A key watchdog group issued a legal filing Thursday demanding e-mails and other documents from Education Department Sec. Arne Duncan and his top aides under the Freedom of Information Act relating to the influence of Wall Street short sellers on a controversial new regulation governing for-profit or “career” colleges.It will be interesting to discover why the documents requested in October have been withheld. Does the Department of Education have something to hide or is this overblown?
In the midst of a colossal global concern for the economic stability of our great nation, Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri's 5th Congressional District representative, has one small earmark on his wish list that deserves some attention.But, it is. Gateway Pundit has uncovered even more information about this earmark:
Cleaver has listed a new earmark -- one of several -- and he promises to "fight for every one." But this is a whopping $48 billion package that must go down as the grandaddy of all earmarks.
The $48 billion would go to Cleaver’s friend, a gentleman named Lamar Mickens, president of the not-for-profit Quality Day Campus who runs the organization out of his Kansas City home.Wow. Just wow. I think that's gonna take a point or two off of Congress's historically low approval rating. At 13%, they're rapidly approaching a firm floor!
...
Lamar Mickens is the President and the Treasurer of Quality Day Campus, Inc.
His wife Cynthia is the Vice President of Quality Day Campus, Inc.
As the debts of advanced countries rise to levels not seen since the aftermath of World War II, it’s hard to know how much is too much. But it’s easy to see that the risk of serious financial trouble is growing.Got that? If things get really bad, the government will force banks to buy bonds with your savings. The country is in the very best of hands.
...
In the U.S., domestic investors could pick up the slack. The Federal Reserve has committed to buy an added $600 billion in U.S. government debt over the next eight months. Demand from households has been very strong as U.S. consumers boost their savings rate. Tighter regulations could push banks to buy more safe assets such as U.S. Treasurys.
To many Democrats, the accusation by President Obama and other party leaders that foreign money might be bank rolling some pro-Republican political attack ads sounds both compelling and ominous -- but is it fair?The New York Times thinks these claims are bogus. On the issue of fairness, there's no word on whether or not anyone in the mainstream media will investigate the documented subversion of campaign finance laws by Barack Obama's 2008 campaign donation website.
The department dismissed the Panthers case despite the fact that the government had already won it, due to the defendants’ contemptuous default. The dismissal occurred despite the fact that career prosecutors judged the case to be exceedingly strong. Nevertheless, Holder’s top staffers have maintained for months that the rationale for the dismissal was a good-faith disagreement between low-ranking civil servants (i.e., career prosecutors) about the correct construction of the Voting Rights Act.Previously:
Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations of the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is 'going dark' as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications -- including encrypted e-mail transmitters such as BlackBerry, social networking websites such as Facebook and software that allows direct 'peer-to-peer' messaging such as Skype -- to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.
Judicial Watch made an explosive announcement today about the Justice Department’s stonewalling in the New Black Panther voter intimidation case dismissal. Forced to bring a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit after DOJ rebuffed its public records request (so much for transparency), Judicial Watch obtained a privilege log from the DOJ last week.
It shows — in a rather dramatic way — that the DOJ has been untruthful about who was involved in the dismissal of the case.
In July, I complied with a subpoena and provided testimony to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. I did so in part because inaccurate statements had been made about the case by DOJ officials. Some of these statements falsely claimed that ethical rules mandated the dismissal of the charges against the New Black Panthers. This was nonsense.
But the real whopper? DOJ’s claim — repeated over and over again — that career civil servants were wholly responsible for the spiking of the case.
Today we learn, from the Department’s own records, that this claim is demonstrably false.
The privilege log produced in the FOIA litigation contains stunning entries. They show regular discussions and deliberations between the highest political officials inside the DOJ, including the deputy attorney general and the associate attorney general, about what to do with the case. This contradicts numerous statements made to Congress, the Civil Rights Commission, and to the public.
Some of these statements were under oath.
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, too!
WordPress host Blogetery and 73,000 WordPress blogs were shut down, marking the beginning of a modern day 1984 society in the US. A chill rippled through the blogging world and the Internet sparking 1st Amendment fears and a Constitutional outcry from those paying attention.
Berwick praised the heavy-handed rationing methods of Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and said, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care; the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.” Unfortunately, the interviewer failed to ask the obvious follow-up question: “Who’s we?” It turns out that what the good doctor really means when he says “we” is “you.” For himself and his wife, he has arranged to opt out of the health care system he plans to impose on the hoi polloi.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of an incident which occurred between myself and Representative Phil Hare, on Monday, May 31, 2010.I have long felt that citizens should be notified whenever a government employee accesses their information—just a simple email with the name of the employee, the date and time, and a reason for the access. Businesses, especially financial services and healthcare, would also benefit from an accountability system like this, too. Part of the vision of the Tea Party movements across this country is one of a government Accountable to the People.
Congressman Phil Hare, of the 17th Congressional District of Illinois, is misrepresenting his military service during the Vietnam War to attract the votes of veterans....
...Mr. Hare and I were engaged in a conversation concerning the statements he is making around the district about being a veteran. After I pointed out that according to the law he is not a veteran, he became very upset and demanded to know my name. I refused to tell him...
Mr. Hare then told one of his aids who was with him, to follow me to my car and get my license plate number so he could find out who I was. I have since been told that Mr. Hare's daughter works for the DMV.
The great uncertainty about how much debt is too much has tended to make fiscal discipline seem less urgent, rather than more. There is no obvious threshold beyond which investors will demand higher real yields for holding U.S. debt. Vague warnings from ratings agencies about the loss of America's 'AAA' status haven't added much clarity — until recently.And that explains why Reason is reporting that Rater Haters Turn On Moody's
In the wake of the financial crisis and recession, Moody's Investors Service has brought new transparency to its sovereign ratings analysis — so much so that 2018 lights up as the year the U.S. could be in line for a downgrade if Congressional Budget Office projections hold.
The key data point in Moody's view is the size of federal interest payments on the public debt as a percentage of tax revenue. For the U.S., debt service of 18%-20% of federal revenue is the outer limit of AAA-territory, Moody's managing director Pierre Cailleteau confirmed in an e-mail.
Under the Obama budget, interest would top 18% of revenue in 2018 and 20% in 2020, CBO projects.
But under more adverse scenarios than the CBO considered, including higher interest rates, Moody's projects that debt service could hit 22.4% of revenue by 2013.
On this side of the pond, the Securities and Exchange Commission is putting pressure on Moody's, and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) is introducing regulation of rating agencies into the stalled finance bill.Al Franken wants to legislate lower rates. What could possibly go wrong?
Note that the rating agencies are not getting dinged in response to their legitimate failures -- the famously too-high ratings awarded to Enron, Lehman Brothers and the universe of junk debt instruments. They're being punished for doing the right thing: sounding the alarm on Europe's manifest sovereign debt crisis and America's looming one. By coincidence, Moody's recently issued a widely publicized warning that the U.S. could be looking at a serious public debt emergency by 2013. No wonder Franken wants to rein in the raters that were considered jim-dandy back when President Obama first introduced his financial regulation bill. The agencies have gotten themselves into trouble by trespassing on government property.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with his complete capitulation and total surrender on the Financial Services bill. The bill, passed by the House with a $4 trillion bailout provision, making bailouts the permanent policy of the United States government, was on it’s last legs until Corker came to the rescue. Now the Washington Post and other are reporting that Corker and ethically-challenged, retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are on the verge of a deal to breathe life back into the regulatory and bailout scheme.It looks like some Republicans still haven't learned that "too big to fail" is exactly two words too long. We need to build a country where every business is a small business, where the creative destruction of the market place is a tolerable difficulty that spawns new innovation, and where the politically powerful can no longer aggregate the public's money in the coffers of their future campaign contributors.
"We need a consumer protection agency, and we need it very urgently because there is political outcry about the injustice of the current situation," [George] Soros said at a Roosevelt Institute conference in New York."The bureaucracy is expanding to support the expanding bureaucracy," as someone once said. Let's review the agencies charged with oversight of our financial institutions:
Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd has been trying to bridge a gap with Republicans, who oppose an independent consumer protection agency, and discussed with Republican Senator Bob Corker the possibility of making the agency a division of the Federal Reserve.
These bureaucracies exist to absorb blame from the political class—#1 on the list above. A "consumer protection agency" would be no different. To better understand this general problem, read the Practical Rule of Bureaucracies.
- Congress (House and Senate)
- US Treasury
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Federal Reserve ("The Fed")
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
- Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Bureau of the Public Debt (I bet they're busy these days!)
- Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI)
- Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
- Federal Inspectors General
- Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
- National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
- Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO)
- Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
- Fannie Mae
- Freddie Mac
- Ginnie Mae
Less than 48 hours before Christmas, Keith Gladney was fired from his job as a St. Louis County (Mo.) Animal Control Officer, according to a BigGovernment.com article published the same day. Why is his firing important? Because, as you’ll see in reviewing the points noted below, integrity of government is at stakeBob made a sunshine request as part of his investigation and is now waiting for the results of that request.
Just one month ago, Keith spoke to KMOX reporter Kevin Killeen about the delay by the county in approaching his brother's case. Was this a clear case of retaliatory, Chicago-style politics?
The circumstances are very fishy. Gladney's supervisor was not there, but instead a South County Supervisor was brought in. The termination charges were never communicated to Mr. Gladney when they supposedly occurred, and the manner in which he was fired, and the reasons behind it would make many an employment lawyer clap their hands in glee.Here's the KMOX report just mentioned: Charges filed in Carnahan health care forum fight (annoying audio after the jump):
His brother Keith, who has been acting as his spokesman, told KMOX the charges "should have been more serious." Keith Gladney also claims investigators failed to contact his brother Kenneth or interview the witnesses to his alleged beating during the three month investigation.In early December, I joined several other St. Louis area conservatives on a visit to County Counselor Patricia Redington's office. We were there to express our concern that the charges brought against Kenneth Gladney's assailants did not measure up to the crimes perpetrated against him. I believe that our visit was unrelated to Keith Gladney's firing... I just wish I was certain of that.
Meanwhile, the folks at Ford have to be awfully glad they didn't take government money. They've apparently gotten quite a brand boost out of it, with a large number of their current customers trading in Chrysler or GM cars for a piece of the company that isn't teetering on the edge of receivership. It's not that Ford's future is necessarily that bright--but taking billions from the government sends a strong signal that there might be a problem with your cars in the future.Now it looks like the Obama administration pressured Chrysler to make the dealer cuts and may have influenced which dealers are being shutdown. Doug Ross has the most complete coverage I've seen including complete lists of the dealers both cut and kept. If true, this represents a thuggish turn in Obama's brand of crony capitalism.
OpenSecrets indicates that Rick Wagoner, recently departed CEO of GM, only gave $1,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Clearly, one must be more "generous" if one wants to keep their job in the new order. Since Wagoner resigned at Obama's request, I think he's ineligible for unemployment benefits.
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