Staggering Impunity

May 23rd, 2012

Charles Ferguson, the director of Inside Job and author of the soon to be released examination of the 2008 collapse, Predator Nation, wants to know where the hell the prosecutions for rampant criminal activity are:

"Almost all the prospectuses and sales material on mortgage-backed securities sold from 2005 through 2007 were a compound of falsehoods. But it starts even earlier in the food chain. We also know that mortgage originators committed securities fraud when they misrepresented the characteristics of loan pools, and the nature and extent of their due diligence with regard to them, when they sold pools to securitizers (and accepted financing from them). Most or all of the securitizers (meaning nearly all the investment banks and major banking conglomerates) then committed securities fraud when they misrepresented the characteristics of the loans backing their CDOs, the characteristics of the resulting mortgage-backed securities, and the nature and results of their due diligence in the process of creating those securities. The securitizers also committed securities fraud when they made similar misrepresentations to the insurers of, and sellers of credit default swap (CDS) protection on, those securities."

The utter lack of consequences for this illegality and, worse, the excuse-making by conservatives that the downturn was somehow a "glitch" in legitimate capitalism very nearly ensure another crisis. Possibly quite soon.

"In some cases, we already have clear evidence of senior executive knowledge of and involvement in these frauds. For example, quarterly presentations to investors are nearly always made by the CEO or CFO of the firm; if lies were told in those presentations, or if material facts were omitted, the responsibility lies with senior management. In some other cases, such as Bear Stearns, we already have evidence from civil lawsuits that very senior executives were directly involved in constructing and selling securities whose prospectuses contained lies and omissions."

And yet, not one CEO or CFO involved has been charged with so much as a misdemeanor. It's long past time we admitted that these are not titans; they are simply extremely ambitious thieves.

Chris Christie - No Ordinary Liar

April 10th, 2012

When New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced he was killing the The Trans-Hudson Passenger Rail Tunnel, a project 20 years in the making, he framed as some incredibly responsible and brave decision making on his part. It represented the new, post Tea Party GOP brand. The project was wasteful and something New Jersey simply couldn't afford!

As it turns out, nearly every metric he pronounced to defend this move was a flat out lie. Ahead of a new GAO report to be released this week detailing his many falsehoods, the NY Times reports:

"Canceling the tunnel, then the largest public works project in the nation, helped shape Mr. Christie’s profile as a rising Republican star, an enforcer of fiscal discipline in a country drunk on debt. But the report is likely to revive criticism that his decision, which he said was about “hard choices” in tough economic times, was more about avoiding the need to raise the state’s gasoline tax, which would have violated a campaign promise. The governor subsequently steered $4 billion earmarked for the tunnel to the state’s near-bankrupt transportation trust fund, traditionally financed by the gasoline tax."

You see? He did do exactly what needed to be done. For himself. The congestion of physical interstate commerce the project would have alleviated extends far beyond New Jersey or New York.

Steve Benen is appalled:

"Even at the time, Christie's decision on this project in 2010 was hard to understand. Conservatives, who've become increasingly hostile towards American infrastructure improvements, cheered the move, but from a substantive perspective, the governor's decision was fairly characterized as "destructive and incredibly foolish."

But this new report casts that decision in an even more damaging light. The Government Accountability Office is a non-partisan research/audit arm of Congress, and it's reporting this week that Christie's rationale for his strange decision wasn't even true. It was a mistake to scrap a major public works project during a weak economy; it was a bigger mistake to explain the move with dishonest claims."

This is big stuff. Gov. Christie, in an act of supreme political selfishness, quite literally damaged a whole sector of the American economy. On purpose.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons the Governor thought better of entering the 2012 race for POTUS.

Boehner's Real Interest In Keystone XL, cont...

Jan 29th, 2012

We picked up on a report last week of Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) substantial investments in companies with a direct stake in the controversial Keystone XL proposal. At the time, I suggested this might be a career-ender and wondered if an internal ethics investigation was imminent (again, paging Rep. Issa (R-CA)whose silence is deafening).

It now seems that the situation is rapidly becoming more serious. Yesterday, PoliticsUSA followed up on the latest developments:

"On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received a complaint from an environmental group with accusations that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline’s owners (TransCanada) are in violation of SEC Rule 10b(5) – Employment of Manipulative and Deceptive Practices to bolster stock prices.

The complaint sent to the SEC said TransCanada is using “false or misleading statements about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline” and that they “consistently used public statements and information it knows are false in a concerted effort to secure permitting approval of Keystone XL from the U.S. government.” The complaint continues that the fallacious information misleads investors, U.S. and Canadian officials, the media, and the public “in order to bolster its balance sheets and share price,” and who is the point-man pushing the Keystone XL pipeline with lies and misinformation? Speaker of the House John Boehner." EMPHASES THEIRS

This is big. This is not the typically 'legal but questionable' gaming of the system we have grown accustomed to. It is beginning to look like a blatant violation of the law.

"The complaint specifically highlights that TransCanada asserts that the pipeline will create American jobs “at a rate that is 67 times higher than job creation totals given by the company to Canadian officials for the Canadian portion of the pipeline.” The inflated job creation numbers were designed to pressure President Obama to issue an approval permit to build the pipeline and without its construction, TransCanada’s future earnings and share prices will be significantly impacted. Speaker Boehner owns shares in seven different Canadian tar sand companies and it is highly likely that he knows the job numbers are inflated as an investor and stands to profit if the pipeline is built. Boehner went so far as threatening to tie 160 million working Americans’ payroll tax cut extension to approval of the pipeline. Boehner’s extortion threats were the last straw, and inspired a national petition to force him to resign or face expulsion from Congress for ethics violations. However, ethics violations are the least of Boehner’s problems once the SEC finishes their investigation which they confirmed is actively under consideration." EMPHASIS THEIRS

Let's be clear; This isn't about TransCanada affiliated interests investing in Boehner via SuperPACs and campaign donations. This is about Boehner investing in TransCanada affiliated interests while using false statistics to push for government action on their behalf.

It is already past time for the Speaker to publicly address this.

The last thing I want to see is an Eric Cantor Speakership.

But, this man must resign.

The Only Real Obama Administration Scandal

Jan 22rd, 2012
by F. Grey Parker

From day one, the GOP, the Fox News drones and the far right blogosphere have thrown a series of charges at the Obama Administration so manifestly ill-conceived that they are laughable upon strict scrutiny. Hundreds of hours have been spent on the "New Black Panther scandal," the "Fast and Furious scandal" and the "Solyndra scandal," just to name a few. In every case, the truth has been a far cry from the apoplectic insinuations hurled by the bottom-feeders.

This begs a question; why hasn't the only obvious and provable instance of high level corruption in this administration been addressed at all by the enemies of the President?

The answer is simple. It involves the Clinton State Department's handling of the Keystone XL proposal. We wrote about this last year HERE.

To sum up, one of Secretary Clinton's most trusted advisers poisoned the review process for a major foreign corporation's potentially hazardous use of American territory. This is a scandal which has everything:

Back room coaching of those the State Department is supposed to vet?
Check.

Lobbyists granted access to internal governmental operations?
Check.

Sweetheart relationships between foreign business interests and public servants who report directly to one of the most powerful people in modern government?
Check.

As the weeks have turned to months since I wrote about this last, this has begun to bother me a great deal.

Anyone who is familiar with my writing or activism knows that I support President Obama. I am not out to make him or his administration look bad. That said, this is basic stuff, the kind of stuff you dream of being able to use against your opposition.

If you are a junior-grade politician with half of a brain, you would know what to do with it.

Unless, of course, the people that are really in charge of every bloodthirsty, prevaricating and odious assault... have told you not to use it.

The GOP desperately needs to keep fighting on behalf of the Keystone XL issue.

It doesn't matter if you or I know that every pronouncement from them about the project's possible benefits is supreme bullshit. They don't care. The most powerful backers of the largest Republican sympathizing PACs have a vested interest in this one. Anything that might interfere with the GOP's slavish service to these puppet masters, even the only legitimate chance to undermine the current administration on the grounds of severe malfeasance, is off the table.

Remember this when Speaker Boehner comes out, very likely tomorrow, and tries to tie a resuscitation of the poisonous Keystone scheme to the passage of any piece of legislation that might actually benefit the United States of America.

Taibbi Vs A Pernicious Meme

Dec 20th, 2011

Matt Taibbi's takes aim at one of worst lies regarding the financial crisis:

"The notion that what Wall Street firms did was merely unethical and not illegal is not just mistaken but preposterous: most everyone who works in the financial services industry understands that fraud right now is not just pervasive but epidemic, with many of the biggest banks committing entire departments to the routine commission of fraud and perjury – every single one of the major banks, for instance, devotes significant manpower to robosigning affidavits for foreclosures and credit card judgments, acts which are openly and inarguably criminal.

Banks and hedge funds routinely withhold derogatory information about the instruments they sell, they routinely trade on insider information or ahead of their own clients’ orders, and corrupt accounting is so rampant now that industry analysts have begun to figure in estimated levels of fraud in their examinations of the public disclosures of major financial companies." EMPHASES OURS

And yet, many of our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle continue to hamper stronger regulation of almost any kind.

Charting Palin's Brain

Oct 7th, 2011

First of all, I want to admit up front that I was wrong and most everyone else was right; Sarah Palin is not running for the office of the Presidency in 2012. It was a money making scheme all along. That said, I came across this chart today which pokes some fun at her thought processes. It's still worth sharing.

Government Contractors And The Big Fix

Oct 7th, 2011

Ordinary Americans react to the Project On Government Oversight's recently released study exposing shocking waste and abuse in the government's deals with private contractors. The unnecessary cost to taxpayers is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

"Robo-Signing" More Widespread Than Previously Thought

Sept 2nd, 2011

We still haven't really gotten to the bottom of the housing collapse. Pallavi Gogoi reports for AP:

"Counties across the United States are discovering that illegal or questionable mortgage paperwork is far more widespread than thought, tainting the deeds of tens of thousands of homes dating to the late 1990s.

The suspect documents could create legal trouble for homeowners for years.

Already, mortgage papers are being invalidated by courts, insurers are hesitant to write policies, and judges are blocking banks from foreclosing on homes. The findings by various county registers of deeds have also hindered a settlement between the 50 state attorneys general who are investigating big banks and other mortgage lenders over controversial mortgage practices.

The problem of shoddy mortgage paperwork, which comprises several shortcuts known collectively as "robo-signing," led the nation's largest banks, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., and other lenders to temporarily halt foreclosures nationwide last fall."

Read more HERE

A Dope, A Joke and A Fraud

Aug 23rd, 2011

Over at Politico, Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin cut through the window dressing and expose the growing anguish of "conservative intellectuals" over the 2012 front-runners.

"The problem, in shorthand: To many conservative elites, Rick Perry is a dope, Michele Bachmann is a joke, and Mitt Romney is a fraud."

It's a shame that Huntsman has exposed his commitment to rationality. He'd probably make a decent President. And the base Republican just wants a guy or gal who wears some crazy-pants.

More Strange Bedfellows

April 10th, 2011

A hat tip to Tea Party proponent and Blog Talk Radio host Mark Gillar. No, really. He and I were recently discussing the Waukesha situation on twitter. Politely, I might add. We may not agree on much, but we agree on the principles of fairness and the rule of law. I would like to see more folks across the spectrum get on board and acknowledge that this is the most important issue here. He is convinced that the outcomes will not be changed by a recount. I am not so sure. But my mistrust is purely political. It is more than possible that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus is just profoundly incompetent. It would not be the first time an initial appearance of impropriety was simply the topcoat on a pattern of stupidity. The point is this; we both want to turn on the lights.

Credit Where Due

April 9th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Yesterday, I wrote a piece on the right wing's callous double standards regarding election fraud. I stand by my arguments and my critique of their tactics immediately following the apparent victory of the Democrat in Wisconsin's Supreme Court Race. Although I am not walking back any of my statements on arch-conservative John Fund's history of fear-mongering nor letting him off the hook for his still despicable April 7th WSJ column written prior to the stunning discovery of "uncounted votes" favoring the Republican, I need to make a clarification.

Mr. Fund has written a piece in today's WSJ that demands he not be grouped with the other conservatives I went on to expose as crass opportunists in the wake of the "magic vote" affair. He has very clearly stated what so many of his fellow travelers will not.

"Ms. Nickolaus {Waukesha, WI County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus} ought to resign her position out of a sense of shame. An independent investigation is called for, if for no other reason than to clear the air and to recommend procedures to ensure such errors don't happen again. Just as many Wisconsin officials have ignored or downplayed evidence of vote fraud (see the Milwaukee Police Department's 2008 detailed investigation) so too have sloppy election procedures been allowed to fester in some counties.

If the mistake was innocent, it resulted from a lack of transparency. Ms. Nickolaus has long been criticized for keeping her county's election data on private office computers that are not part of the county network. But of equal concern is her decision to no longer report the individual breakdown of results from cities in her county on her office's website. If she had, everyone could have seen that the city of Brookfield was listed as reporting that no votes had been cast. In addition, Ms. Nickolaus's office never reported what percentage of the county's vote had been counted at any point on election night.

Ms. Nickolaus still hasn't provided a full explanation of what happened, but the public deserves answers. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says she ended the prior clerk's practice of reporting election results for individual cities because it was "not her responsibility" and she didn't "have the staff to enter all the data that's required for such reporting." That is an absurd excuse. Many smaller Wisconsin counties are able to post such data on their websites and provide proper transparency."

Hear hear. I think, as he goes onto posit, it may well be true that there is no actual fraud. Perhaps, the candidate I supported with much passion has indeed legitimately lost this race. I might not like it, but that's not germane. Which was my whole point yesterday. The only reasonable American response is to shine a whole lot of light on Wisconsin. Then certify a result that is confirmed to be true. Either way.

Again, John Fund has argued for justice and fairness. I challenge all the members of the right who have been mocking calls for a full investigative review to grow up. And join him

Oh, It's Different If THEY Might Have Done It

April 8th, 2011
Please CLICK HERE to petition the Justice Department to investigate "magic votes" in Wisconsin.
by F. Grey Parker
UPDATE: 4/9/2011 John Fund did the right thing today

An incredibly ugly thing happened yesterday in America. I am not explicitly referring to the discovery of "magic votes" that were previously uncounted due to "human error" in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. That is a factor in what disturbs me, to be sure. More troubling than this potential impropriety is that the previous day's media cycle began with a coordinated series of attacks

throughout the usual conservative outlets making baseless claims of "potential fraud" by Democrats in the race. At that time, it looked like the liberal was winning.

This is the modern, post-election playbook for the American Right. If they win, even by the slimmest of margins, it is called a "mandate." Ah, but if they lose, well then they goose step to their laptops and TV cameras and imply illegitimacy. It is red meat for those who believe that Americans with whom they disagree are, well, not really American.

Prominent right wing commentator and activist John Fund fired the first shot in Wednesday's WSJ. He laid the usual groundwork for mistrust and it was widely linked to by organizations like FOX.

Some selections from his agit-prop:

"Any recount will be scrutinized for irregularities and possible vote fraud. A recount in a similarly close race in neighboring Minnesota's 2008 U.S. Senate race stretched on for months, amid charges that some counties counted absentee ballots according to different standards than others did. Al Franken, the Democrat, was eventually sworn in after pulling ahead by 315 votes. His victory gave—for a time—Senate Democrats the critical 60th vote they needed to pass ObamaCare over a potential filibuster."

Kathy Nickolaus' Shaky Presser

April 8th, 2011

Please CLICK HERE to petition the Justice Department to investigate "magic votes" in Wisconsin.

This warrants a serious investigation. Mrs. Nickolaus has a long history of questionable behavior. Many on the right think this is funny. Had these votes, which if confirmed are just over the requirement for a state funded recount under Wisconsin law, been for Kloppenburg, I don't think the right would be so gleeful. Do you?
UPDATE -This is the longer full video

Quote Of The Day - Waukesha Edition

April 8th, 2011
Please CLICK HERE to petition the Justice Department to investigate "magic votes" in Wisconsin.
In light of the questionable events in Waukesha, WI yesterday, we are trying to round up as much information on the submission of "magic votes that favor Prosser in the state's Supreme Court race as we can. There is strong and somewhat damning coverage at AlterNet.

"It is fraud to conceal fraud" - Legal Maxim

MSNBC - Banksters & Government Exposed FINALLY by Mainstream News!

April 7th, 2011

We've held off on posting some interesting and important recent videos for a reason. We were waiting for the release of Rep. Paul Ryan's Path To Poverty. Viewing much of this now helps to put his "pamphlet" into better perspective. Rep. Ryan would have us double down on the same fiscal philosophies and monetary policies which have nearly ruined this great nation.