside cells, vitamin C actually protects against the cellular damage caused by hexavalent chromium.[4]

(genotoxic == alters DNA in a bad way)

So you get massive amounts of genetic mutation, cancer, and damage to your digestive tract, lungs and brain.

Thanks Halliburton!

Sources: Raw Story
Wikipedia (Hexavalent Chromium)
Wikipedia (Sodium Dichromate)

St. John McCain

He's Such a Maverick!

So it seems that St. John McCain is in a bit of trouble, and his media teflon is wearing thin.

First you had a NYTime story that broke a few days ago, revealing that McCain had a very close relationship with a lobbyist who had frequent business before his committee. This lobbyist, a woman by the name of Vicki Iseman, bragged around town about her extensive influence with McCain, and how she could get access to him for her clients.

His campaign staff, in 2000, seemingly had the same idea, and it worried them. After all, their boss makes a big deal out of his 'independent' image, and his favorite campaign plank is how he, and he alone, has emerged unscathed from Washington's culture of corruption.

At a townhall meeting in New Hampshire last November, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told the audience that he’s never allowed himself to be corrupted by lobbyist money:

Everybody says that they’re against the special interests. I’m the only one the special interests don’t give any money to.

Source: Think Progress

As it turns out? Not so much.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, McCain has taken nearly $1.2 million in campaign contributions from the telephone utility and telecom service industries, more than any other Senator. McCain sides with the telecom companies on retroactive immunity.

McCain is also the single largest recipient of campaign contribution by Ion Media Networks — formerly Paxson Communication — receiving $36,000 from the company and employees from 1997 to mid-year 2006.

Ibid.

But, surely, this was all innocent, right? It's not like he did any illicit favors for the people who gave him large amounts of money....oh, darn.

In 2004, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, McCain reversed a position and took “crucial legislative action” that saved Paxson Communications from “financial ruin.” Drew Clark reports:

McCain initially supported legislation that would have forced Paxson and handful of broadcasters — but not the great bulk of television stations — off the air by December 31, 2006. Bud Paxson himself personally testified about this bill with “fear and trepidation” at a hearing on September 8, 2004.

Two weeks later, McCain had reversed himself. He now supported legislation that would grant two-year reprieve for Paxson — and instead force all broadcasters to stop transmitting analog television by December 31, 2008. Paxson and his lobbyists, including Iseman, were working at this time for just such a change.

Vicki Iseman has represented Paxson since 1998, longer than any of her other clients. The Washington Post reports that Iseman’s clients have given nearly $85,000 to McCain campaigns since 2000, according to records at the Federal Election Commission.

Err, yeah. Saved them from financial ruin. Ok.

But just because he was corrupted once, that surely doesn't indicate a pattern of being a sleazy politician for hire, does it? I mean... wait, what?

-- Rick Davis arranged a cocktail meet and greet with McCain and a Russian businessman, Oleg Deripaska, so controversial that the US has revoked his visa -- at an economic conference in Switzerland. Davis' lobbying firm was trying to secure business with the Russian at the time, while the firm was already representing a competing political interest in Ukraine.

Seven months later, in August 2006, Davis was present again at a social gathering that was also attended by McCain and Deripaska, this time in Montenegro, another Eastern European country in which Davis's firm was working. The three were among a few dozen people dining at a restaurant during an official Senate trip....

Afterward, a group from the dinner took boats out to a nearby yacht moored in the Adriatic Sea, where champagne and pastries were served, partly in honor of McCain's 70th birthday.

Salter said neither McCain nor Davis recalls Deripaska being on the yacht after dinner.

Rick Davis is McCain's longtime campaign leader, and, as it turns out, a hugely important Republican lobbyist.

He too had rather striking conflicts of interest, working for McCain and people with business before his committee.

Davis is a particularly easy target, having several money-related scandals in his background. A veteran of the Reagan administration, Davis ran McCain's presidential bid six years ago. He also founded a lobbying firm -- Davis, Manafort Inc. -- which has made at least $2.8 million lobbying Congress since 1998.

Over the past eight years, Davis' two roles often overlapped. In 1999, while he was McCain's campaign manager, his firm represented SBC Communications Inc. and Comsat Corp. At that time, both communications companies had controversial mergers pending at the Federal Communications Commission. The Senate Commerce Committee has legislative authority over the FCC, and McCain was chairman of that committee. Both mergers were eventually approved....

Oops! He did it again!

Source: Firedoglake

So St. John McCain has ties to shady Russian oligarchs, a lobbyist running his campaign, another lobbyist who was so close to him that it made his campaign staff think he was having an affair (since he cheated on his first wife with his current wife that should come as no surprise... what is it with Republicans marrying their mistresses anyway?...).

McCain of course is waging a scorched-earth PR campaign against these allegations, and, err, facts. The problem is, for whatever reason, his lies are no longer going unchallenged...

Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf.

Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.

Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, likely attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post yesterday. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings."

This comes after an industrious reporter uncovered a deposition in which St. John McCain had already said on the record that he did, in fact, have inappropriate contact with Paxson, who had business before his committee at the time.

McCain himself in a deposition in 2002 acknowledged talking to Paxson about the Pittsburgh sale. Asked what Paxson said in the conversation, McCain said that Paxson "had applied to purchase this station and that he wanted to purchase it. And that there had been a numerous year delay with the FCC reaching a decision. And he wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business."

The deposition was taken in litigation over the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law filed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The contradiction in the deposition was first reported by Newsweek yesterday afternoon.

McCain's campaign, now caught lying, twice in a row, is trying to spin the lies as being little white ones, and thus of no consequence.

Yeah. Try that one out, see how far it gets you.

McCain attorney Robert S. Bennett played down the contradiction between the campaign's written answer and Paxson's recollection.

"We understood that he [McCain] did not speak directly with him [Paxson]. Now it appears he did speak to him. What is the difference?" Bennett said. "McCain has never denied that Paxson asked for assistance from his office. It doesn't seem relevant whether the request got to him through Paxson or the staff. His letters to the FCC concerning the matter urged the commission to make up its mind. He did not ask the FCC to approve or deny the application. It's not that big a deal."

Source: The Washington Post

In short, McCain's campaign is going to hell in a handbasket. It started with one lobbyist, and snowballed from there, revealing that McCain is surrounded by them, and very easily corrupted.

Of course, the story of how this Vicki Iseman got where she is today is equally interesting.

Iseman, 40, was raised on a farm outside of Homer City, Pa., and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1990 with a degree in elementary education.

She went to Washington and got a job as a receptionist at Alcalde & Fay in Northern Virginia. Within a year, she had risen to special assistant to the firm's president. She was later promoted to lobbyist and was made the youngest partner in the firm in the late 1990s. She specialized in telecom issues, and one of her primary clients was Florida-based Paxson, which was rapidly purchasing a series of broadcast stations to create a national network.

So, fresh out of college with degree in elementary school teaching, she goes to a major lobbying firm, gets hired as a secretary, then quickly gets promoted, then again, then again in quick succession, despite having no training in lobbying in any form.

The fact that she was a blond secretary who is willing to pal up to powerful men for favors had nothing to do with it, I'm sure.

Source: Ibid

Oh, and of course, the guy who bought McCain's influence? Paxson? The name's no coincidence. He founded Pax TV, the Wholesome Christian Network.

In 1998, Paxson launched PaxTV, his national network, which featured reruns of "Touched by an Angel" and other family-friendly fare. There was a major hole he wanted to fill in his network: Paxson had no presence in one top-20 market -- Pittsburgh.

The transaction called for the Christian broadcaster Cornerstone TeleVision of Wall, Pa., to take over the noncommercial license of WQEX, the sister station to public broadcaster WQED. Cornerstone would then sell its commercial license to Paxson for $35 million. The money would be split between Cornerstone and WQED, which was operating in the red.

The proposed station swap was highly contentious in Pittsburgh and involved a multi-pronged lobbying effort by the parties to the deal. Local activists and some community leaders had objected to one of their public TV stations being turned over to a religious channel.

Hah ahahahahahhhahahaha oh God it's good. McCain helped steal a public tv station for a religious whacko network after being paid off by a floozie of dubious credentials 25 years his junior.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS

Source: Ibid