Monday: Obey; UBS B.S.
Submitted by: rba on Mon, 12/10/2007 - 05:16
tags:
Set Up Buzz!
AFP: Ex-CIA agent admits waterboarding, but calls it torture
Kiriakou said the method broke Zubaydah -- one of the first top Al-Qaeda suspects captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks -- in less than 35 seconds, according to ABC."
Here's the thing that nags: At this point any information released to the press by "ex-CIA" personnel of any stripe are extremely suspect (being kind). The only indisputable fact here is that waterboarding is torture, and is therefore illegal under domestic and international law.
ABC scores a direct miss. Another "Curveball" outside the zone.
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MSNBC/AP: Top Dem threatens to abandon budget talks
Obey said . . he would rip up the compromise bill and devise a new one using the strict spending ceiling set by Bush - but would reach it by whacking GOP priorities and stripping the measure of billions of dollars in pet projects for lawmakers in both parties
Not a good thing to piss off Obey-Wan. You'da thunk the Empire woulda figured that out by now.
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AFP on Putin's successor, and the same from RIA Novosti. Interesting to read the em-PHA-sis on different syl-LA-bles.
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The obligatory "this just in": Matt Apuzzo/AP: Libby to drop appeal in CIA leak case [via avahome].
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BBC: UBS posts fresh $10bn write-down
It's further evidence of the transfer of financial power from the western economies to the great cash generating economies of Asia, Russia and the Middle East - which are able to dictate the terms on which they prop up our important institutions . .
UBS chief executive Marcel Rohner . . replaced Peter Wuffli . . after three quarters of falling profits and $300m losses at a failed hedge fund.
[Image: Rio de Janeiro - Keystone Archive
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Doreen Carvajal/IHT: International Herald Tribune and Reuters form alliance
"We are inventing something new and exciting for both our audiences," he [Michael Oreskes, Editor in Chief] said. "We are combining the very best of two of the best journalistic organizations on earth to produce a global report on finance, economics and business of the highest caliber.
Dude, while I appreciate your enthusiasm, the "best on Earth" is usually followed by "we regret to inform our investors . ." a coupla years down the road. (Grumble. Musta been takin' hubris lessons from King George).
Set Up Buzz!
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Short term greed
may bring long term, unintended consequences. People with money are swooping in for what they see as a bargain plus more opportunities to influence too?
I wonder if anyone is going to go back and take a look at all of the cheap, almost too good to be true, money that was flowing into the U.S. for several years that helped to fuel and prop up the housing bubble?
Here is an article from the Nation with an Answer to your Query
After the depression the Glass-Steigall Act was enacted to separate investment and commercial banking--ie guard against speculative bubbles such as the present housing bubble. Wall Street got around these restrictions. Here's are excerpts from Nomi Prinz' analysis, The Roots of the Lending Crisis Run Through Wall Street
Not only King G. What about Enron?
They were also doing great, great, great.
New York Times reporter Nick Herbert on Immigration
Herbert, who has done excellent coverage about NYC Mayor Bloomberg's apparent continuation of the racist policies initiated by Giuliani when he was Mayor, has now he has written a tough editorial on the question of how we handle the immigration issue Spies Like You and Me.
He discusses a recent NPR program where candidates were queried on how they would respond to a situation where they were suspicious that someone they met in a service capacity was here illegally. He warns of a new witch hunt where featuring the question: Are you now or have you ever been an illegal immigrant? Not so far-fetched perhaps!
Bush's "Ownership Society"
Are we hearing much touting.....silence! Here's a good article... http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0512.glastris.html
Sound Bite
"Ownership Society" means them that owns gets to own more.
State hopes rulings can slow pace of foreclosures
Just who owns your mortgage? Do you know...maybe an investor.
Well they're getting smart in Ohio.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/12/10/z-apo...
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Steven E. Martin ruled last week that Wells Fargo Bank couldn't foreclose on a North College Hill home because its lawyers didn't prove that the bank owned the mortgage. The suit was deemed premature.
-snip -
With mortgages sold off to investors on Wall Street, the true owner of a mortgage isn't always clear. The holder of the mortgage note often is different from the servicing company or the bank that takes the mortgage payments.
A recent analysis by University of Iowa law professor Katherine Porter found that 40 percent of the 1,733 foreclosures she studied didn't have proof that the plaintiff owned the mortgage.
Mortgage Meltdown
This might be the single best piece I've read on what's going on and where it's really heading. A must read...