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20090205 
Barack Obama -
Noteworthy -
Economic -
History -
People -
Families -
Jobs -
Homes -
Energy -
Health Care -
Education -
Internet -
Science -
Transportation -
Construction -
Legislation -
Politics
"The Action Americans Need." [By Democratic President Barack Obama] ... "By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring." ... "What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis." ... "Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse." ... "That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come." ... "This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education. And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent." ... "In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive." ... "I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail." ... "Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now." ... "Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process." ... "Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years." ... "Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans." ... "And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway." ... "These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. They're patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide." ... "So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time." -By Barack Obama -WashingtonPost
"Obama puts the heat on Republicans: He says the 'half steps' now urged by the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] for the stimulus bill are the same ideas that led to the financial crisis." ... "[Democratic] President Obama abruptly changed tactics Wednesday in his bid to revive the economy, setting aside his bipartisan stance and pointedly blaming Republicans for demanding what he cast as discredited "piecemeal measures."" ... "Obama's comments were a marked departure from the conciliatory tone he has maintained as he courted Republican votes for his stimulus package through compromise. Against the wishes of his own party, Obama crafted a plan that relied heavily on tax cuts rooted in Republican economic doctrine." ... ""Now, let me say this," Obama said. "In the past few days, I've heard criticisms of this plan that frankly echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis in the first place -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems, that we can address this enormous crisis with half steps and piecemeal measures and tinkering around the edges, that we can ignore fundamental challenges, like the high cost of healthcare, and still expect our economy and our country to thrive." ... ""I reject these theories," he continued. "And, by the way, so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."" ... ""A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery and a more uncertain future," he warned at another White House appearance." -By Peter Nicholas -LAtimes
20090204
"TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year." ... "The companies that have been awarded taxpayers' money from Congress's bailout bill spent $77 million on lobbying and $37 million on federal campaign contributions, Center finds. The return on investment: 258,449 percent." ... "The struggling companies whose freewheeling business practices have contributed to the country's economic woes are getting a lucrative return on at least one of their investments. Beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout package in the finance and automotive industries have spent a total of $114.2 million on lobbying in the past year and contributions toward the 2008 election, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. The companies' political activities have, in part, yielded them $295.2 billion from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), an extraordinary return of 258,449 percent." ... ""Even in the best economic times, you won't find an investment with a greater payoff than what these companies have been getting," said Sheila Krumholz, the Center's executive director. "Some of the companies and industries that have received payments may now consider their contributions and lobbying to be the smartest investments they've made in years."" ... "While the Treasury Department, not Congress, doles out TARP funds to specific institutions, congressional lawmakers had to authorize that money in the first place, and lawmakers will determine in the future whether to release more funds to prop up the U.S. economy. During the bill-writing process, members of Congress were able to specify to some extent where the money should go, and they have lobbied regulators to urge them to inject funds into specific banks and financial institutions, including those in lawmakers' own districts." ... ""Taxpayers hope their money is being allocated entirely on the merits, but with Congress controlling how much money the Treasury gets to hand out, it will be impossible to completely exclude politics from this process," Krumholz said." -OpenSecrets.orgJudd Gregg -
Jack Abramoff -
Investigation -
New Hampshire
"Former Gregg Aide Tied To Abramoff Scandal, Court Documents Report He Took Gifts In Exchange For Favors." ... "Earlier today, the AP reported that Kevin Koonce, who worked as Commerce Secretary-nominee [New Hampshire Republican Senator] Judd Gregg’s legislative director from 2002-04, “has been caught up in a long-running investigation into a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal.” Koonce “was cited in a guilty plea last week by Todd Boulanger, a former deputy to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff,” as having taken gifts exceeding $10,000 in exchange for favors in spending legislation." ... "According to Boulanger’s plea documents, Koonce “tried to help insert spending measures and add other amendments to legislation for Boulanger’s clients.” At one point, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff saying that he was confident Koonce’s boss would help them out:""Later, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff expressing confidence that the senator [Republican Judd Gregg] for whom the staffer worked would give them a favor. “Easy money,” Boulanger wrote, adding that the aide “practically lives in our various suites. We are shady.”""As Raw Story notes, Gregg’s spokesman Joel Maiola said in 2006 that Gregg had “never had any contact” with Abramoff, despite his acceptance of donations from “two Indian tribes represented by Abramoff’s firm in 2002 and 2004.” Gregg reportedly donated the $12,000 to a New Hampshire-based charity." -By Matt Corley -ThinkProgress.org
20090203 Water -
Wash -
Calif
"Senate GOP blocks extra $25B in stimulus package." ... "Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked Democrats from adding $25 billion for highways, mass transit, and water projects to [Democratic] President Barack Obama's economic recovery program." ... "Already unhappy over the size of the measure, Republicans insisted additional infrastructure projects be paid for with cuts elsewhere in the bill." ... "But the Democratic amendment garnered 58 votes, just shy of the supermajority needed under Senate budget rules, and many more efforts to increase the measure's size are sure to follow." ... "At issue was a plan by [Washington Democratic Senator] Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash. [Democratic-Washington], and [California Democratic Senator] Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. [California-Democratic], to increase the highway funding in the bill to $40 billion, which reflected complaints from lawmakers in both parties that Obama's plan doesn't do enough to relieve a backlog of unfinished projects. The duo also wanted to increase mass transit programs by $5 billion boost and water projects by $7 billion." ... ""Our highways are jammed. People go to work in gridlock," Feinstein said Tuesday." -By Andrew Taylor -AP via -Yahoo
20090202 Seniors -
Accounting -
"Gregg Voted to Kill Commerce Before He Agreed to Lead It." ... "[Democratic] President Obama’s new candidate to run the Commerce Department voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995." ... "[New Hampshire Republican Senator] Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H. [Republican-New Hampshire], whose nomination was expected to be announced Tuesday, also worked in the Senate to trim the department’s budget as head of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee." ... "The Senate version of the controversial measure envisioned spending cuts of more than $960 billion, almost half of it from Medicare and Medicaid. Democratic efforts to amend it were uniformly rebuked by a united GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] majority on the Budget Committee." ... "Gregg also fought [Democratic] President Bill Clinton’s efforts to increase funding for the Commerce Department to administer the 2000 census. Indeed, Gregg’s commitment to basic functions of the department has been questioned at times." ... "“I guess if you can’t destroy it, go be in charge of it,” said a Senate Republican aide." -By Jonathan Allen -CQPolitics.com
20090201
"Bailouts for Bunglers." ... "“We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system,” says Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary [appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama] — as he prepares to put taxpayers on the hook for that system’s immense losses." ... "Meanwhile, a Washington Post report based on administration sources says that Mr. Geithner and Lawrence Summers, President Obama’s top economic adviser, “think governments make poor bank managers” — as opposed, presumably, to the private-sector geniuses who managed to lose more than a trillion dollars in the space of a few years." ... "And this prejudice in favor of private control, even when the government is putting up all the money, seems to be warping the administration’s response to the financial crisis." ... "In normal times, banks raise capital by selling stock to private investors, who receive a share in the bank’s ownership in return. You might think, then, that if banks currently can’t or won’t raise enough capital from private investors, the government should do what a private investor would: provide capital in return for partial ownership." ... "But bank stocks are worth so little these days — Citigroup and Bank of America have a combined market value of only $52 billion — that the ownership wouldn’t be partial: pumping in enough taxpayer money to make the banks sound would, in effect, turn them into publicly owned enterprises." ... "My response to this prospect is: so? If taxpayers are footing the bill for rescuing the banks, why shouldn’t they get ownership, at least until private buyers can be found? But the Obama administration appears to be tying itself in knots to avoid this outcome." ... "If news reports are right, the bank rescue plan will contain two main elements: government purchases of some troubled bank assets and guarantees against losses on other assets. The guarantees would represent a big gift to bank stockholders; the purchases might not, if the price was fair — but prices would, The Financial Times reports, probably be based on “valuation models” rather than market prices, suggesting that the government would be making a big gift here, too." ... "And in return for what is likely to be a huge subsidy to stockholders, taxpayers will get, well, nothing." -By Paul Krugman -NYTimes
20090128 
New York -
"What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses." ... "By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived." ... "Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year." ... "That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller." ... "It excludes stock option awards that could push the figures even higher." ... "The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said it was unclear if banks had used taxpayer money for the bonuses, a possibility that strikes corporate governance experts, and indeed many ordinary Americans, as outrageous." ... "“The issue of transparency is a significant one, and there needs to be an accounting about whether there was any taxpayer money used to pay bonuses or to pay for corporate jets or dividends or anything else,” Mr. DiNapoli said in an interview." ... "According to Mr. DiNapoli, the brokerage units of New York financial companies lost more than $35 billion in 2008, triple their losses in 2007." ... "Outside the financial industry, many corporate executives received fatter bonuses in 2008, even as the economy lost 2.6 million jobs." -By Ben White with contributions by Paul J. Sullivan -NYTimesMedia -
John Boehner -
John McCain -
OH -
AZ
"REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News." ... "As Media Matters has documented, during the [Republican President] Bush administration, the media consistently allowed conservatives to dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives. The rationale was that Republicans were “in power.”" ... "It appears that old habits die hard. Even though [Democratic] President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package." ... "On Sunday, conservatives began an all-out assault on President Obama’s economic recovery plan, with [Ohio Republican Representative and Republican] House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH [Republican-Ohio]) and [Arizona Republican Senator] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) both announcing that they would vote against the plan as it stood. Despite Obama’s efforts at good faith outreach, congressional conservatives have continued to attack the stimulus plan with a series of false and disingenuous arguments." ... "The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:""Cable News Appearances By Members of Congress" ... "The drastically imbalanced coverage isn’t the first time that the news networks have effectively supported attacks on the recovery plans. As ThinkProgress reported on Monday, the cable networks, the Sunday shows and the network newscasts promoted a controversial CBO non-report 81 times before the actual CBO analysis of the stimulus plan was released." -ThinkProgress
"(By Party - January 26-28, 2009)"
[Red=Republican / Blue=Democratic]
Food -
Safety -
Manufacturing -
Georgia
"FDA Alleges Company Knowingly Sold Peanut Products Containing Salmonella." ... "There is new information available about the recent salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter from a plant in Georgia." ... "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said at least 12 times over the past two years the Peanut Corporation of America has knowingly sold products that had tested positive for salmonella." ... "The FDA also claimed the company did nothing to improve its manufacturing and sanitation practices after salmonella was found in its plant, and that is a clear violation of the law." ... "More than 500 people have gotten sick and the outbreak may have contributed to at least eight deaths. " -ByLee Sausley -KRISTV.com via -MSNBC
"Republicans Vote Against the American People." ... "The House of Representatives passed an $819-million economic stimulus package this evening. The vote was 244-188. Only Democrats voted for it. 177 Republicans voted against it." ... "The package includes both spending measures and tax cuts. The American people would get some tax relief, money to save or to spend, perhaps to pay the bills and put food on the table, and money would go to infrastructure projects, for energy and education and health care, to support those who need it, those who have lost their jobs at a time when the economy is bleeding jobs, and down to states and municipalities, to levels of government on the front lines of service provision." ... "You know what? It’s not just about stimulating the economy, it’s about helping people. It’s responsive, responsible government action at a time when government action is desperately needed." ... "And, in the House, every single Republican voted against it." ... "Read that again: EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTED AGAINST IT." ... "So much for bipartisan outreach. So much for [Democratic President] Obama’s efforts to be inclusive and to seek compromise with the other side. All the Republicans could offer was the same old tired formula of tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts, and, when it came right down to it, when it came time to pick a side, the Republicans sided, in unison, against the American people and the American economy." -By Michael Stickings -TheModerateVoice.comFlorida -
Pennsylvania -
Idaho
"In Echoes Of Madoff, Ponzi Cases Proliferate." ... "Federal and state authorities are reporting a growing number of financial scams that echo the alleged Madoff fraud, as strapped investors seek access to their cash amid increasingly hard times." ... "At least six suspected multimillion-dollar fraud cases have emerged this month alone, many of them alleged Ponzi schemes, in which investors are lured by promises of lofty returns but are actually paid off from new victims' funds." ... "On Tuesday, authorities arrested Arthur Nadel, the missing Florida hedge-fund adviser, who was accused by federal authorities of defrauding clients of millions of dollars." ... "In the latest case to emerge, Nicholas Cosmo, a Long Island, N.Y. [New York], investment-firm owner, surrendered to federal authorities Monday." ... "The [Securities and Exchange Commission] agency, which doesn't keep an official count, brought at least 23 Ponzi cases last year, up from 15 in 2007. It has already filed four in 2009. That tally doesn't include actions on the state level, where allegations of securities fraud are routinely pursued." ... "Three weeks ago, the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] accused a Philadelphia[ Pennsylvania]-area investment fund manager, Joseph S. Forte, with running a Ponzi scheme since at least 1995 that claimed returns as high as 38% and raised $50 million." ... "Meanwhile, Idaho's securities regulators are investigating allegations by investors in Idaho Falls [Idaho] that they lost up to $100 million in an alleged Ponzi scheme by Daren Palmer, a local money manager." -By Steve Stecklow with contributions by Philip Shishkin and William M. Bulkeley-WSJ.com
20090127 
"GOP [Republicans] may vote no, but economists back Obama stimulus." ... "Economists think the stimulus plan that the House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday, while far from perfect, will help stimulate the moribund U.S. [United States] economy." ... "There's no panacea for what ails the economy. A stimulus plan will work only in combination with other actions, such as more aid to the banking system to spark lending and boost consumer confidence, and the implementation of any plan will be as important as what's in it." ... "However, most leading economists who are experienced in public policy generally favor the stimulus plan that the House is considering because through it the government will step up spending at a time when private-sector spending has fallen off sharply." ... "The House legislation would erect four pillars of economic stimulus. It would provide income support to the poor and recently unemployed, distribute aid to state governments, seek relatively quick employment gains through public works spending and aim to spark consumer and business spending through targeted tax cuts." ... "Private-sector economists who support the stimulus plan say that it could be made better, and, yes, bigger." ... ""I would make the package bigger . . . increase the package to over $1 trillion," [Moody's chief economist Mark] Zandi said." -By Kevin G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
"Congressional Budget Office compares downturn to Great Depression." ... "The nation's current recession is likely to be the longest since World War II, and by some measures could be the worst since the Great Depression, a new Congressional Budget Office forecast said Tuesday." ... "Without a major economic stimulus plan, "the shortfall in the nation's output relative to its potential would be the largest – in terms of both length and depth – since the Depression of the 1930s," said new CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf in testimony prepared for the House Budget Committee." ... "The nonpartisan CBO is highly regarded by both parties." ... ""It could also be the deepest recession during the postwar period in terms of the difference between actual and potential output," Elmendorf said. By his estimates, output over the next two years will average 6.8 percent below normal." -By David Lightman -McClatchyDC.com
20090126 Dick Cheney -
Satellite -
Map -
"Cheney's Veil Lifted on Vice President's Residence." ... "Hope and change has come to Google Maps. The official residence of the vice president, obscured until [Republican President] Dick Cheney's last days in office and residence, now shines in satellite sunlight." ... "A reader tipped us off that Google Maps now showed a clear overhead image of One Observatory Circle ... , the address which has served as the home of the vice president since 1974. It's the first glimpse Google users have gotten of the place." ... "Could there be a better visual metaphor for the change of administration? The old one hid behind blurry pixels. The new one welcomes a close look." -By Owen Thomas -Gawker.comWomen's -
AL. -
MS -
SC -
LA -
MN -
RI -
MO -
Wisconsin
"Republicans Irate Over Expansion of Republican-Approved Program." ... "[T]he family-planning program that [California Democratic Representative and House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi supports expanding in the stimulus bill was created in 1972 under the leadership of Republican president Richard Nixon." ... "What's being proposed is an expansion in the number of states that can use Medicaid money, with a federal match, to help low-income women prevent unwanted pregnancies. Of the 26 states that already have Medicaid waivers for family planning, eight are led by Republican governors (AL [Alabama], FL [Florida], MS [Mississippi], SC [South Carolina], CA [California], LA [Louisiana], MN [Minnesota] and RI [Rhode Island] -- a ninth, MO [Missouri], had a GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] governor until this past November). If this policy is truly a taxpayer gift to "the abortion industry," as [Ohio Republican Representative] John Boehner and House Republicans claim, where are the GOP governors promising to end the program in their states?" ... "Additionally, the process of obtaining a waiver for Medicaid family-planning coverage is extremely cumbersome. A letter written by Wisconsin health regulators in 2007 noted that some states have had to wait for as long as two years before their request was approved. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that eliminating the waiver requirement would save states $400 million over 10 years." -By Elana Schor -TPMDC .TalkingPointsMemo
20090122 Intelligence -
Military -
Spy -
Computer -
Search Engine -
EMail -
Communications -
Terrorism -
"Intelligence Agencies' Databases Set to Be Linked: After Years of Bureaucratic Snags, System Aims to Ease Communications, Give Spies Access to More Data." ... "[United States] U.S. spy agencies' sensitive data should soon be linked by Google-like search systems, nearly five years after the intelligence community was rebuked by the 9/11 Commission for failing to "connect the dots" and detect the attack." ... "Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has launched a sweeping technology program to knit together the thousands of databases across all 16 spy agencies. After years of bureaucratic snafus, intelligence analysts will be able to search through secret intelligence files the same way they can search public data on the Internet." ... "Mr. McConnell's new technology program is also addressing a more basic problem: Spies often have trouble emailing colleagues in other U.S. intelligence agencies, because email addresses aren't readily accessible, and messages sometimes get eaten by security filters. Mr. McConnell aims to solve that by uniting the agencies' email systems into a single system with a full directory that links names, expertise and addresses." ... "Mr. McConnell's team says this effort, called the Information Integration Program, has experienced officials working on it full-time and is designed to deliver tangible products every few months." ... "The first stage of the initiative is to merge the email systems of the six largest intelligence agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA [National Security Agency]." -By Siobhan Gorman -WSJ.com
20090121 US -
Cuba -
Canada
"Obama Seeks Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo." ... "In one of its first actions, the [Democratic President] Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday [January 20, 2009] to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing [Republican President] Bush administration." ... "The instruction came in a motion filed with a military court in the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."" ... "The same motion was filed in another case scheduled to resume Wednesday, involving a Canadian detainee, and will be filed in all other pending matters." ... "Such a request may not be automatically granted by military judges, and not all defense attorneys may agree to such a suspension. But the move is a first step toward closing a detention facility and system of military trials that became a worldwide symbol of the Bush administration's war on terrorism and its unyielding attitude toward foreign and domestic critics." ... "The Supreme Court ruled that, contrary to [Republican President Bush] administration claims, detainees at Guantanamo were entitled to challenge their detentions and that the naval base was not beyond the reach of federal law." ... "Eventually more than 550 detainees were released; only three were ever put on trial and convicted." -By Peter Finn -WashingtonPost
20090114 Saudi
"Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official: Trial Overseer Cites 'Abusive' Methods Against 9/11 Suspect." ... "The top [Republican President] Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay [Cuba] detainees to trial has concluded that the [United States] U.S. military tortured a Saudi [Arabia] national who allegedly planned to participate in the [September] Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."" ... ""We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution." ... "Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the [Republican President] Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured." ... "Crawford, 61, said the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani's health led to her conclusion. "The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, she said." ... ""I sympathize with the intelligence gatherers in those days after 9/11, not knowing what was coming next and trying to gain information to keep us safe," said Crawford, a lifelong Republican. "But there still has to be a line that we should not cross. And unfortunately what this has done, I think, has tainted everything going forward."" ... "Crawford said she believes that coerced testimony should not be allowed. "You don't allow it in a regular court," said Crawford, who served as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces from 1991 to 2006." ... "In May 2008, Crawford ordered the war-crimes charges against Qahtani dropped but did not state publicly that the harsh interrogations were the reason. "It did shock me," Crawford said. "I was upset by it. I was embarrassed by it. If we tolerate this and allow it, then how can we object when our servicemen and women, or others in foreign service, are captured and subjected to the same techniques? How can we complain? Where is our moral authority to complain? Well, we may have lost it."" ... "The harsh techniques used against Qahtani, she said, were approved by [Republican President Bush's] then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld." (1, 2,3) -By Bob Woodward with contributions by Julie Tate and Evelyn Duffy -WashingtonPost
20090114 Bradley Schlozman -
"Bush appointee saw Justice lawyers as 'commies,' 'crazy libs,' report says: [Republican President Bush appointee] Bradley Schlozman, who supervised civil rights and voting rights lawyers, broke the law by considering political affiliations in deciding who can serve, an inspector general's report says." ... "To Bradley Schlozman, they were "mold spores," "commies" and "crazy libs."" ... "He was referring to the career lawyers in the Justice Department's civil rights and voting rights divisions. From 2003 to 2006, Schlozman was a Bush appointee who supervised them." ... ""My tentative plans are to gerrymander all of those crazy libs right out of the section," he said in an e-mail in 2003. "I too get to work with mold spores, but here in Civil Rights, we call them Voting Section attorneys," he confided to another friend." ... "He hoped to get rid of the "Democrats" and "liberals" because they were "disloyal" and replace them with "real Americans" and "right-thinking Americans."" ... "He appears to have succeeded by his standards, according to an inspector general's report released Tuesday. Among the newly hired lawyers whose political or ideological views could be discerned, 63 of 65 lawyers hired under Schlozman had Republican or conservative credentials, the report said." ... "The inspector general concluded Schlozman violated the civil services laws while at the Justice Department. While the president's appointees are entitled to run the department and set policy, they are prohibited from considering "political affiliations" in deciding on who serves in career positions in the federal government." -By David G. Savage -LAtimes
20090110 Alberto Gonzales -
Afghanistan -
Iraq
"Eight Years of Madoffs." ... "Three days after the world learned that $50 billion may have disappeared in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, The Times led its front page of [2008 December] Dec. 14 with the revelation of another $50 billion rip-off. This time the vanished loot belonged to American taxpayers. That was our collective contribution to the $117 billion spent (as of mid-2008) on Iraq reconstruction — a sinkhole of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and outright theft that epitomized [Republican President] Bush management at home and abroad." ... "The source for this news was a near-final draft of an as-yet-unpublished 513-page federal history of this nation-building fiasco. The document was assembled by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction — led by a Bush appointee, no less. It pinpoints, among other transgressions, a governmental Ponzi scheme concocted to bamboozle Americans into believing they were accruing steady dividends on their investment in a “new” Iraq." ... "The report quotes no less an authority than Colin Powell on how the scam worked. Back in 2003, Powell said, the Defense Department just “kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week! ‘We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.’ ” Those of us who questioned these astonishing numbers were dismissed as fools, much like those who begged in vain to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to challenge Madoff’s math." ... "What’s most remarkable about the Times article, however, is how little stir it caused. When, in 1971, The Times got its hands on the Pentagon Papers, the internal federal history of the Vietnam disaster, the revelations caused a national uproar. But after eight years of battering by Bush, the nation has been rendered half-catatonic. The Iraq Pentagon Papers sank with barely a trace." ... "After all, next to big-ticket administration horrors like Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the politicized hiring and firing at Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department, the wreckage of Iraq reconstruction is what Ralph Kramden of “The Honeymooners” would dismiss as “a mere bag of shells.” The $50 billion also pales next to other sums that remain unaccounted for in the Bush era, from the $345 billion in lost tax revenue due to unpoliced offshore corporate tax havens to the far-from-transparent disposition of some $350 billion in Wall Street bailout money. In the old Pat Moynihan phrase, the Bush years have “defined deviancy down” in terms of how low a standard of ethical behavior we now tolerate as the norm from public officials." ... "Not even a good old-fashioned sex scandal could get our outrage going again. Indeed, a juicy one erupted last year in the Interior Department, where the inspector general found that officials “had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives." ... "Back in the day, an oil-fueled scandal in that one department alone could mesmerize a nation and earn [Republican President] Warren Harding a permanent ranking among our all-time worst presidents. But while the scandals at Bush’s Interior resemble Teapot Dome — and also encompass millions of dollars in lost federal oil and gas royalties — they barely registered beyond the Beltway. Even late-night comics yawned when The Washington Post administered a coup de grâce last week, reporting that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne spent $235,000 from taxpayers to redo his office bathroom (monogrammed towels included)." ... "It took 110 pages for the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan research organization, to compile the CliffsNotes inventory of the Bush wreckage last month. It found “125 systematic failures across the breadth of the federal government.” That accounting is conservative. There are still too many unanswered questions. " ... "Just a short list is staggering. Who put that bogus “uranium from Africa” into the crucial prewar State of the Union address after the C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] removed it from previous Bush speeches? How high up were the authorities who ordered and condoned torture and then let the “rotten apples” at the bottom of the military heap take the fall? Who orchestrated the Pentagon’s elaborate P.R. [Public Relations] efforts to cover up Pat Tillman’s death by “friendly fire” in Afghanistan? " -By Frank Rich -NYTimes
20090109
"Republican Judd Gregg (R-NH) Is a Liar." ... "So Justin Fox says:""The Curious Capitalist: Judd Gregg’s dubious tax math: Republican New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg (or one of his staffers) writes:"-By Brad DeLong"The growth in tax revenues from 2002 through 2007 were some of the largest in history. The tax system became much more progressive, with the top 20% of income earners paying 85% of the taxes -- a rate much higher than during the Clinton years -- all while keeping capital-gains rates low.""I'll blame the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] opinion editors for the verb-subject disagreement in the first sentence. But I'm assuming the facts came from Gregg. Except they're not quite facts—and since this sort of tax disinformation is pretty common, I couldn't resist wasting an hour digging up the data to refute them.""Non-fact No. 1: The tax revenue gains from 2002 through 2007 weren't "some of the largest in history," unless you define "some" extremely broadly. Adjusted for inflation, [United States] U.S. government revenue rose 20% from 2002 to 2007. That ranks 24th among the 58 rolling five-year periods between the end of World War II and 2007. Just barely above average.... Over the full eight years of the [Republican President] Bush administration, it appears likely that federal revenue growth will be just about zero. Over the eight [Democratic President] Clinton years it was 58%."
"Non-fact No. 2: The percentage of federal taxes paid by the top 20% of the income distribution in 2005 (the most recent year covered by the Congressional Budget Office's annual examination of tax rates and the income distribution) was 69%. The percentage of federal income taxes was 86%...."
"The cuts in tax rates on capital gains and dividends during the Bush years accentuated this kink, so on the whole a fair-minded observer would have to say the tax system became somewhat less progressive. Which isn't what Judd Gregg said."
[-By Justin Fox -TIME.com]Archives -
"Judge rules against White House on visitors logs." ... "A federal judge on Friday rejected the [Republican President] Bush administration's latest attempt to keep secret the identities of White House visitors and declared that the government illegally deleted Secret Service computer records." ... "[United States] U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the deletions took place before October 2004 when the Secret Service transferred large numbers of entry and exit logs to the White House and then deleted copies of them." ... "The deletions ceased after the archivist to the United States instructed the Secret Service to stop the practice and after various private organizations went to court in an effort to gain access to the logs, according to papers filed in the case. The deletions go back at least as far as 2001, the government's papers added, the year President George W. Bush took office." ... "Secret Service logs have been used in investigations by Congress and federal prosecutors." ... "In the spring of 2006, in the midst of an influence peddling scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement declaring the Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public." ... "Four months later, [Republican Vice President] Cheney's office told the Secret Service in a letter that visitor records for the vice president's personal residence "are and shall remain subject to the exclusive ownership, custody and control of OVP [Office of the Vice President]."" -By Pete Yost -AP via -Yahoo
20090108 Environment -
Earth -
Auto -
Wyoming -
Utah -
Netherlands -
World
"Bush Pushes ‘Midnight Rules’ to Support Companies as Term Ends." ... "[Republican President] George W. Bush is using the waning days of his presidency to implement a raft of pro-business regulations, triggering vows by the incoming [Democratic President Elect] Obama administration and congressional Democrats to gut the measures." ... "Bush is proposing changes to federal rules that critics say make it more difficult to protect U.S. [United States] workers from exposure to toxic chemicals, reduce the use of employee medical leave and open more land to oil and gas exploration. The effort is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and trade groups representing companies including [Netherlands-based] Royal Dutch Shell Plc [Public limited company] and Dow Chemical Co. [Company.]" ... "The Interior Department today is publishing a rule that would lift a 79-year-old executive order prohibiting oil shale development in Wyoming and Utah. Yesterday, the Bush administration postponed regulations requiring cars and light trucks to be more fuel efficient by 2011." ... "Bush’s regulation on toxins, which isn’t final yet, would change the way workplace exposure to poisonous substances is measured, and is supported by associations representing companies such as Dow, the biggest U.S. chemical company, Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, and 3M Co., the St. Paul [Minnesota's capital], Minnesota-based maker of 55,000 products." ... "The change is opposed by the United Mineworkers and other unions. They argue it would delay new health protections for workers by requiring a lengthy regulatory process before new standards could be issued. " -By Holly Rosenkrantz and Mark Drajem -Bloomberg
Virginia -
"Army Sends 'Dear John Doe' Letters to Families of Fallen Troops." ... "The Army mistakenly sent letters addressed "Dear John Doe" to 7,000 family members of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, unleashing calls from troubled relatives and prompting a formal apology yesterday from the Army's top general." ... "The letters, mailed late last month by the Army's Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center in Alexandria [Virginia], contained information about private organizations that assist families of the fallen. But in what the Army called a printing error by a contractor, the letters did not contain specific names and addresses; instead, they had the placeholder greeting "Dear John Doe."" -By Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPostKarl Rove -
"Karl Rove’s Factually Challenged Housing Revisionism." ... "As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. The instant historical revisionism by [Republican] Karl Rove in today’s WSJ [Wall Street Journal] — mythmaking writ large — contains an egregious combination of false statements, crucial omissions and misleading assertions." ... "A few thoughts are required to correct Rove’s attempt to create a false and deceptive narrative. Consider these few corrections:" ... "1. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among the principal culprits of the housing crisis” Wrong. Fannie and Freddie were cogs in the giant mortgage machine, but they had nothing to do with the abdication of lending standards from 2002-07. That was a function of the Lend-to-Securitize business model of the sub-prime mortgage originators. THAT was the primary cause of the housing boom and bust, along with Ultra-low rates and a lack of Fed regulation of these sub-prime lenders." ... "2. “Fannie and Freddie were too large and overleveraged” True. This had been pointed out by many people, before [Republican President] Bush and afterwards, that Fannie was a problem. Chief amongst the Fannie critics was Fed Governor William Poole. He deserves credit for his many early warnings about Fannie Mae and the GSEs [Government Sponsored Enterprises]. He was ignored by Alan Greenspan. Also ignored was Fed Governor Edward Gramlich, whose early warnings about subprime and predatory lending and were both timely and prescient." ... "3. Democrats controlled the Congressional Debate on GSEs: Rove somehow fails to note the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] controlled Congress from 1994-2006, including the first 6 years of the Bush Presidency. If the President wanted to rein in the GSEs, he needed only make it a major priority, and not a footnote in the 2001 budget." -By Barry Ritholtz.comMass
"Lawmakers and Financial Experts Question Obama's Tax Cuts." ... "At least two tax cuts that are part of [Democratic President Elect] Barack Obama's stimulus package have been criticized by lawmakers, tax experts and economists for being potentially too expensive and ineffective, signaling that they are likely to face resistance on Capitol Hill as congressional leaders begin direct negotiations with the president-elect's team." ... "Both Democrats and Republicans have questioned a provision that would provide a $3,000 tax credit to companies for every job created and, possibly, for every job spared. They contend that the idea would be ripe for abuse and difficult to administer." ... ""It is tough to see how a company that is seeing its sales slaughtered in today's recession is going to hire just because it gets a few thousand dollars per new worker from the government," Howard Gleckman wrote on the TaxVox blog for the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. "Profitable firms would merely take the credit for bringing on workers they were already planning on hiring."" ... "[Massachusetts Democratic Representative] Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass. [Democratic-Massachusetts]), chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on select revenue measures, said the scenario that worries him is that of the employer who lays off thousands of people and then is subsidized for hiring back a few hundred." (1, 2) -By Shailagh Murray -WashingtonPost
"Citigroup Backs Bankruptcy Courts Cutting Loan Rates (Update1)." ... "Citigroup Inc. [Incorporated], one of nine U.S. [United States] banks to get government aid, agreed to support legislation that would let bankruptcy judges cut mortgage rates for at-risk borrowers, three U.S. senators said today as financial industry lobbyists said the compromise was flawed." ... "Citigroup in November got $306 billion of U.S. government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets to stabilize the bank. The deal, brokered by the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. [Corporation] required the bank to modify terms for guaranteed troubled loans based on a model created by the FDIC." ... "Congress has passed several measures in the past year to stem home foreclosures, including a $300 billion bill passed in July aimed at helping 400,000 borrowers keep their homes. Senate Democrats were unable in April to adopt the bankruptcy proposal. Republicans, and the banking industry, said the plan would raise costs because lenders would try to recoup losses in court with higher rates on other loans." ... "The revised bill Citigroup endorsed would give judges the ability to adjust principle payments or interest rates on existing loans, and could extend the term on the loan, according to the language of the bill, which would force lenders to take losses without a say in bankruptcy court proceedings." ... "Citigroup accounted for 7 percent of the U.S. market for servicing home loans as of Sept. 30, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance newsletter in October. " -By Margaret Chadbourn -BloombergIowa
"Harkin Fears "Trickle-Down" Stimulus." ... "Democratic senators are still emerging from their closed-door briefing with [Democratic President Elect] Obama economic adviser Larry Summers ... but a senior Democratic senator, Iowa progressive Tom Harkin, just gave me a dire buzzword: trickle-down." ... ""There's only one thing we've got to do in this stimulus, and that's create jobs," Harkin told me. "I'm a little concerned by the way Mr. Summers and others are going on this ... it still looks a little more to me like trickle-down."" ... "Likening Barack Obama's economic recovery plan to the failed supply-side excesses of the [Republican Presidents] Reagan and Bush years is a bit of a Cassandra moment. But Harkin didn't back down. "What I'm hearing from Mr. Summers is that they've got a different approach -- tax breaks, and this and that," he said. Harkin warned that, much like the outcome of George Bush's $600 stimulus package last year, recipients of quick tax cuts "are going to be salting it away, not spending it."" ... "When I asked if he felt his concerns were heard during the meeting, he looked to the floor and slowly shook his head. It was almost forlorn." -By Elana Schor -TPMElectionCentral .TalkingPointsMemo
20081224 Christmas -
Texas
"Top Bush Aides to Linger on High-Profile Boards." ... "The Christmas Eve appointments will allow them to serve far beyond [2009, January] Jan. 20, the end of [Republican President] Mr. Bush’s term in office." ... "Ms. [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice got a spot on the John F. Kennedy Center’s board of trustees until September 2014." ... "Mr. Bush’s gift to Mr. [Commerce Secretary Carlos M.] Gutierrez: membership on the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a research institute in Washington. Joining Mr. Gutierrez as a trustee is Barry Jackson, a former deputy to Karl Rove, who serves as assistant to the president for strategic initiatives and external affairs." ... "Maria Cino, a longtime ally of the president who was deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation and helped run the 2008 Republican National Convention, received a four-year term on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. President Bush also extended the same courtesy to Israel Hernandez, who was once a personal aide to Mr. Bush in Texas and now serves as an assistant secretary of commerce and director general of the United States Commercial Service." ... "And the first lady, Laura Bush, appears to be taking care of her own, too. The president appointed her chief of staff, Anita B. McBride, to a three-year term on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board." -By Michael Falcone with contributions by Sheryl Stolberg -NYTimes
Colo
"Scientists eager for stem cell policy change." ... "Although [Democratic] President-elect Obama’s pledge to change federal policy on stem cell research is not likely to lead to new cures by the end of his first year — or even first term — the scientific community is eager to get moving." ... "Embryonic stem cell research is one area in which the change that Obama has promised on the campaign trail will provoke an immediate effect." ... "Once he has acted to ease the restriction on federal funding, researchers across the United States will be free to request funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to collaborate with colleagues conducting experiments with private or state-government money and those working abroad." ... "“Just with the stroke of a pen, the new president could open up new avenues of research,” said [Colorado Democratic Representative] Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), the lead Democratic sponsor of legislation that would broaden funding for embryonic stem cell research." ... "Researchers believe embryonic stem cells can be made to replicate practically any human cell or tissue, thus leading to treatments for countless ailments." -By Jeffrey Young -TheHill.comChristopher Cox -
"SEC Chair Asked If He Deserves Blame For Wall Street Crisis: ‘Absolutely Not,’ It ‘Wasn’t The SEC’s Job’." ... "In a new interview with the Washington Post, embattled [Republican President Bush's] Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox stridently “defend[ed] his restrained approach to the financial crisis.” He refused to accept any blame for the Wall Street crisis or the Madoff Ponzi scheme, saying that regulating Wall Street and protecting investors “wasn’t the SEC’s job“:""Cox argued that the agency has carefully defined responsibilities and that it was unfair to blame it for every problem on Wall Street." ... "“The public might not understand that that wasn’t the SEC’s job,” he said, adding that the agency was not responsible for preventing investment banks from collapsing but rather for sheltering their securities trading units from problems in the broader corporation. “The SEC is not a safety and soundness regulator,” he said. [..]""In fact, the SEC’s mission statement clearly suggests that “safety” is — or should be — a primary concern of the commission:""The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.""A review by the SEC inspector general “determined the agency’s monitoring of the five biggest Wall Street firms, which included Bear Stearns, was lacking.” (Just a few days before Bear Stearns collapsed, Cox said he had “a good deal of comfort” in the bank’s capital levels.) Another analysis showed that the SEC dramatically cut its oversight of financial trades. “In one of its core areas — regulation of Wall Street firms — its case load was down significantly,” said Ben A. Indek, a securities lawyer at the law firm that performed the analysis." ... "Cox also denied any culpability in the Madoff scandal: “When Cox was asked whether he should be blamed for a culture of lax enforcement that allowed multiple warnings about the fraud to go undetected, he said: ‘Absolutely not.’” However, a former SEC official slammed Cox for failing to prevent the Ponzi scheme: “I can’t comprehend how a well-run investigation would have missed a fraud of this magnitude,” said Lynn Turner, a former SEC chief accountant." -By Ali Frick -ThinkProgress.org
20081221
"AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs." ... "Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals." ... "The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages." ... "Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found." ... "_The average paid to each of the banks' top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits." ... "_Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company's top five executives received a total of $242 million." ... "The New York-based company on Dec. 16 reported its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28." ... "_John A. Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million in earnings last year." ... "Like Goldman, Merrill got $10 billion from taxpayers on Oct. 28." -By Frank Bass and Rita Beamish -AP via -Yahoo
20081219
"Who's Mess Is the S.E.C.? News Analysis: In his extraordinary mea culpa over the Madoff scandal, [Republican President Bush's Securities and Exchange Commission] S.E.C. chairman Christopher Cox accepted full blame...on behalf of his staff. But isn't he in charge?" ... "When Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox made an extraordinary apology for the agency having failed to follow up on clear evidence of wrongdoing by suspected financial fraudster Bernard Madoff, he excluded one key player from blame: himself." ... "In the public statement on Tuesday, Cox laid out a blistering attack on his staff, while appearing to exonerate himself from any responsibility." ... "He said the agency's most senior officials learned only a week ago that "credible and specific allegations regarding Mr. Madoff's financial wrongdoing, going back to at least 1999, were repeatedly brought to the attention of S.E.C. staff, but were never recommended to the Commission for action."" ... ""I am gravely concerned," Cox added, "by the apparent multiple failures over at least a decade to thoroughly investigate these allegations or at any point to seek formal authority [from the commission] to pursue them."" ... "Cox's decision to distance himself from the staffs' performance has rankled former senior S.E.C. officials who had nothing to do with the Madoff inquiries." ... "The S.E.C. is structured so that the chairman personally is in charge of the staff, these former agency officials said; he is in effect the agency's C.E.O. [Chief Executive Officer], with division heads reporting directly to him, and he makes decisions about staff appointments and allocation of resources." ... "As Condé Nast Portfolio magazine reported in its October issue, Cox took steps to weaken and hamstring the enforcement division." ... "He slowed down and delayed approval when staff members did ask for formal authority to investigate, and pressed the agency to focus more on penny-stock scams, boiler-room operations, and other relatively petty crimes. S.E.C. veterans said this detracted from efforts to pursue major Wall Street frauds." -By Scot Paltrow -Portfolio.com
"Cox "Worked to Dismantle The SEC," Says Commission Vet." ... "In recent years, particularly under [Republican President Bush's Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris] Cox, a former California GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] congressman, the SEC has pursued a policy of de-emphasizing enforcement, part of the broader anti-regulatory philosophy of the Bush years -- helping to make Madoff, and perhaps others like him, possible." ... ""[Cox] in many ways worked to dismantle the SEC," Ed Nordlinger, a former longtime enforcement director in the commission's New York office, told TPMmuckraker. "He slowed everything down. I don't think he believed in heavy regulation."" ... "That view has been echoed by several others in a position to know. Ross Albert told TPMmuckraker for a post published yesterday: "Under Cox, SEC had de-emphasized the enforcement program. Cox worshipped at the same altar of de-regulation that the rest of the Bush administration worshipped at."" ... "And a former enforcement division supervisor told Portfolio for a lengthy October story about the SEC under Cox: "It was like someone poured molasses on the enforcement division."" ... "The commission also appears to have passed over for promotion staff members who were too aggressive in their approach to enforcement. Veteran S.E.C. lawyer James Coffman told Portfolio that he was told he didn't get a promotion because he was "too tough." He left the SEC soon after." -By Zachary Roth -TPMMuckracker .TalkingPointsMemo
20081218
"Madoff misled SEC in '06, got off." ... "Securities and Exchange Commission investigators discovered in 2006 that Bernard Madoff had misled the agency about how he managed customer money, according to documents, yet the SEC missed an opportunity to uncover an alleged Ponzi scheme." ... "The documents indicate the agency had Madoff in its sights amid multiple violations that, if pursued, could have blown open his alleged multibillion-dollar scam. Instead, his firm registered as an investment adviser, at the agency's request, and the public got no word of the violations." ... "Harry Markopolos - who once worked for a Madoff rival - sparked the probe with his nearly decadelong campaign to persuade the SEC that Madoff's returns were too good to be true. In recent days, The Wall Street Journal reviewed emails, letters and other documents that Markopolos shared with the SEC over the years." ... "When he first began studying Madoff's investment performance a decade ago, Markopolos told a colleague at the time, "It doesn't make any damn sense," he and the colleague recall. "This has to be a Ponzi scheme."" -By Gregory Zuckerman -WSJ.com via -GreenwichTime.com
20081217 Poll -
"New Poll Shows 63% Are Already Hurt by Downturn." ... "The deepening recession has eroded the financial standing and optimism of a broad swath of Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom say that they have been hurt by the downturn and that the country has slipped into long-term economic decline." ... "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll also found that a rapidly increasing share of Americans -- 66 percent, up from just over half a year ago -- are worried about maintaining their standard of living. Nearly two in 10 said they or someone living in their household had lost a job in the past few months, and more than a quarter said they had their pay or hours reduced. And 15 percent said that at some point in the past year they fell behind on their rent or mortgage." ... "The poll captures the widening fallout from the faltering economy that policymakers are struggling to contain. The Federal Reserve yesterday cut its target for the federal funds rate to a range of zero to 0.25 percent, the lowest on record." ... "The poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans support new federal spending to stimulate the economy, and majorities of both Democrats and Republicans back the idea." ... "Twenty-four percent approve of the way [Republican] President Bush is handling the economy, and a similarly paltry 23 percent approve of the broader federal response to the crisis." ... "Democrats, Republicans and independents alike are highly critical of the federal action to address the crisis -- among each group, more than seven in 10 disapprove. In part, the criticisms stem from skepticism that the government has put in place adequate controls to avoid waste and fraud in the use of federal money in the economic recovery effort." (1, 2) -By Michael A. Fletcher and Jon Cohen with contributions by Jennifer Agiesta -WashingtonPost
"U.S. Congress to probe SEC role in Madoff affair." ... "A U.S. [United States] House of Representatives panel plans to convene an inquiry in January into the failure of securities regulators to unearth an alleged $50 billion securities fraud by Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff, a key lawmaker said on Wednesday." ... "The Securities and Exchange Commission has come under fire for not uncovering the scandal until senior employees of Madoff went to authorities." ... "The agency, chaired by [Republican President Bush's Securities and Exchange Commission chairman] Christopher Cox, has been accused of missing a number of red flags about the way Madoff operated his investment business." ... "Cox, a Republican, said he was gravely concerned about the SEC's failure to examine Madoff's activities, which were flagged going back to at least 1999 and repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff but never recommended for commission action." ... "Madoff's niece, Shana Madoff, a compliance lawyer at Madoff's firm, is married to a former SEC lawyer, Eric Swanson, who was the agency's assistant director in the office of compliance inspections and examinations." ... "SEC compliance chief Lori Richards said Swanson was a member of an examination team that looked into Madoff's broker-dealer business in 1999 and 2004." -By John Poirier and Rachelle Younglai with contributions by Kevin Drawbaugh, Karey Wutkowski, Andre Grenon and John Wallace -Reuters via -Guardian.co.uk
"Fed unleashes greatest bubble of all." ... "Like the sorcerer’s apprentice, [Republican President Bush's] Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his predecessor Alan Greenspan have unleashed a series of ever-larger asset bubbles they cannot control." ... "Now the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates to between zero and 0.25 percent, coupled with a promise to keep them there for an extended period, and the threat to conduct even more unconventional operations in the longer-dated Treasury market risks the biggest bubble of all, this time in U.S. government debt." ... "THE ASYMMETRIC EXPERIMENT" ... "Bubble mania is no accident. It is the direct consequence of the Fed’s asymmetric response to shifts in asset prices. Pressed to “lean against the wind” and adopt counter-cyclical interest rate and credit policies in the asset market, senior Fed policymakers have repeatedly demurred." ... "Led by Bernanke and Greenspan, officials have argued it is too hard and subjective to identify bubbles until afterwards, and not the Fed’s job to second-guess asset allocation decisions of professional investors." ... "Even if bubbles could be identified, they argue, pricking them would require swingeing rate rises that would inflict widespread damage on the rest of the economy." ... "Far less damaging to allow asset markets to follow their natural cycle and stand by to cut interest rates sharply, supply liquidity and contain the fallout when the bubble bursts." ... "But the Fed’s asymmetric policy response to rising and falling asset prices (colloquially known as the “Greenspan/Bernanke put”) directly led to much of the excessive risk-taking which has humbled the financial system over the last eighteen months." ... "More importantly, the Fed’s decision to respond to the collapse of the technology and stock market bubble by lowering rates to 1 percent and holding them there for an extended period is now widely accepted as a mistake that contributed to the bond bubble and subsequent housing market boom in the middle of the decade." ... "If the low-rate strategy was a mistake, it was a conscious one." -By John Kemp-Reuters
20081216 Jim DeMint -
Bob Corker -
Richard Shelby -
Mitch McConnell -
Michigan -
Tennessee -
Kentucky -
German -
Japanese -
South Korean
"Foreign Auto Makers Won Billions in Government Subsidies: Southern States Gave [Foreign] Auto Companies Tax-breaks and Cash for Training." ... "To hear Southern Republicans tell the story, the financial burdens facing Detroit’s automakers are self-made troubles to be settled by the laws of Adam-Smith capitalism." ... "“We don’t think it is the role of government to intervene,” [South Carolina Republican Senator] Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C. [Republican-South Carolina]) told the Fox Business Network last week. “We need to let the market and the laws work the way they are already in place.”" ... "Yet this argument — that the government has no business interfering in free markets — ignores an increasingly frequent tradition among Southern states, which have fronted billions in local taxpayer dollars in the past two decades to attract foreign auto plants. Those incentives, arriving in the form of tax breaks, training for new employees and even land, have enticed [German automaker Bayerische Motoren Werke] BMW to South Carolina, [German automaker] Mercedes to Alabama and [Japanese automaker] Nissan to Tennessee. The result of the government subsidies has been the steady emergence of the South as an auto-manufacturing powerhouse. Some are dubbing it the “New Detroit” – a region where real estate is cheap and the labor’s not unionized." ... "Not coincidentally, these Southern states are represented by the same coalition of GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] senators who led the fight against the recent Detroit [Michigan] bailout proposal. That legislation would have provided $14 billion in emergency bridge loans to General Motors and Chrysler, both of which say they lack the finances to survive the month. Rallying behind the animated opposition of GOP [Republican Senators] Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.[Tennessee]), Richard Shelby (Ala.[Alabama]), Mitch McConnell (Ky.[Kentucky) and South Carolina’s DeMint, Senate Republicans killed the legislation." ... "On Friday, the day following the Senate vote, Shelby told CNBC that if the Big Three had only managed their business operations as well as the foreign companies, known as transplants, they wouldn’t be scrambling now for a taxpayer-funded bailout." ... "“You look at the South,” Shelby said. “You take — not just Mercedes in my hometown — but BMW, Honda and all of them. These companies are flourishing with American workers made in America.”" ... "But the flourishing of the transplants didn’t come without significant taxpayer help. Shelby’s Alabama, for example, secured construction of a [German automaker] Mercedes-Benz plant in 1993 by offering $253 million in state and local tax breaks, worker training and land improvement. For [Japanese automaker] Honda, the state’s sweetener surrounding a 1999 deal to build a mini-van plant was $158 million in similar perks, adding $90 million in enticements when the company expanded the plant three years later. A 2001 deal with [Japanese automaker] Toyota left the company with $29 million in taxpayer gifts." ... "Alabama is hardly alone. Corker’s Tennessee recently lured [German automaker] Volkswagen to build a manufacturing plant in Chattanooga [Tennessee], offering the German automaker tax breaks, training and land preparation that could total $577 million. In 2005, the state inspired Nissan to relocate its headquarters from southern California by offering $197 million in incentives, including $20 million in utility savings." ... "In 1992, South Carolina snagged a BMW plant for $150 million in giveaways. In Mississippi in 2003, Nissan was lured with $363 million. In Georgia, a still-under-construction [South Korean automaker] Kia plant received breaks estimated to be $415 million. The list goes on." -By Mike Lillis -WashingtonIndependent.com
"Do Southern Senators Really Want to Start a New War Between the States?" ... "When my Southern pals used to say "The South is gonna rise again," I doubt this is what they had in mind: A cadre of Southern [Republican] Senators, heavily financed by foreign automakers and special interests, declaring war on the American Dream of good wages and decent benefits. When did they decide that hard-working people trying to make a better life for themselves are the enemy?" ... "These Senators may want to think twice. Southern states have been benefiting from Northern taxes for years. If they start another War Between the States, the Federal gravy train might suddenly stop at the Mason-Dixon line." ... "Studies by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation have consistently shown that these Senators' states receive far more from the Federal government than they pay back in taxes. That's an irony that could lead to some Blue State bitterness: They love to preach about fiscal responsibility and lower taxes, but they keep dipping their beak into the Federal trough." ... "I believe the applicable Southern phrase is "a handful of gimme and a mouthful of much obliged."" ... "The numbers in [PDF] the Foundation's most recent study (warning: pdf) speak for themselves: [Kentucky Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell's Kentucky took in $1.45 from the Feds for every dollar it paid in taxes. That's a 45 cent free ride. [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker's Tennessee received at 30-cent Federal giveaway. And [Alabama Republican Senator] Richard Shelby's Alabama extracted a whopping 71-cent subsidy from Northern taxpayers." ... "What about Michigan? They lost 31 cents for every dollar they paid. In other words, McConnell, Shelby, and Corker have been skimming a percentage off these autoworkers' taxes for years on behalf of their constituents. Now, when the same Michigan taxpayers need help, these Senators are telling them to get lost." -By RJ Eskow -HuffingtonPost.com
"Bailout payout tops $8 trillion." ... "As the holiday season commences, it’s worth taking stock of the last gift that [Republican] President George W. Bush and the 110th Congress have left for U.S. [United States] taxpayers." ... "It’s a package of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout goodies for businesses and distressed homeowners." ... "Amid the tissue paper:" ... "• More than $1.5 trillion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. [Corporation] loan guarantees, including a $139 billion assist to the lending arm of General Electric Corp." ... "• $1.8 trillion in cash, tax breaks and loan guarantees doled out from the Treasury Department to taxpayers, financial institutions and credit companies." ... "• $300 billion for homeowners from the Federal Housing Authority." ... "• $25 billion in assistance for auto companies from a program overseen by the Energy Department, which is separate from the bailout proposal that tanked last week in the Senate." ... "• And $5 trillion worth of new money, loan guarantees and loosened lending requirements from the Federal Reserve Bank." ... "According to Bianco Research President James Bianco, who crunched these numbers, that amounts to more government aid and assistance than nine other historic bailouts and big government outlays combined." ... "The New Deal, for instance, cost an estimated $32 billion in its day, which would
