Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[jeffmoskin]

Ahh, the budget shortfalls. We have 'em too here in Soggy Cah-Lee FAWN- yah, as the Governator would say it.

But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why. Anybody who can do simple arithmetic can get it. We spend more money than we take in. And why is that? Because either we waste money of worthless "government programs" or we don't tax enough.

Now, I'm sure there are plenty of "government programs that benefit only some special group that lobbied (bribed someone) for it. But, for the most part, food stamps, emergency relief, wage supplements, health clinics, libraries, schools...

These are the things I am willing to pay for because they are all a part of the Society I am proud to live in.

I hate seeing homeless people living in the alleys.

I don't feel good when I see them. I makes me feel like we have major flaws in our society if homelessness can be permitted.

A lot of rich people don't like to pay taxes. Well, it's their money, isn't it? They made it with their own hard work, right?

Wrong. Even if you are a lumberjack, and you cut all your trees by yourself, the roads you will use to cart it away, the economic system you will sell them into, the money and banking system you will use to transform your work into food, clothing, and fuel for the winter -- these were provided to you by the America that was built by our forefathers. Call it the infrastructure. And we need to keep it going for the future Americans.

Besides, my favorite punching bag, Michael Eisner, is not a lumberjack al all. He makes his 600 million a year by not being very good at sharing the profits of his successful company with the workers who actually did do the "lumberjacking." Simple as that. I wonder if he shared his toys when he was a child. Probably not. Most things we need to know in life we learned in Kindergarten. I think someone wrote a book by that title.

So we need more taxes. The rich say, "but it's my money. I made it." The poor are already working three sh*tty jobs, both the mother and the father. They don't say anything --they're too tired. They tuck the kids in, and collapse.

This is the 21st Century folks. We can do better.

We must do better.

[Abu Beacon]

Besides, my favorite punching bag, Michael Eisner, is not a lumberjack al all. He makes his 600 million a year by not being very good at sharing the profits of his successful company with the workers who actually did do the "lumberjacking." Simple as that. I wonder if he shared his toys when he was a child. Probably not. Most  things we need to know in life we learned in Kindergarten. I think someone wrote a book by that title.

This is the 21st Century folks. We can do better.

We must do better.

I bought some Disney stock in 1971, ( long before Eisner ), sold it in 2003. And, yes, I did have some capital gains. Owning almost any company's stock for 32 years ought to produce some gain. I did learn a few things about Disney.

The one thing I found out after Michael Eisner became C. E. O. was that he never worried much about about the stock holder's money.

Big bonuses for the directors. That was a good thing.

Hire someone, found out you really didn't like him. Fire him with a huge payoff of stock holder's money. That was a good thing.

All sorts of favorable stock options for the inner circle. Another good thing.

We are talking really big bucks here.

I can't say the company was not a successful enterprise, but it paid miserable dividends. I kept it because for a long time it was a good growth company.

How about the following for being share holder friendly?

When you called the office in California for share holder service, there was always a fairly long wait ( like many companies ) to get to a live person.

What was bad about that --- they would not put in an 800 number.

Call at your own expense.

How many companies the size of Disney do that?


A.B.

[Abu Beacon]

And here, Mr. A.B., I have to say that the one "quality" that both you and jeffmoskin bring to this picnic, is your "outlook" on life, and politics, and history!

Just wanted to let you know that I started a new thread this morning.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Vs. George Bush

Hope you can stop by when you have a moment.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

Just wanted to let you know that I started a new thread this morning.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Vs. George Bush

Hope you can stop by when you have a moment.

A.B.

Now there is an idea whose time has come, folks!

And yes, Mr. A.B., I would be glad to stop by there!

[Livyjr]

"The Real Deal: 9-11 Profiteering"

Monday, 22 March 2004, 4:52 pm

Column: http://www.UnansweredQuestions.org 

originally published by Global Research at www.globalresearch.ca **

22 March 2004 **

The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FIT403A.html

Distribution via the Unanswered Questions Wire

Sign up for the wire at:
http://www.unansweredquestions.org/headlines.php

Unanswered Questions : Thinking for ourselves.

"9-11 Profiteering - A Framework for Building the 'Cui Bono?'"

UnAnswered Questions By Catherine Austin Fitts

Something does not add up.

Someone has something to hide.

"Cui Bono?"

"Cui Bono?" is Latin for "who benefits?"

Is there a connection between the rich flow of profit and market manipulations flowing from 9-11 and the stonewalling by the Administration and the agency members of the National Security Council?

US Stock Market Pump & Dump Fraud

At the time of 9-11, federal and state enforcement leaders were facing a mountain of documentation that up to $6 trillion had been fraudulently skimmed out of pension funds and retail stock holdings through insider trading and other forms of corporate and banking financial fraud and securities law violations.

The events of 9-11 are alleged to have destroyed significant amounts of documentation related to investigations against Wall Street firms and leading New York Federal Reserve members.

Subsequent to 9-11, enforcement bureaucracies attention shifted in response to the Patriot Act and a shift in budgetary resources away from policing white collar crime by corporate and banking leadership.

Useful Links:

Le Metropole Cafe
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com

Sanders Research Associates
http://www.sandersresearch.com

Scoop Media
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason

From the Wilderness
http:///www.fromthewilderness.com

No More Fake News
http://www.nomorefakenews.com

Tom Flocco
http://www.tomflocco.com

I myself have been "following the money" for quite some time now, as that is a part of my profession, or what my profession was, anyway, and as a direct consequence of that activity on my part, I became aware, independently, at the time of 9-11, that federal and state enforcement leaders were facing a mountain of documentation that up to $6 trillion had been fraudulently skimmed out of pension funds and retail stock holdings through insider trading and other forms of corporate and banking financial fraud and securities law violations.

In fact myself, and several other "old timers" were tracking the progress of these investigations, including Enron, when BANG!

The World Trade Center is now gone!

And with it, all that evidence!

THEN .......

Then the "powers that be", and here I remember a kind of joint thing, but my recollection is the New York State Attorney General took the lead, after 9-11, of basically just abandoning all those investigations, on some kind of specious, or what sounded specious grounds to me of a shift in resources in the interests of national security, and besides, we are all on the same side now, so, it would not look good to be prosecuting American business at a time when we were allegedly threatened from abroad!

No prosecution in the interests of national security!

And so, that alleged theft was in essence condoned, and blessed by OUR own government, and those who allegedly pulled it off got away with it!

Here's how I recall the press conference on that subject of dropping the investigation after 9-11:

GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Okay, okay, right, right, yeah, look, okay, we did tell you that we were conducting an investigation into up to $6 trillion that had been fraudulently skimmed out of pension funds and retail stock holdings through insider trading and other forms of corporate and banking financial fraud and securities law violations, and yes, at the time, that was true, and yes, we were facing a mountain of evidence, but you have to understand, that after 9-11 there has been a paradigm shift, and now, because of threats from abroad taking precedence, we have had to shift our assets away from corporate theft and fraud and over to national security, and so, while we view this corporate fraud as serious, you must understand that these new threats from abroad take precedence, and so, we have had to shift our assets away from corporate fraud, which is not to say that we feel corporate fraud is any less important than it was yesterday, but in the post-9/11 environment, you must understand that we have had to shift our assets over to national security ....... yada, yada, yada!

end quotes

EXCEPT .....

No, sorry, I don't understand!

Looks like a cover-up to me!

Big time!

Stinks to high heaven, in fact!

[Livyjr]

Now there is an idea whose time has come, folks!

And yes, Mr. A.B., I would be glad to stop by there!

And here I am just coming back from Mr. A.B.'s newest thread, comparing Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George Walker Bush!

It is over in original essays.

To get there, click on my screen name, or Mr. A.B.'s, which, of course, is abu beacon, and then click on member's posts, and scroll down until you find that thread topic, and then click on post number, and there you will be.

And if you have opinions on FDR, or George W. Bush now comparing himself to FDR, which I personally think is high farce, then leave a comment behind.

Or maybe you will see George W. Bush as the greater man, which is certainly your privilege, here in OUR America, and so, you should state that, to balance the record, if it needs balancing!

We are all in here to learn and grow, after all, and what better way to grow as citizens but with good and sound information on which to form our political judgments, here in OUR America!

[Livyjr]

Ahh, the budget shortfalls.

We have 'em too here in Soggy Cah-Lee FAWN- yah, as the Governator would say it.

But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why.

Anybody who can do simple arithmetic can get it.

We spend more money than we take in.

And it is not really so much the budget shortfall, as it is the incompetence and lack of integrity of the executive in letting this state of affairs come to pass!

It is a question of what we tolerate in our executives, and a question of why we should keep an incompetent like George Pataki on!

We need a right to recall, and vote of no confidence up here in the corrupt Empire State as tools of OUR democracy!

[Livyjr]

It is interesting that yesterday afternoon, just before I caught the original story on this Choicepoint "data sale" of information ON US, and about us, to the criminals with whom it does business, a friend told me about a doctor who she works for who had ten thousand dollars lifted in the last couple of days from his bank savings account by someone who had gotten access to his social security number.

Right after she told me that, I came across that Choicepoint story, and it sure did make me wonder!

This particular doctor is down in Florida, on vacation, and so, he had quite a chore before him yesterday, apparently, trying to stem his own losses by long-distance telephone calls to people up here for aid and assistance.

And who would ever expect such a thing could even happen, although in reality, in this day and age, it is getting to be the norm, more than the exception, it seems, to have your identity stolen from you, for ill purposes.

And when I read stories like this one, and especially that side of it that jeffmoskin has provided us with, it makes me wonder about our own "humanity", and how it is viewed by large corporate entities such as this one, that makes its money by stripping us of OUR privacy, and by then selling access to OUR privacy to whomever has the money to buy that access.

And George W. Bush wants to increase that access to OUR privacy, NOT PROTECT IT!

That is how his fat-cat buddies make their "geetus", after all, and if George W. Bush is for anyone at all, outside of himself, and his wallet, it is his fat-cat buddies, AND THEIR WALLETS!

That is who and what feeds his wallet after all, and this present incumbent IS FOR THE MONEY, so, OUR privacy must be stripped from us to keep the commerce rolling along.

Which would seem to reduce us somewhat to the level of cows out there on a feedlot in Kansas or Nebraska, somewhere - a herd kept around for investment purposes only!

Life in OUR America, in these days of the Bush Co.!

Mooooooo!

And here is an update on that Choicepoint story that we have been following in here:

Spam, Scams & Viruses

"ChoicePoint theft prompts Senate probe - Hearings to look at broader issue of data brokers"

At a Capitol Hill news conference Thursday, Sen. Charles Schumer points to posters displaying personal information on Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston obtained from another data broker, Westlaw's Internet-based "People-Find."

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:22 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2005

WASHINGTON - A Senate committee will hold hearings on identity theft and information brokers following the revelation that a databank with information on millions of people was accessed by criminals, the committee chairman said Thursday.

Democrats, including Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York, have been calling for a Judiciary Committee inquiry into whether more regulation of companies such as ChoicePoint Inc. that buy and sell personal data is needed.

"I got a letter from Senator Leahy yesterday on identity theft issue and I immediately said we can hold a hearing," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Specter did not give a schedule for the hearings.

Formed in 1997 as a spinoff of credit reporting agency Equifax Inc., ChoicePoint has 19 billion public records in its database at its suburban Atlanta headquarters, including motor vehicle registrations, license and deed transfers, military records, names, addresses and Social Security numbers.

It revealed last week that thieves apparently used previously stolen identities to open ChoicePoint accounts and received volumes of data on consumers, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit reports.

Choicepoint says 144,778 people may have been affected by the breach, while California authorities estimate up to 500,000.

The ring operated for more than a year before it was detected and used the information to defraud at least 750 people, investigators said.

Feinstein says the ChoicePoint thefts prove that there needs to be federal regulation of information brokers, and that Americans need to have more control over their personal data.

"The ChoicePoint situation is perhaps the biggest indication of the vulnerability and lack of protection of individuals' personal data," she said.

She has introduced a bill that would expand nationwide a California consumer protection law that requires companies to tell people if there is a breach in their data systems.

She also wants information brokers to be forced to ask permission from people to sell their most sensitive personal information.

Schumer, too, plans legislation that would create federal rules setting conditions under which companies can provide or sell access to private information.

[Livyjr]

Now, I'm sure there are plenty of "government programs that benefit only some special group that lobbied (bribed someone) for it.

But, for the most part, food stamps, emergency relief, wage supplements, health clinics, libraries, schools...

These are the things I am willing to pay for because they are all a part of the Society I am proud to live in.

And while you have that admirable sentiment, jeffmoskin, by the looks of things, we are becoming a third-world nation, here in OUR America, except for George W. Bush and his, of course:

"Report says care will get costlier - More workers expected to lose health coverage as spending spirals"

By TONY PUGH, Knight-Ridder
First published: Thursday, February 24, 2005

WASHINGTON -- U.S. health care spending will outpace overall inflation and wage growth over the next 10 years, making medical care harder for the government, employers, workers and uninsured Americans to afford.

The increases apply to federal spending and to private spending on health insurance premiums, the latter of which will grow faster than disposable income in each year through 2014, according to new projections released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Although the long-term national health spending growth rate will slow a bit compared with recent years, more low-income workers are likely to forgo job-based health care because it's too expensive, several analysts said.

The new figures show the government picking up nearly half of total health care spending by 2014.

(The federal share has been rising for decades, according to The Associated Press. In 1965, the government was covering roughly 25 percent of health costs and private parties 75 percent, according to the report. Last year the government paid 45.6 percent of an estimated $1.8 trillion in medical bills.)

The new figures also suggest that Medicare and Medicaid are far more immediate cost concerns for federal policymakers than Social Security.

"It is absolutely clear that as costs increase, more low-wage people will become uninsured," said David Cutler, an economics professor at Harvard University and an expert on health care finance.

"This is going to lead to continued erosion of health insurance coverage," said economist Paul Ginsburg, president of The Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan health care research group in Washington.

Rather than pay rising insurance premiums, he said, "low-income workers would just as soon have the money because they can't afford to spend so much of their income on health care."

The annual Medicare-Medicaid report found that public and private spending for health care will total $3.6 trillion by 2014 -- about $11,045 per person -- and eat up a record 19 percent of gross domestic product.

That's up from a projected $1.9 trillion in 2005 that will likely account for 15.4 percent of annual GDP and average $6,423 per person.

The government will fund 49 percent of all health spending in the United States by 2014 -- a record share -- due largely to the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Such a situation, barring enormous tax increases, would crowd out virtually all other spending except for the military and interest on the national debt, federal officials said.

The pinch of rising health care costs, along with recent federal tax cuts and the growing national budget deficit, shows up indirectly in President Bush's proposed 2006 domestic spending cuts for transportation, education, community development and natural resources.

The number of uninsured Americans jumped by 5 million to 45 million during Bush's first term, due mainly to a sour economy and cuts in the Medicaid program.

Bush hopes to offset growth in the uninsured population by expanding Medicaid coverage, said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Bill Pierce.

That can be done at no extra cost if states are given the flexibility to change or offer less-generous Medicaid benefits without federal approval, Pierce said.

Congress has yet to give Bush that authority.

Bush also would provide poor families with annual tax credits of $1,000 to help purchase private health care.

That falls so far short from the actual cost of family coverage -- about $10,000 a year -- that few poor families are likely to take Bush up on it, said Ginsburg.

Enrollment in employer-sponsored health plans also declined by nearly 1 percent in 2001, 2002 and 2003, the most current data available.

That reflects health care costs that have outpaced wage growth.

While employer-sponsored plans are projected to cover more people in the next decade, the percentage of Americans covered under those plans will continue to fall, said Stephen Heffler, the study's lead author and director of the National Health Statistics Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Other key findings:

Medicare spending will jump from $332 billion in 2005 to $425 billion in 2006 when the new prescription-drug benefit begins.

Discounts negotiated by insurers are expected to average about 15 percent in the first year and to peak at 25 percent in 2011.

Total prescription drug spending will grow 11.6 percent in 2006 to $249 billion.

Medicaid spending in 2004 -- which hasn't yet been calculated -- is projected to increase to $290 billion from $269 billion in 2003.

By 2014, Medicaid spending is expected to hit $618 billion.

[jeffmoskin]

I myself have been "following the money" for quite some time now, as that is a part of my profession, or what my profession was, anyway, and as a direct consequence of that activity on my part, I became aware, independently, at the time of 9-11, that federal and state enforcement leaders were facing a mountain of documentation that up to $6 trillion had been fraudulently skimmed out of pension funds and retail stock holdings through insider trading and other forms of corporate and banking financial fraud and securities law violations.

In fact myself, and several other "old timers" were tracking the progress of these investigations, including Enron, when BANG!

The World Trade Center is now gone!

And with it, all that evidence!

But don't financial institutions maintain "backup records" at another site in case their primary is wiped out? I would think that the information is NOT LOST. Maybe nobody wants to talk about it, and Eliot Spitzer seems to be on a "Crusade" of his own these days, so maybe he's too busy to trifle with a measily 6 trillion dollars.

[Livyjr]

But don't financial institutions maintain "backup records" at another site in case their primary is wiped out?

I would think that the information is NOT LOST.

Maybe nobody wants to talk about it, and Eliot Spitzer seems to be on a "Crusade" of his own these days, so maybe he's too busy to trifle with a measily 6 trillion dollars.

An interesting question, jeffmoskin.

First though, the "information" that was lost was not the records of the companies, it was the records, the "evidence" to support indictments of these corporations, or corporate people, that the investigators themselves had amassed, in the World Trade Center, that were lost.

The Office of the New York State Attorney General conducting the investigation was in the World trade Center, and that office, along with all of its records, allegedly, anyway, was destroyed.

Now, this immediately raised the issue of back-up records, and that is where the hemming and hawing began!

The Attorney General could have re-created those records, BUT APPARENTLY DID NOT BOTHER!

And because of 9-11, no one gave it any more thought, just like with EnRon!

As far as I have been able to determine, and I have been hunting, thanks to 9-11, the perps got away scot-free!

GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Okay, okay, look, yes, we were facing a mountain of evidence of corporate fraud here, and yes, we were about to seek a number of indictments against all of these American corporate executives, BUT, YOU SEE, some very nasty foreign terrorists came along, and they, through their terrorist actions, well, they just destroyed all of this evidence, and so, that cannot be blamed on the corporations accused of fraud, of course, that we no longer have any evidence on which to indict them, and so, in the interests of national security, and for the sake of national unity and harmony and solidarity, we should all be working together here in America to combat and defeat this foreign terrorist menace, and so, in a pledge of solidarity with our American corporate brothers ....... yada, yada, yada, yada!"

Now, cui bono?

[Livyjr]

.... Eliot Spitzer seems to be on a "Crusade" of his own these days, so maybe he's too busy to trifle with a measily 6 trillion dollars.

And here, you are right, jeffmoskin!

Eliot Spitzer is on a "Crusade" of his own, to line his pockets with as much of the bounty of the tri-partite god "GEETUS, MOOLAH, and MAMMON", as he can, so that he can be Governor of the corrupt Empire State of New York, and really be tapped into the graft.

Talk about a hypocrite, our Eliot is one.

And he is raking in the big bucks, at last counting!

Which brings me to this next story, which is right along these same lines, of "law enforcement" types, specifically District Attorneys and Attorney Generals, and how they "balance" their "bid-ness interests", while in office.

"Former prosecutor sues DeAngelis, aide - Lawyer claims she raised ethics issues in DA's office and then was fired"

By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, February 25, 2005

TROY -- A former county prosecutor is suing Rensselaer County District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis and her chief assistant, Joel Abelove, claiming she was summarily fired in November and then blacklisted in the legal community when she repeatedly pointed out unethical office practices and procedures.

Jennifer Sober, 33, of Albany, says she was let go without cause on Nov. 22 and then forcibly escorted from the Rensselaer County Courthouse.

She is suing for loss of income and damage to her reputation in the notice of claim filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Troy.

Her legal practice currently is limited to part-time assigned counsel cases.

Other claims in her suit include breach of contract, wrongful discharge, slander and defamation of character.

Sober and DeAngelis, 36, were once friends and workmates in the Albany County district attorney's office.

DeAngelis left the Albany office first and, after becoming Rensselaer County district attorney in 2003, offered Sober a job as DWI Unit bureau chief midway into the next year.

The county bureau chief at the time was let go to make room for Sober, a number of former assistants in DeAngelis' office confirmed.

Neither DeAngelis nor Rensselaer County Attorney Bob Smith would comment for this story.

Sober was unfairly targeted and summarily booted with no regard for county employment practices, her attorney, Cheryl Coleman, said.

"Because of Jen's expertise and friendship with the DA, she was brought in and asked to be a confidante and adviser," Coleman said.

"However, when part of that advice involved requesting the DA to re-examine the ethics of certain prosecutions and certain employee situations, she was cast out."

Coleman said one situation, involving an employee who is not a lawyer, "transcended ethics, was just plain illegal, and possibly criminal."

Coleman would not comment on any specifics in the complaint.

But she said she also spoke with a number of DeAngelis' former assistants who had been fired by DeAngelis and heard similar stories of office abuses from all of them.

"A lot of people out there are congratulating Jen for having the courage to come forward," Coleman said.

"The answer to the question, 'Are there ethical questions in Rensselaer County?' is, 'Does a bear go in the woods?'"

Sober was well-respected in Albany County, Coleman added:

"How is it possible that someone can work in one DA's office for years without incident and all of a sudden she goes over there and can't last five months?"

DeAngelis, a nine-year prosecutor, has been in the news lately after the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court overturned several of her cases for prosecutorial misconduct.

In one instance, justices declared that DeAngelis "repeatedly strayed beyond the bounds of permissible conduct," in her prosecution.

She had one victory, however, last week, where a county judge upheld the conviction of convicted sex offender Jack Carroll.

Abelove, as well, was slapped by justices in recent weeks for an improper cross-examination of a defendant in a rape case in 2002.

A new trial for Troy resident Christopher Allen, now 20, is pending.

DeAngelis has been criticized for a too-tough approach, including in the case of Jon Romano, 17, a youth with emotional issues who received 20 years in state prison after a Columbia High School shooting last year.

She has been criticized for her emotional courtroom behavior that some say crosses the line of professionalism.

She and Abelove also drew fire in their controversial 2003 co-prosecution of Christine Wilhelm, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic from Hoosick Falls who drowned one son and tried to drown the other in 2002.

An appeal in that case is about to be filed, claiming testimony from social services case workers was not only manufactured, but wrongly admitted at trial.

The Hoosick Falls woman is serving 48 years to life in state prison after she was convicted.

DeAngelis rose to power in 2003 when the $85,000 position of deputy district attorney was created for her as a way, some said, of bypassing First Assistant Mark Loughran should the top spot come open.

Less than two months later, then-District Attorney Ken Bruno abruptly stepped down to take a lobbying post, saying he wanted to "expand his horizons."

The timing of the move raised questions.

Loughran, an Army reservist who was on military leave at the time, is also suing the county.

[jeffmoskin]

First though, the "information" that was lost was not the records of the companies, it was the records, the "evidence" to support indictments of these corporations, or corporate people, that the investigators themselves had amassed, in the World Trade Center, that were lost.

If the "source" information still exists, all the "evidence" can be re-created. Methinks what was lost was the desire to do so.

[Livyjr]

If the "source" information still exists, all the "evidence" can be re-created.

Methinks what was lost was the desire to do so.

And methinks you are right dead on the money, here, jeffmoskin, with your analysis!

And it stinks to high heaven!

GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Okay, okay, right, right, right, look, yes, we did have a mountain of evidence against these corporate boys, yes, we did, but you have to understand, that evidence is now gone, and it was not our fault, and it was surely not the fault of these corporate boys, NO, it was the fault of the foreign terrorists, who are trying to take our way of life away from us, and you have to understand, that while we would like to continue this prosecution of these corporate boys for alleged fraud, and looting, you have to understand that this terrorist attack on American soil has shifted the paradigm, so that investigating domestic corporate corruption, regardless of the sums involved, is now less important than protecting our American way of life against these foreign terrorists, and with our American way of life under attack by these foreign terrorists, it is important to show them, and the world who is against us too, that we are all unified in this great nation of ours, and therefore, to prosecute these corporate boys for a host of alleged crimes against the American people would be bad for that image of unity and solidarity that we want to project to these foreign terrorists and the world and so .....yada, yada, yada, yada!"

end quotes

SO?

Who ended up with the money?

Cui bono?

This post has been edited by Livyjr: Feb 25 2005, 04:04 PM

[Livyjr]

Cui bono?

Who benefits?

Well, not us!

And not OUR troops over there in Iraq, either, from the sounds of things, anyway:

International News

U.S. soldiers inspect vehicles Friday at a checkpoint on the road linking Mosul, Iraq, and Syria. Troops launched a large scale operation in Mosul after two soldiers were killed by insurgents.

"3 U.S. soldiers killed, 9 hurt in Iraq blast - Iraq says forces capture top aide to Zarqawi"

Te Associated Press
Updated: 3:04 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2005

TARMIYAH, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded nine north of Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said, while the Iraqi government announced the capture of three figures associated with Iraq’s bloody insurgency.

In political developments, United Iraqi Alliance candidate Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has endorsed his nomination for prime minister.

The attack, which occurred around midday in Tarmiyah, about 20 miles north of the capital, raised the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to at least 1,489, according to an Associated Press count since the war began in March 2003.

On Thursday, the military said three U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks.

“There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them,” said Waleed Nahed, who lives in the area.

“I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying.”

The road was immediately blocked off by the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces, and helicopters took the injured away, according to Nahed and Alaa Nagy, who works at a nearby factory.

Both said they heard gunfire after the incident.

Suspected insurgents held

In Baghdad, the government said one of the three men arrested was Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, a key aide to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Al-Zarqawi leads an insurgency affiliated with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

Abu Qutaybah, who was captured during a Feb. 20 raid in Anah, about 160 miles northwest of Baghdad, “was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with al-Zarqawi,” the government said.

He “filled the role of key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network, arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to al-Zarqawi,” the government said.

“His extensive contacts and operational ability throughout western Iraq made him a critical figure in the Zarqawi network.”

Al-Zarqawi has a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head and is believed to have orchestrated a wave of car bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and beheadings across the country.

Violence on Thursday in Iraq left 30 people dead, including three American soldiers.

During the same raid, Iraqi forces also captured another al-Zarqawi aide who “occasionally acted as his driver,” the government said.

The man was identified as Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, who also helped arrange meetings for al-Zarqawi.

Their names belong to well-known Sunni tribes in and around the town of Ramadi, a hotbed of the insurgency in Anbar province west of Baghdad.

The government also said it apprehended the leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated cell allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings.

Mohamed Najam Ibrahim was arrested in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the government said Thursday, but it gave no date for the arrest.

Officials said Ibrahim’s operation was linked to al-Zarqawi.

Ibrahim carried out beheadings with his brother, the government said, adding that he was being interrogated by authorities.

Maneuvering for positions

In a significant political development, the endorsement of al-Jaafari came after members of the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance openly questioned its decision Tuesday to nominate the 58-year-old leader of the conservative Islamic Dawa Party as its candidate for prime minister following the nation’s landmark Jan. 30 elections.

“Ayatollah al-Sistani blessed the decision taken by the alliance about the prime minister post."

"He respects and supports what the alliance have decided,” al-Jaafari said after meeting with al-Sistani for more than two hours in the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Politicians are negotiating behind the scenes to forge the alliances needed to win enough backing in the 275-seat National Assembly for the post of prime minister.

Politicians of all stripes sought out representatives of Iraq’s Sunni minority, whose support they need to isolate the insurgency.

Many insurgents are believed to be loyalists of Saddam’s outlawed Sunni-dominated Baath Party.

The United Iraqi Alliance claimed Thursday it won the support of eight members of three tiny parties, boosting its parliamentary strength to 148 seats.

Alliance member Salama Khafaji said the groups were the Iraqi Turkoman Front, the National Independent Elites and the Islamic Labor Movement in Iraq.

But a splinter group believed to represent about 30 seats in the alliance, and which once supported one-time Bush administration favorite Ahmad Chalabi, renewed threats to withdraw its support.

Although they issued no demands, it was unclear what Chalabi — who withdrew from the race — had promised them for their support.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite who has about 40 seats, tried to take advantage of the rift by trying to open talks with the Shiite splinter group just one day after announcing he would form a broad coalition to try to keep his post.

To make any headway, Allawi must also win support from a Kurdish coalition controlling 75 of the assembly’s 275 seats.

The Kurds have indicated they will support al-Jaafari and the alliance if they meet key demands, including giving the presidency to one of their leaders — Jalal Talabani.

[Livyjr]

Today was a beautiful day where I am, with a beautiful cobalt-blue sky, and luckily for me, I got to be outside today, so that I could enjoy that sky!

And as I was puttering around out there, a thought came to me that the George W. Bush presidency is like a parody of the Mel Brook's movie, "Blazing Saddles", which itself was a parody of American western movies!

SO!

A parody of a parody, and when I read news articles like this one directly above, that point comes hammering home, where Ahmad Chalabi, the former Bush Co. "REJECT", is now in the running to be Iraq's prime minister, and the hand-picked Bush Co. puppet Allawi appears to be on his way out the door!

What a turn of events, and how typical of a Bush Co. production!

BUT ......

Cui bono?

Who benefits?

Well, not us!

And not OUR troops over there in Iraq, either, from the sounds of things, anyway:

International News

U.S. soldiers inspect vehicles Friday at a checkpoint on the road linking Mosul, Iraq, and Syria. Troops launched a large scale operation in Mosul after two soldiers were killed by insurgents. 

"3 U.S. soldiers killed, 9 hurt in Iraq blast - Iraq says forces capture top aide to Zarqawi"

Te Associated Press
Updated: 3:04 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2005

TARMIYAH, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded nine north of Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said, while the Iraqi government announced the capture of three figures associated with Iraq’s bloody insurgency.

In political developments, United Iraqi Alliance candidate Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has endorsed his nomination for prime minister.

Politicians are negotiating behind the scenes to forge the alliances needed to win enough backing in the 275-seat National Assembly for the post of prime minister.

But a splinter group believed to represent about 30 seats in the alliance, and which once supported one-time Bush administration favorite Ahmad Chalabi, renewed threats to withdraw its support.

Although they issued no demands, it was unclear what Chalabi — who withdrew from the race — had promised them for their support.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite who has about 40 seats, tried to take advantage of the rift by trying to open talks with the Shiite splinter group just one day after announcing he would form a broad coalition to try to keep his post.

To make any headway, Allawi must also win support from a Kurdish coalition controlling 75 of the assembly’s 275 seats.

The Kurds have indicated they will support al-Jaafari and the alliance if they meet key demands, including giving the presidency to one of their leaders — Jalal Talabani.

And so, both of the Bush Co. "picks of the week" for "PUPPET RULER" of the client state of Iraq are now scrambling, and Allawi, especially, since right now, he is the big man around town, with all kinds of power, and especially "protection", and soon, he just might be a man on the street, with nothing but the shirt on his back, and no more United States Marine Divisions for him to hide behind, as he punishes and eliminates his political opposition over there in Iraq, which George W. Bush likes to "brag on" as being a democracy in HIS mold of what a democracy should really look like down here on the face of OUR earth.

And then the Allawi PUPPET is really going to have to scramble, because his enemies will come out of the woodwork, where he has them holed up now with his use of OUR military as his own private mercenary army with which to punish his political enemies, who will come for the Allawi PUPPET the minute OUR military is no longer there to do his bidding!

SO!

The Allawi PUPPET has a lot to lose here, and as he gets more desperate, yet still retains operational control over OUR military forces, it will be interesting to see just what kind of "crack-downs" the Allawi PUPPET unleashes on his political enemies, which now just may well include the Kurds!

In any event, things are certainly far from over, over there in what George W. Bush likes to tell all the candid world is the "World's newest democracy", thanks to him, and so, we shall be continuing to keep a close eye on things, as they continue to develop in George W. Bush's client state of Iraq!

[Livyjr]

SO!

The Allawi PUPPET has a lot to lose here, and as he gets more desperate, yet still retains operational control over OUR military forces, it will be interesting to see just what kind of "crack-downs" the Allawi PUPPET unleashes on his political enemies, which now just may well include the Kurds!

In any event, things are certainly far from over, over there in what George W. Bush likes to tell all the candid world is the "World's newest democracy", thanks to him, and so, we shall be continuing to keep a close eye on things, as they continue to develop in George W. Bush's client state of Iraq!

And speaking of George W. Bush's violent client state of Iraq, it looks like the Iraqis may just be taking some lessons from George W. Bush as to how to deal with your political enemies:

Top Stories - Knight Ridder Newspapers

"Revenge killings of members of Saddam's former regime rise"

1 hour, 42 minutes ago

By Hannah Allam, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite Muslim assassins are killing former members of Saddam Hussein's mostly Sunni Muslim regime at will and with impunity in a parallel conflict that some observers fear could snowball into civil war.

The war between Shiite vigilantes and former Baath Party members is seldom investigated and largely overshadowed by the mostly Sunni insurgency.

The U.S. military is preoccupied with hunting down suicide bombers and foreign terrorists, and Iraq's new Shiite leaders have little interest in prosecuting those who kill their former oppressors or their enemies in the insurgency.

The killings have intensified since January's Shiite electoral victory, and U.S. and Iraqi officials worry that they could imperil progress toward a unified, democratic Iraq.

"It's the beginning, and we could go down the slippery slope very quickly," said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

"We've been so concerned with removing terrorists and Islamists that this other situation has reared its ugly head."

"Both sides are sharpening their knives."

Since the Jan. 30 elections, Shiite militants have stepped up their campaign to exact street justice from men who were part of the regime that oppressed and massacred members of their sect for decades.

While Shiite politicians turn a blind eye, assassins are working their way through a hit list of Saddam's former security and intelligence personnel, according to Iraqi authorities, Sunni politicians and interviews with the families of those who've been targeted.

Former Baathists have responded in kind, this month killing several Shiites allied with major political factions.

Cases under investigation include the killings of two Shiite militiamen outside a popular restaurant in Baghdad a week ago and the deaths of three Shiite militiamen who were in police custody.

In a tactic borrowed from Sunni insurgents, Shiite militants have begun distributing printed death threats.

One leaflet that lists several former Baathists targeted for assassination says:

"We have given you the chance to repent for your crimes against the people of this country, but we have noticed during surveillance that you are instead trying to restore the glory of the atheist, corrupt Baath Party."

Among those killed in recent weeks:

- Taha Hussein Amiri, a prominent judge who handed down death sentences during Saddam's regime.

Two gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed him Feb. 12 as he was being driven to work in the southern Shiite port city of Basra.

- Haider Kadhim, a former intelligence worker.

He was shot in the back of the head Feb. 17 after six gunmen disguised as Iraqi security forces talked their way into his home in the Baghdad district of Saidiyah.

The attack occurred at 7 a.m. - Kadhim was still in his pajamas, and his mother, wife and daughter were home.

- At least two other former Baathists were killed in Saidiyah in the past month, including Abdulrazak Karim al Douri, who was a major in Saddam's intelligence service and most recently worked at the Interior Ministry.

He and a co-worker were killed when gunmen surrounded their car and pumped more than 50 bullets into their bodies, according to death certificates and an autopsy report.

Especially besieged are Shiite Baathists who live in predominantly Shiite or mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods, where targets are more accessible than in homogenous Sunni strongholds.

Militiamen have demanded that former Baathists fly white flags to atone for their party membership and let their neighbors know they've renounced their pasts.

Those who refuse often end up dead.

"They're doing it in Shiite neighborhoods because it's easier," said Mishan Jubouri, a prominent former Baathist who was one of the few Sunni Arabs elected to the new Parliament.

"I know a lot of Shiite Baath Party members who have had to escape to Ramadi or Mosul or Tikrit," mostly Sunni territories.

There's been little or no investigation into any of the assassinations, the slain men's relatives said.

Not that they need an investigation to place blame: The families staunchly believe that Shiite militias are behind the killings.

The assassination squads are widely believed to be from the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's most influential Shiite political party and the biggest winner in the elections.

"I believe they were Badr forces."

"They're assassinating all the well-known men," said Walid Rasheed, whose brother, a former Baathist named Falah Rasheed, was gunned down Monday outside his shop in Baghdad.

"They just want to provoke strife among Iraqis."

Officially, the Iran-backed Badr militia is now the Badr Organization, a political party whose leaders say it's disarmed.

In reality, Badr fighters were so emboldened by their sect's victory at the polls that they're again roaming southern Shiite territories with weapons displayed, according to witnesses and Iraqi authorities.

An intelligence memo distributed Feb. 15 to the U.S. military and private security contractors in Iraq said the renewed militia presence in southern Shiite cities "may be a defensive measure by one of the successful political parties following the release of the election results, and may explain the reason for the link to the Badr corps."

Hadi al Ameri, the leader of the Badr Organization, was among the powerful Shiites elected to Parliament last month and is said to be a top contender for defense or interior minister.

In an interview Friday at his heavily guarded home, al Ameri denied that Badr fighters are behind the assassinations and said his men abided by the calls for restraint from Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, Iraq's highest-ranking Shiite cleric.

"The head of Iraqi intelligence accused us of these assassinations and I told him, `If you have proof against us, give me the intelligence.'"

"I offered to form a committee and hand over any guilty men," al Ameri said.

"We don't want revenge from anyone."

"We've been oppressed and we shouldn't oppress others."

The guerrilla-turned-politician conceded that some Shiites were attacking former Baathists of their own accord.

If al Sistani hadn't asked militiamen to use the courts - not guns - for revenge, he said, the situation would be much worse.

"The Baathists should pray day and night for Sistani," al Ameri said with a chuckle.

Knight Ridder tried to contact several former Baathists whose names appeared on a hit list; only one agreed to speak about the threat.

The man, a Shiite in his 50s who was a security official under Saddam, received a note at his home last month that read:

"You are a Baathist and we are watching you."

He'd refused to fly a white flag in his neighborhood, he said, so he wasn't surprised to find his name among those marked for death.

Abu Muqdad - he asked that his full name be withheld for protection - said that since the elections, the targeting of former Baathists was "like a plague spreading through a town with no doctor."

He accused political parties of quietly funneling names and addresses to their militias or hiring criminal gangs to carry out the killings.

"Go to the morgue and you'll find all our old (Baathist) luminaries," Abu Muqdad said.

"Why were they killed, and who killed them?"

"For revenge, by the Iranian-trained militias inside Iraq."

"They can do whatever they like now."

"Let's hope God grants us all restraint."

end quotes

And if not God, then perhaps George W. Bush!

It is his mess, after all, not God's!

[Livyjr]

Over in another thread started by abu beacon, or Mr. A.B., as I call him, there is discussion on whether or not George W. Bush is "sincere as a Christian", and my answer was no, he is not!

He is not sincere, period, as I see it and this next story serves to underscore why I think that is so, in my way of seeing things, here in OUR America.

Deceit!

Everything with this guy is deceit!

Creepy!

White House - AP Cabinet & State

"Panelists in FDA Drug Vote Tied to Makers"

1 hour, 51 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Ten members of the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel who voted that a group of powerful pain killers should continue to be sold had ties to the drug makers, an advocacy group says.

A study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest indicates that 10 of the 32 panel members had ties to either Pfizer Inc. or Merck & Co., ranging from consulting fees and speaking honoraria to research support.

The FDA issued a statement saying it screened members of the panel for conflicts of interest.

"This transparent process requires the agency to carefully weigh any potential financial interest with the need for essential scientific expertise in order to protect and advance the public health," the agency said.

After three days of hearings on the drugs, known as Cox-2 inhibitors, the panel voted 31-1 to keep Pfizer's Celebrex on the market, 17-13 with 2 abstentions in favor of Pfizer's Bextra and 17-15 that Merck's Vioxx should be allowed back on sale.

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market Sept. 30 after heart problems were reported in some users.

Similar questions were later raised about the other two drugs, prompting the FDA to call the advisory panel to look into the matter.

Since drug companies fund many studies it is not unusual for researchers to have ties to manufacturers, though some have questioned the practice.

The transcript, including the votes by the individual members of the panel, has not yet been posted by the FDA.

However, a copy obtained by The Associated Press indicated that the 10 panel members in question voted 10-0 in favor of keeping Celebrex and Bextra available and 9-1 in favor of allowing Vioxx to be brought back onto the market.

Without those ballots the vote would have been 13-7 in favor of withdrawing Bextra and 14-8 to keep Vioxx off sale.

The industry ties of the panel members were first reported Friday by The New York Times.
___

On the Net:

Center for Science in the Public Interest, http://www.cspinet.org/

[jeffmoskin]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite Muslim assassins are killing former members of Saddam Hussein's mostly Sunni Muslim regime at will and with impunity in a parallel conflict that some observers fear could snowball into civil war.

The war between Shiite vigilantes and former Baath Party members is seldom investigated and largely overshadowed by the mostly Sunni insurgency.

The U.S. military is preoccupied with hunting down suicide bombers and foreign terrorists, and Iraq's new Shiite leaders have little interest in prosecuting those who kill their former oppressors or their enemies in the insurgency.

Hey, guess what? If the Shi'ites and the Sunnis kill each other off, all we'll have left will be the oil.

[jeffmoskin]

Hey, guess what? If the Shi'ites and the Sunnis kill each other off, all we'll have left will be the oil.

And of course the is all about oil. I posted this little ditty ages ago. I think I am being proven correct with every passing day:

It is not about BUYING all the oil we need. We get that from the Saudis and Venezuelans.

It is about:

1. CONTROL of the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world.

2. Having that resource as backing for the US Dollar, which otherwise would become worthless since our manufacturing might has migrated to China.

3. In concert with (2), making sure that the Euro does not gain any more acceptance as payment for oil with other OPEC countries.