National

I just listened to NY’s Jonathan Tasini on the Brian Lehrer show on wnyc.

Tasini is facing an uphill race for US Senator from New York against Gillibrand, benefactress of Wall Street largess, particularly from SEC-investigated Goldman Sachs. She is the latest puppet crony for corporations within our Congress. Schumer, also from New York, was a major architect for deregulation on their behalf declares Tasini.

Such an uphill battle, in fact, that though he faced down Hillary Clinton for the Senate race long ago and won almost one-quarter of the vote, The New York Times recently declared in print that Gillibrand was running uncontested on the Democratic ticket, which is a damn lie, upsetting Tasini’s mom, most significantly.

Why no acknowledgment? Because an honest candidate not cronied up with oodles of corporate backing will be WILLFULLY ignored by our premier national newspaper. In your face, America. The fourth estate is totally cronied up with corporations. Doesn’t that make you want to get Tasini elected all the more??? Disenfranchise honest truth-to-power candidates. That's the name of this long-term game.

Jonathan Tasini FIGHTS BACK as Wall Street showers his senate opponent, BENEFACTRESS-OF-THE-CRONY-STATUS-QUO, Gillibrand, with campaign cash. He is launching a new website called: DUMPWALLSTREETMONEY-DOT-COM!!!!!

Please SIGN THE PETITION addressed to:

Tim Kaine / Chair / Democratic National Committee
and
Michael Steele / Chair / Republican National Committee.

“We believe that Wall Street’s undue influence over members of Congress, via campaign cash, is a central reason for the current economic crisis—too many legislators let Wall Street and banks run wild in return for pocketing checks to finance elections.

Therefore, we demand that the leaders of the two parties immediately call on every candidate for office, as well as all party-related committees, to return every dollar collected from Goldman Sachs-related contributions given the serious charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging a systematic fraud perpetrated on the American people by Goldman Sachs.”

Richard Fuld testified today that he was a complete moron and idiot (not that he could admit that he's just a plain old mobster, only with a better education and pedigree). Watch the video with Dylan Ratigan and Elliot Spitzer, and the article by Jennifer Taub below to see how they scammed millions of people out of their money

Barry Ritholtz: Paging Sergeant Schultz

The over-lawyered former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld, in prepared testimony to the House Financial Services Committee:

“Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of hearing anything about Repo 105 transactions while I was CEO of Lehman. Nor do I have any recollection of seeing documents that related to Repo 105 transactions.”

The Sergeant Schultz defense is among my very favorites.

Jennifer Taub: A Whiff of Repo 105

This is a year old, but the info is still relevant

The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the (Multi-national-megacorporations) Wal-Mart of the 1770s

By Dan Bacher

Political satire in the United States will officially die tonight, April 14.

That’s when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, will honor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history, for his “environmental advocacy.”

Schwarzenegger will be honored at the “Riverkeeper’s Annual Fishermen’s Ball” at Pier Sixty on the Hudson River in New York City at a dinner fundraiser that will begin at 6:30 p.m. Spike Lee will also present an award to HBO during the event (http://www.riverkeeper.org/news-events/events/rvk-events/the-fishermens-...).

No late night comedian, inflammatory radio talk show host or other practitioner of political satire could come up with a scenario this bizarre no matter how they try. Reality, particularly in Schwarzenegger’s California, has become a self-parody, a living satirical comedy that knows no bounds.

200 years of jurisprudence is being overturned by our constitutional law educated President, observed guest pundit Jack Rice on Countdown 4-7-10. He and Olbermann were discussing the President's recent authorization of the assassination of an American citizen.

Of course the writ of habeas corpus -- a legal action, through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention -- was overturned by the Bush administration and incredibly, to many of us, that decision was sustained by President Obama. The foundations of habeas corpus were established by the Magna Carta of 1215 in England. Our original 13 colonies used them to organize our constitutional republic.

Eli Lake explains how Bush and now Obama have legally accessed such extreme executive power :

Burger King commercials being tested for Arab TV:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

"How Saudis Really See Americans":

The ads were developed by Dubai-based Tonic Communications for the Gulf region’s Burger King franchise-holder, Riyadh-based Olayan Group, a Saudi-owned international conglomerate.

Olayan officials did not respond to an email and phone messages seeking comment, and a Tonic official said he was not given permission by his client to speak with a reporter.

But it is clear that the ads are targeting the Gulf region’s savvy and travel-loving young adult population. Of the 70,000 Saudis studying abroad on government scholarships, about 24,000 of them are in the United States.

Citigroup's Rubin's and Prince's "Duh" testimony in Congress about the financial crisis! So, sorry, America. We had no idea. Is that as good as the accountability gets?

Time to resurrect the story of Brooksley Born this week and try to sustain in our memory how clearly it indicts these masters of the universe who have gang-raped Americans of their financial security. The truth of Born's story won't be highlighted with any help from a corporate-loving media, unfortunately, or a Congress that colluded with the financial clique headed by Greenspan that "killed" messenger Born's message OVER A DECADE AGO.

This is an article I wrote about Brooksley Born back on October 24, 2009 for FDL's Seminal. With the assembly line of fresh hells and horrors and the kabuki exercises in faux-accountability the cronies of the banking industry are pulling with their paid off cronies in Congress, let us remember what actually was going down back then. I have bolded certain assertions worth remembering.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/11000

No Foes to Fraud — Greenspan, Rubin, Summers — Owe Brooksley Born and the American Taxpayer a Big Fat Apology and a Ton of Money
By: libbyliberal Saturday October 24, 2009 12:16 pm

In an interview with Dan Wiessner of the Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow Patch, an unnamed Riverkeeper official "shrugged off" criticisms by environmentalists and fishermen that the Hudson Riverkeeper is greenwashing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's abysmal environmental record by honoring him for his "environmental advocacy" at the "Fishermen's Ball" in New York City on April 14.

“The governor’s work speaks for itself. He’s recognized across the world for his work in combating global climate change,” the official said.

The Riverkeeper is honoring Schwarzenegger in spite of the fact that he is the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history. Schwarzenegger has presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, threadfin shad, Sacramento splittail and striped bass populations. He has continually attacked the biological opinions protecting salmon and Delta smelt while campaigning for a peripheral canal and new dams that is likely to result in the extinction of many of these species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.

After you read the article below, read these related posts to understand why it matters to you: Why are Financial Terrorists (JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley...etc.) getting away with attacking America?
And this: Munis and The Next Crash by Susie Madrak
Then there's this: Did Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase 'Naked Short Sell' California Bonds? Which Could Lead to a Greek Style Collapse?
And this: SMUD Sues Financial Terrorists - Bank of America, UBS, and JPMorgan Over Derivatives

.

JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named in Bid-Rigging Conspiracy

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S. state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

[...]

None of the firms or individuals named on the list has been charged with wrongdoing. The court records mark the first time these companies have been identified as co-conspirators. They provide the broadest look yet at alleged collusion in the $2.8 trillion municipal securities market that the government says delivered profits to Wall Street at taxpayers’ expense

I am slapping this down really fast cuz I am really, really, really angry. I will write a fuller blog later I am sure on the Iran and US situation, but I couldn't let this moment pass. Please indulge me.

I caught part of a podcast of Meet the Press. A part where David Gregory sets up Senator Joe Lieberman to "war monger" once again for war with Iran. That part begins at 30:25 if you access the podcast link for Meet the Press before next Sunday 4/11/10.

David Gregory disingenuously asks Senator Lieberman if Lieberman is AFRAID that the US and the West, in general, are DRIFTING to a war with Iran. Drifting to war with Iran? We all know damn well Lieberman is paddling away like crazy to get us there!

Of course Lieberman has already earlier in the show reminded all of us we were attacked on 9/11 and we are at WAR WAR WAR ... but that is when he was talking about ... what was it.... not throwing out the law in dealing with enemy combatants.. but the question was more aptly WHICH LAW should be used with them. That is the question, he said. You mean the real law, Joe, or the jingoistic faux-law that Bush imposed and Obama is following up on? But that is for another blog ... grrrrrr. Anyway, .... back to Iran ....

This video has a powerful and shocking message for all Americans. It's not literal but it asks us to look at ourselves ... and what we've become

The Torture Report Diary

The Torture Report, an initiative of the ACLU’s National Security Project, aims to give the full account of the Bush administration’s torture program. It will bring together everything we know from government documents, investigations, press reports, witness statements and other publications into a single narrative – one that is updated regularly and subject to critical review and improvement as it unfolds.

So we shake off the disappointment and renew our spirits for the next wave of universal healthcare activism.

I was reviewing some of my old pitches for Single Payer. I also found some terrific links of videos explaining and promoting a Single Payer - Expanded Medicare for All system. I trust they will be of use again soon enough, along with new upgraded ones, in our marathon campaign, ever growing (despite disinformation of media and craven pols), for universal healthcare in America.

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COOKIE MONSTER: Me Want Coooooookies!!!!!!!!

Channel surfing this morning I skimmed by Sesame Street and there was that scamp, Cookie Monster. “ME WANT COOKIES!!!” he roared. Can Cookie Monster say anything else?

Cookie Monster brilliantly shows not tells Sesame Street-viewing kids about the dangers of being driven solely by one’s primitive, self-indulgent appetite – an “id” gone wild! Sesame Street is teaching children about empathy and healthy, reasonable behavior.

Both General Petraeus and Secretary of State Clinton used the mild-mannered adjective “unhelpful” in statements regarding Israel during the past year or so. Yes, in different contexts, but I couldn’t help being startled by the repetition.

Clinton’s use of that, in her case, “reined in” word concerned the 3/2009 demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. She said it was “unhelpful” to peace efforts . I thought at the time it was an incredibly lightweight word – ironically minimal considering the reality of dozens of homes being razed which was, also, as I understand it, the breaking of international law. She, as the United States Secretary of State, was registering a public objection.

But it was made regarding Israel, so, soon after, I read that she was actually being quite brave -- as brave and careful as she could be. To give credit where credit is due, she also called for a partial lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

From Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars:

Juan Cole warns that Clinton will be attacked by the far-right-wing Israel crowd, and urged people to support her speaking out - in fact, to urge her to use even stronger language the next time.

CIA Afghanistan