No surprise here; FBI and likely other federal agencies abuse the use of National Security Letters. Support the JUSTICE Act unless the Republicans can do better.

I have been railing against the Patriot Act (which is anything but) since its passage and I physically protested same back when AG Ashcroft visited Salt Lake City in circa 2003. Numerous provisions of that Act signed into law by the SOB (Son Of a Bush) were and remain egregious. The Patriot Act assailed our rights on so many fronts, not the least of which was broadening the use of National Security Letters (NSL). [more...]

Date: 2009-09-28 19:56:34

Blog posts (394) | Videos (64)
 

The Bipartisan Homeland Security State

For two years, Bart McIntyre was deeply involved in the insignificant, thinly populated white supremacist movement.Though it may be difficult to believe, this actually represented something of an improvement in McIntyre's social circle, since his paying job was a position in one of our country's most repellent criminal syndicates, [more...]

Date: 2009-01-14 20:35:00

The Complete List Of Round 2 Magnificent 7, Head To Head

10 Frugal Steps To Help You Survive A Tough Economy by Digerati Life A buyer’s right to do “an additional inspection” by Ardelle DellaLoggia Click ... BUYERS by Roberta Murphy  Credit Scores - Why Your Number Matters by Salt Lake Real Estate Blog: 10 Laws of Moving for Aging Parents and Their Families by Real Sage Advice How a Buyers Agent Can [more...]

Date: 2009-01-16 19:06:17

Words from the (Investment) Wise (Sept. 27, 2009)

After hitting its best levels of the year on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) communiqué, the S&P 500 Index ran into heavy weather on the realization that the Fed could start scaling back on emergency support of the economy. US equities dropped further later in the week on renewed concerns about the state of the troubled housing market and weaker-than-expected durable goods orders. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-27 14:33:29

How security compliance became important

Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen some downright amazing changes in business. Looking back to when I was a child growing up in Bishop, California ... credit, and only for orders that had to be shipped from far off locations such as Los Angeles or Salmon ... be called if a theft had occurred, and take a report obtaining any evidence of the crime right [more...]

Date: 2009-01-15 22:54:44

Daily Dose: 10/15/08

» Gecko-like Glue is Said to be Stickiest Yet » Doctors Often Skip Key Test Before Surgery » Man Shot to Death in Sunset District Identified » David Chiu Files Formal Ethics Complaint » Angel Island’s 740 Acres Hold a Lot of History » USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association Debate Viewing and Discussion » Margaret Cho Extends Relationship with [more...]

Date: 2008-10-15 22:00:57

Who is to blame for Ed Balls’ grey hairs?

Are his shadows keeping him on his toes? Here’s a statement that might not meet with universal agreement on the site: in recent weeks, ... 3 curriculum in line with Sir Jim Rose’s interim report, and acted decisively over two crises. The sacking ... Dem benches is one of the brightest of a clever frontbench team: David Laws MP, who followed [more...]

Date: 2008-12-13 16:31:48

Pretending To Fly In California

The Press Democrat reports from California. “The collapse of the housing bubble continues to reverberate through Sonoma County, according to a report issued Tuesday. Just over half of the homes sold in August were dumped by desperate owners trying to avoid foreclosure or by banks that seized them from borrowers who fell behind on their mortgages [more...]

Date: 2008-09-17 19:31:08

The housing meltdown: Why did it happen in the US?

From a timely BIS working paper by Lucy Ellis released on Thursday: Mortgage lending standards eased in many countries in recent years, but the limited available cross-country evidence does suggest that the process went further in the United States. Standards are difficult to measure because different aspects need not all move together ( [more...]

Date: 2008-09-21 05:48:01

Sleeping Through a Catastrophic Economy

by The Mogambo Guru If you want to know the reason why history shows that people always turn to gold when government/central bank mismanagement ... -distribution, such as the report that the twin idiots in Congress, Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank, are actually proposing a tax credit for buyers of particular houses to prevent foreclosure [more...]

Date: 2008-07-08 20:43:16

Credit Repair Company

by Brent Hansen Bad credit history can bar one from getting a job, getting a loan, obtaining a lease or even in securing credit. Several people look for ways through which they can repair their credit in order to obtain or secure the credit they are looking for. This is because most of the lenders consider the credit history to be accurate and the best means that can help in judging an individual especially for prompt payments. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 12:07:14

Red Ink, Green Proposals, No White Smoke (Yet)

The chatter continues over California's $40 billion budget hole, as Democrats pitch some new economic stimulus ideas, ... toward everything from wetlands restoration and flood protection to repair and building projects ... some of the state's idled construction workers back to work. Of course, selling bonds on Wall Street [more...]

Date: 2009-01-14 20:42:50

One Nation Divisible Under Obama? Not Indivisible Under God.

“I would have hoped that if the Union were ever again to be imperiled it might at least be in a cause as noble as the Abolition of Slavery. To imperil it for the vanity of a single individual is unimaginably petty!” By Judah Benjamin, Guest Author Before I do anything else, I want to re-state my position on the subject of Barack Hussein Obama II, [more...]

Date: 2008-10-30 22:43:41

How did Lehman manage that ?

Robert Waldmann A commenter over at naked capitalism notes that $110b of senior LEH debt went from trading .95 to .12 in a matter of days ... ... fashioned and out of date. I think it can be achieved without breaking the laws, such as they are. Lehman ... as they are not required to report this fact. Now I would be reluctant to believe that a bank [more...]

Date: 2008-09-27 13:59:05

A must read for all landlords

Your job as a landlord just got a lot more bureaucratic and burdensome regarding tenant screening reports that you receive to help you select tenants. Most landlords may know nothing about two federal laws that were enacted to protect consumers against identity theft, a growing concern in our electronic age. These laws are the Fair [more...]

Date: 2008-11-25 17:44:53

Housing: Who Got Rich? Who’s to Blame?

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook Who do we blame for today’s housing crisis, subprime loans and the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle? ... mortgage may be an expensive method of financing a home” In otherwords, Greenspan (photo below) encouraged ... credit programs for immigrants…. With these advances in technology, lenders have taken [more...]

Date: 2008-09-17 19:51:39

Week Ahead

Things are heating up on tobacco road. New study by American Lung Association could reopen the discussion about higher cigarette taxes ... Democratic senator to take, putting big tobacco ahead of uninsured children. A new federal report comes out today on homelessness in North Carolina. The report is expected to show chronic homelessness [more...]

Date: 2009-01-13 17:54:21

Considered Forthwith: House Transportation Committee

Welcome to the 23rd installment of "Considered Forthwith." This weekly series looks at the various committees in the House and the Senate. Committees are the workshops of our democracy. This is where bills are considered, revised, and occasionally advance for consideration by the House and Senate. Most committees also have the authority to exercise oversight of related executive branch agencies. This week's entry discusses the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee . [more...]

Date: 2009-09-28 01:03:44

Democrats Continue to Defend Their Indefensible Election Protection Efforts

-- Brad Friedman, The BRAD BLOG Why corporate mainstream journalists have a need to identify everyone as either "liberal" or "conservative" ... in Washington Independent journalist Jonathon E. Kaplan's report today featuring lead Obama attorney Bob ... worried about only one side of the coin, as Kaplan's report demonstrates all too clearly (yet again [more...]

Date: 2008-11-02 23:14:23

How's everyone enjoying National Homeownership Month?

My long-time friend and colleague Petulant posted earlier about home foreclosures setting a record for the first quarter of 2008 ... in 2007. The report by the Mortgage Bankers Association also found that more homeowners slipped behind ... multibillion losses when their investments in mortgage-backed securities soured. A credit crisis [more...]

Date: 2008-06-06 06:39:31

I Want It Now

An email from someone I respect says to take a look at today's column by David Brooks on savings behavior since the issue of adequate saving is ... up agreeing with Brooks 100% about how to address this problem, but this isn't a bad start ... mechanism that would soak up some of the demand for "payday loans" seems especially promising [more...]

Date: 2008-06-11 01:48:00

Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/12/2008

Some headlines to look at:“Muslim Killed Catholic Girl in Love With Flatmate”“London Fundraisers Linked to Stoning of 13-Year-Old”“Possibly Tens of Thousands of Somalis in the US Illegally”“New Anti-Christian Attack in Mosul, Two Sisters Killed”But then there’s this:“Denmark: Ready to Ban Headscarves for Judges”So it’s not all bad news.Thanks [more...]

Date: 2008-11-13 04:52:00

Why Is Gas So Expensive? []

Did you know that gas price gouging almost never occurs as prices rise? Rather, it's most often when dealers keep prices artificially high even as their costs fall. As gas costs has recently been near $5 a gallon and oil companies earn around $100 billion each year, it's a good time to question what really goes into the price of gas [more...]

Date: 2008-10-13 19:12:22

I just can’t get you (the Bradley Effect) out of my head

cross-posted at my blog and PostBourgie Andrew Hacker’s essay in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books is something of a mixed bag. The piece is an attempt to measure the possible impact of race - specifically voter registration laws, and the “Bradley Effect” - on the election.  And to some extent, Hacker is successful; he does [more...]

Date: 2008-09-03 17:08:55

It’s News To M_A - 1/17/09

cross-posted at WWL, M_A’s & OWL Stories of note from the WakeTheFuckUp news desk…. Here’s a glimpse of some of the headlines featured below the fold: Forgive and Forget? Obama’s Top Law Enforcer Is Preoccupied with Bush’s War on Terror Targeting speech to snuff out terror “Twenty years of a life erased” [more...]

Date: 2009-01-17 13:48:25

The Shadow Gold Price

“The Shadow Gold Price” Paul Brodsky & Lee Quaintance run QB Partners, a private macro-oriented investment fund based in New York.” ~~~~ Conclusions: Spot Gold is fundamentally cheap versus its intrinsic monetary value by a factor greater than 10 Stocks are empirically very cheap versus the current quantity of paper money bank reserves [more...]

Date: 2008-12-10 13:00:25

E. Online Resources (2)

• http://ftc.gov The Federal Trade Commission’s website provides free publications on many consumer topics, including credit repair. It also provides links to the full text of numerous consumer protection laws (click on “Rules & Acts” in any of the consumer topics). • www.pueblo.gsa.gov The Consumer Information Center provides the latest in consumer news as well as many publications of interest to consumers, including the Consumer Information Catalog. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 02:07:22

‘A fundamental reboot’

I’m at the final plenary session at the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Councils meeting in Dubai ... has not been equipped to act quickly enough to forestall those crisis in food and credit. So it seems ... began, of course, with a report from a cluster of councils on finance. Suzanne Nora Johnson [more...]

Date: 2008-11-09 07:15:52

Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/27/2008

The news feed is outgrowing its format. Readers have been inspired by it to send in more tips, so that tonight there are more than fifty articles here. I can’t create headline links for all of them; otherwise the top part of the post would be too long, So, if you want to read all the news that’s fit to post, click “read further” and keep scrolling [more...]

Date: 2008-08-27 22:17:59

DrumBeat: October 11, 2008

GPS could save airlines billions in fuel costs CHICAGO - A World War II-era air traffic network that often forces planes to take longer, ... expensive — still makes sense because the cost of driving is almost as bad and driving takes longer ... crisis is not just some kind of bad dream, but the new reality. With globalization, it is clear [more...]

Date: 2008-10-11 13:14:59

Bush Fulfills His Grandfather's Dream

By David Swanson (Originally published in July 2007, and to be published every summer until the right to do so is gone.) It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project. This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft [more...]

Date: 2008-06-27 16:11:00

What's It Going to Take to Lock Up Drug Company Execs?

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals the shocking extent of how corrupt drug companies are. "Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through." - Jonathan Swift After reading "The Neurontin Legacy -- Marketing through Misinformation and Manipulation" in the January 8, [more...]

Date: 2009-01-16 23:59:01

The Bailout of Abominations

By Robert Higgs of The Independent Institute: As a rule,we may assume that any statute containing the word “emergency” in its title, preamble, or statement of purposes is a bad law. If you want an apt example, consider the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which the president signed into law on Friday, October 3, 2008, [more...]

Date: 2008-10-07 18:10:36

Flashback: Bank of America launches credit card for illegal immigrants - USATODAY.com

Any wonder Bank Of America is now Belly Up? Well, it's bankrupt just like the mortgage industry thanks to their ignorant and greedy anti American policy instituted to "aid undocumented workers in building their credit"! This latest of bailouts ... that liberals lauded as a great thing you'll remember I'm sure:Bank of America launches credit card [more...]

Date: 2009-01-17 06:06:00

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/2/2009

In tonight’s news: Israel is poised to send ground troops into Gaza.A Muslim family was removed from a plane before takeoff, and is being compensated by the airline for the error. CAIR is in high dudgeon about the incident.Thousands of shoes were dumped on a Miami expressway — is that a message for President-eject Bush? [more...]

Date: 2009-01-03 04:42:00

USA Today Shifts Corruption Focus from Illinois - to North Dakota?

You can just see the scene from the Wizard of Oz, where the wizard says ‘Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.' When it comes to diverting attention from a scandal plagued home state, don't worry Senator Obama, USA Today has your back. In a bizarre demonstration of spinning numbers with the sole purpose of getting people to look away [more...]

Date: 2008-12-12 05:25:22

Tax Preparation Tips

by William Blake When it comes time to prepare annual income taxes, many people have to sort through piles of disorganized receipts and try to make sense of them. Regardless of whether you will be doing your taxes yourself or you hire someone else to do them, getting things in order ahead of time will make the entire process easier [more...]

Date: 2009-01-17 12:56:28

Stampede, *Exclusive* by Judah Benjamin

NOTE: This is a companion post to the most recent one by TD, Hawaii Does NOT Verify “Smears” COLB (Now GOTV). They should be read together. By Judah Benjamin I agree wholeheartedly with everything TD said in her last post. I particularly agree that it is time to get out there and work to ensure a McCain-Palin victory [more...]

Date: 2008-11-01 19:21:51

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/16/2008

A woman will lead Muslim prayers in Oxford. The EU bans incandescent bulbs. The FBI launches an investigation of ACORN.But the story about the subduing of the drunken hijacker on an airliner bound from Turkey to St. Petersburg is my favorite, because of this quote:“Surprisingly this hooligan was not British,” said an official at Pulkovo [more...]

Date: 2008-10-17 03:55:00

That Other Failed War

By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonopost.com Thursday, October 9, 2008; 12:37 PM With less than four months left in their tenure, White House aides are scrambling to come up with some sort of winning strategy for Afghanistan, the long-eclipsed war that’s looking increasingly like another major debacle for President Bush’s legacy [more...]

Date: 2008-10-10 18:35:17

22 September SWJ Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY Gates is allergic to most forms of publicity. He hates the Sunday talk shows, which he regards as Washington insiders talking to each other. He hates town hall meetings, which aides say he views as stagecraft. He hates schmoozing with members of Congress (many of whose pork-barrel projects Gates would like to cut) [more...]

Date: 2008-09-22 10:09:02

To p2pnet — ‘You’ll be sorry!’

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P: “You a fucking washed out loser. You can not make a living in any other way except by running a site which says it is a new site that which is nothing but you shooting your mouth off.” That’s part of several emails I found waiting for me following yesterday’s Trolls? Not. But flames? OK (mostly) [more...]

Date: 2008-11-23 15:27:24

Roman Polanski is Not a Victim

Enough already. The Global Committee to Defend Roman Polanski is shocked and appalled by the arrest of their talented friend in Switzerland over the weekend. This quote from our colleague Bruce Crumley's report from France provides a flavor of the outrage: "To see him thrown to the lions and put in prison because of ancient history [more...]

Date: 2009-09-28 21:33:59

Green Ink: OPEC?s Divided, and Wal Mart Gets Greener

December crude oil contracts plunged below $69 as the specter of collapsing demand weighs on markets, Bloomberg reports ... to materialize, in the WaPo. In comparison, alternative-fuel car markers like Tesla aren’t in such bad shape, notes Earth2Tech, though Tesla is also waiting on Washington for much-needed money. Tom [more...]

Date: 2008-10-22 16:07:00

Sellers Aren’t Getting What They Want

Leesburg Today reports from Virginia. “Long lines. Price wars. The decision became easy. She and her fiance finally bought the one townhouse they won on price. Fueled by a lot of emotion, the couple wanted what many others continue to seek today, a place to call home after their wedding. It didn’t turn out to be the fairytale they imagined [more...]

Date: 2008-09-19 13:59:47

The Group of Twenty & the Evolution of Global Governance

By Joan Veon News With Views | In 1994 when I covered my first global meeting, there was a press briefing by the Commission on Global Governance on their forthcoming report, Our Global Neighborhood . The man giving the briefing was one of the co-chairs, Sir Shridath Ramphal who was not only president of Guyana but also president of the (British) Commonwealth Association. [more...]

Date: 2009-09-30 09:51:54

Torture ambivalence masquerading as moral and intellectual superiority

(updated below - Update II) Behold the now-solidified Smart, Reasonable American Consensus on torture:  the agreed-upon method for dismissing away -- mitigating and even justifying -- the fact that our leaders, more or less out in the open, instituted a systematic torture regime with the consent of our key elite institutions and a huge bulk of [more...]

Date: 2009-01-02 09:30:11

Obama likely to retool Bush’s faith-based initiative

President-elect Obama has promised to build on the faith-based initiative of President Bush and, by adding key reforms, ... of a Brookings Institution report that recommends “a new path” for the endeavor. Tackling the church-state ... -neighborhood partnership. The broad outreach “is a matter of great credit to Obama ,” says Stanley Carlson [more...]

Date: 2009-01-04 19:25:19

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/5/2008

USABailout Bill Loops in Green Tech, IRS SnoopingCrowds Again Gather to Pray Before Image in WindowElection Precinct in Islamic Center That Hosted Extremist’s VisitMilitant Obama Youth March to ‘Alpha, Omega’ ChantN.Y. Times Whitewashes Obama-Ayers ConnectionRacism Without Racists Europe and the EUExtradition Bid Raises Fears of ‘Thought Crime’ [more...]

Date: 2008-10-06 00:49:00

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/14/2008

A significant news story this evening: after a year, the murder of those teenage girls in Texas has officially been termed an “honor killing” by the FBI. Needless to say, the Muslim lobby is not happy about this.Also, a Swiss government minister says her country needs to import more foreign workers.Thanks to Abu Elvis, C [more...]

Date: 2008-10-15 03:29:00

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