Saturday, 31 January 2009
because I endured approximately 9mio clicks and my right ear ceased to exist and I havent seen a damn thing yet I like to dedicate this clip to GWB
Friday, 30 January 2009
organized labor
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is playing to one of the Democratic Party's most reliable constituencies — organized labor — reversing a number of his predecessor's executive orders that critics regard as anti-union.
Labor leaders were to visit the White House for a second consecutive day Friday, where, a union official said, Obama was to abolish four Bush-era directives that unions opposed and then reintroduce Vice President Joe Biden's task force focused on the middle class.
Both were meant as a way for the new administration to connect with workers at the end of a week that has seen U.S. companies announce thousands more jobs cuts.
"Over the last 100 years the middle class was built on the back of organized labor. Without their weight, heft and their insistence starting in the early 1900s we wouldn't have the middle class we have now, in my view," Biden told CNBC on Thursday. "So I think labor getting a fair share of the pie is part of it."
Germany: Kauder institutes bank owned bad banks
Kauder für bankeigene "Bad Banks"
Gregg suggested for commerce
Good choice by Obama
(1)Given the recent Republican turmoil about the stimulus bill, its no bad idea to stress theres no majority simply to ensure that there isnt a permanent state of discussion for example about stimulus bills, a thing the Republicans did themselves under Bush.
(2) Obviously there are now some "expatriates," like Gregg, who collided unprepared with the sudden change of course of the GOP concerning economical affairs.
(3) Its always nice to have some boom-town rats aboard.
(4) Gregg is not stupid.
Craddock suggested to shoot Drug-Dealers in Afghanistan
Medillin ah... Medium reactions in Germany.
The speaker of German conservatives, German noble Karl von Wogau, spoke of an illegal instruction. I think u gotta sniff a lot to determine the legality of the drug dealers. Sir Sniff-a-lot.
Army suicides at record high, passing civilians
yahoo
WASHINGTON – Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out.
At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, the Army said Thursday. And the final count is likely to be even higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated.
Turkish PM slams Israel over Gaza
Turkish PM slams Israel over Gaza
DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed off stage at the World Economic Forum on Thursday during an angry discussion with Israeli President Shimon Peres over the crisis in Gaza.
Erdogan leaves the stage Thursday as Peres looks left.
Erdogan was visibly angered after Peres had said that Israel was committed to peace and blamed Hamas for the situation in Gaza, where Israel staged a three-week military operation earlier this month.
He then started to respond but was cut off by the moderator who said the debate had run overtime.
Earlier in the debate, Erdogan had described the military campaign in Gaza as "barbaric" and accused Israel of using excessive force. Peres said Hamas was responsible for the "tragedy," accusing the Islamist militants of creating a "dangerous dictatorship."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were among the other leaders making keynote appearances at the forum.
Erdogan exited by saying " I won't return to Davos." He was welcomed in Turkey with Palestinian and Turkish flags. Other Turkish commentators though stated that "the world has seen that we got a prime with no self-control."
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Obama Letter to Iran Reportedly Being Drafted
Obama Letter to Iran Reportedly Being Drafted
US new jobless claims up,continued claims a record
RAWSTORY: US new jobless claims up,continued claims a record
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose 3,000 last week, data on Thursday showed, while so-called continued claims hit the highest level on record as the country's year-long recession continued to chill employment.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 588,000 in the week ended Jan 24 from a revised 585,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 580,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 589,000 the week before. The number of people remaining on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid, or continued claims, rose 159,000 to a higher-than-forecast 4.776 million in the week ended Jan 17, the most recent week for which data is available. The Labor Department said this was the highest reading since its records on this series began in 1967. Analysts had expected continued claims to be 4.65 million. A Labor Department official said there were no special factors impacting last week's initial claims numbers. The four-week average of new jobless claims, a better gauge of underlying labor trends because it irons out week-to-week volatility, increased to 542,500 from 518,250 the week before. This measure has mounted steadily as the U.S. housing slump roils financial markets and spreads to the wider economy, forcing lay-offs as firms slash costs to offset weaker income. (Reporting by Alister Bull, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Germany/China: Wen visits Merkel
Gut gelaunt im Frühling
Wen besucht Merkel
During a breakfast in the chancellors office Chinas prime Wen Jiabao and chancellor Angela Merkel talked about the economical crisis. The result: " We can intensify our cooperation and we can master this crisis together." Merkel wants to integrate China anyway more to solve international problems.
Germany: German Police dissolves Hate Crew Swabia
Among the accusations are 'fueling of racial hate,' 'false propaganda,' 'money laundering,'publicity of violence,' 'Illicit work,' spreading of propaganda. The NPD was closely connected to these actions.
Knobloch desires more protests for the pope nixing the excommunication of Williamson who is a denier of the holocaust
Preliminary, Knobloch has aborted any discussion with the Roman Catholic Church for the pope nixing the excommunication of Williamson, who was a British bishop. "Currently there won't be a talk with the Roman Catholic Church under such premises, but I stress currently. I hope there's an uprise in the church. You know, I don't deal with people in this case, who don't know what they are doing. I assume that the pope is one of the most educated and intelligent people in the church, and I don't think there aren't grounds upon which he acts."
Rabbi Rosen told Italian "La Repubblica:" "The case is not closed. Not all damage done has been repaired."
"Though the pope assured his solidarity, what is important and useful, but he left a big space for ambiguity."
Williamson declared recently in Swedish television that "200 000 - 300 000 jews died in concentration camps, but none of them was gased."
Halliburton "tazered" every US soldier 231x in 2 years
The 45-page document -- a high-level request for corrective action generated last fall -- found that Texas-based military contractor KBR Inc. failed to properly ground and bond its electrical systems, which contributed to soldiers "receiving shocks in KBR-maintained facilities on average once every three days since data was available in Sept. 2006," a release said.
The report comes just a day after Halliburton was fined more than $500 million for bribery in Nigeria.
KBR was spun off from Halliburton after a rash of negative press reports surrounding overbilling. Halliburton was run by former Vice President Dick Cheney prior to his taking office in the White House in 2001.
The Defense Contract Management Agency found that KBR "failed to meet basic requirements to identify life-threatening conditions on tanks, water pumps, electrical outlets and electrical panels."
It further added that government search results of a KBR-maintained database revealed that 231 electrical-shock incidents occurred over just two years -- in the period from September 2006 through July 31, 2008. This indicates that the shocks continued long after the much-publicized death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, who died in a heart attack after stepping into a shower maintained by KBR in 2008.
McClatchy's release, issued at 2:20 AM Thursday, follows.
Records show Maseth was electrocuted when he turned on the water that flowed through metal pipes. The Army Criminal Investigation Division recently determined Maseth's death was negligent homicide, rather than an accident as previously reported.
The Army named KBR and singled out two unidentified company supervisors for potential criminal liability. As yet, no charges have been filed.
Maseth is among at least 18 Americans -- including 16 soldiers and two contractors -- who have died of electrocution in Iraq since 2003. In October, Pfc. Justin Shults, 21, of Reading, was shocked and badly burned when he stepped onto metal steps attached to a shower trailer.
The Army said in a statement that the shock suffered by Shults was caused by an "improperly bonded electrical conduit pipe" on the ground.
The report indicates that KBR failed to correct and identify dozens of deficiencies in its contracted work for the government -- even after repeated inspections revealed hazards. It adds that government inspectors found "serious National Electric Code violations associated with bonding and grounding of conductors which presented an electrical shock and fire hazard" in various structures throughout the Iraq theater, including a building identified as LSF1.
Maseth's mother, Cheryl Harris of Allison Park, confirmed that her son lived in that building, which she said is also known as Legion Security Forces building 1. Harris, who has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against KBR, declined to comment on the report on the advice of her attorney.
Heather Browne, director of corporate communications for KBR Inc., released a statement that the company is not providing comment on the report, which has not been released publicly.
"KBR remains committed to the safety and security of all employees and those the company serves. We have fully cooperated with the government when issues have been raised about work in Iraq and we will continue to do so," the statement read.
Meanwhile, the report obtained by the Tribune-Review cites numerous instances in which deficiencies in electrical systems were reported to the contractor and went uncorrected.
Ford reports record loss of $5.9 billion
Ford reports record loss of $5.9 billion
Cuts 1,200 jobs; Kodak 4,500 jobs; Boeing 10k jobs; Starbucks; Toshiba;
Italy: Massimo Donadi of IDV
Its a qurestion whether you currently see a weakness in the head of state or whether DiPietro did good for the party by sayin what he said. but Napolitano is better good concerning this matter in the future
"The declarations today of Of Pietro cannot be diminished into some conceivable, because the leader of Idv used the old technique of throwing the pebble and then the hand withdraws. All we know is that in a difficult phase for the nation the president carries out the role of giving /causing guarantees, who is George Napolitano. By him becoming the fixed target of the manifestations of Italy of Values humiliates opposition parliamentarians and IDV are too destructive by also not voting for government Berlusconi. They need to work for a constructive credible alternative and they need to renew the climate of cooperation at the ministries (institutions)." Union of Christian and Centre Democrats leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, commented the words of the leader of Idv Antonio Di Pietro against the President of the Republic, George Napolitano, in this way. " Today - he emphasizes Cottages - and in the moment of the truth: ambiguity - relationships with Italy of the Values are not tolerable. I respect deeply the Party Democratico and Veltroni and I ask for clarity (how they treat di Pietro)."
Davos latest
ccokzblog
rawstory
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia and Premier Wen Jiabao of China had strong words for certain entities over the state of the global financial system at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
Recent financial conditions are attributed by Wen, in his statement, to "inappropriate macroeconomic policies of some economies and their unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption; excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit; lack of self-discipline among financial institutions and rating agencies and the ensuing distortion of risk information and asset pricing; and the failure of financial supervision and regulation to keep up with financial innovations."
"In other words," he continued, "we must strike a balance between savings and consumption, between financial innovation and regulation, and between the financial sector and real economy.
"The current crisis has inflicted a rather big impact on China's economy. We are facing severe challenges, including notably shrinking external demand, overcapacity in some sectors, difficult business conditions for enterprises, rising unemployment in urban areas and greater downward pressure on economic growth."
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Exclusive: CIA Station Chief in Algeria Accused of Rapes
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=6750266
The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.
The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department to broaden its investigation to include at least one other Arab country, Egypt, where the CIA officer had been posted earlier in his career, according to law enforcement officials.
How to create a server: part 2: installation
- The my.cnf configuration files need to be put in place. First, we'll put blank files in the default locations in order to prevent the server from potential subversion. Do this via the Command Prompt window we were using above.
- notepad C:\my.cnf
-
In notepad, paste in the following, then adjust the the port numbers and drive letters and paths as needed.
NOTE: This sample file puts 5.0.x on the default port (3306) and 4.1.x on 3341. These port numbers will be used throughout the rest of the tutorial. So, if you change anything in your my.cnf file, you will need to adjust all of our commands accordingly. On the command line, MySQL uses the -P flag to tell the client which port to connect to, for example -P 3341.
# This config file contains settings for MySQL versions
# 5.0.x and 4.1.x. Be aware that only one server
# instance can be on a given port. This sample puts
# version 5.0.x on MySQL's default port, 3306. Adjust
# the port numbers to suit your situation.
[mysql]
# Displaying the version number in the prompt
# helps when running multiple instances.
prompt = mysql\\_\v>\\_
[mysqld-5.0]
port = 3306
basedir = C:/Program Files/mysql50/
datadir = M:/mysql50/data/
innodb_data_home_dir = M:/mysql50/ibdata/
innodb_log_group_home_dir = M:/mysql50/iblogs/
innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:10M:autoextend
# Make table names case sensitive.
# Ensures portability when moving applications to other os's.
set-variable = lower_case_table_names=0
# Roll back entire transactions that time out,
# OPTION AVAILABLE SINCE 5.0.32.
innodb_rollback_on_timeout = 1
[mysqld-4.1]
port = 3341
basedir = C:/Program Files/mysql41/
datadir = M:/mysql41/data/
innodb_data_home_dir = M:/mysql41/ibdata/
innodb_log_group_home_dir = M:/mysql41/iblogs/
innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:10M:autoextend
# Make table names case sensitive.
# Ensures portability when moving applications to other os's.
set-variable = lower_case_table_names=0 - Save the file and exit.
Spanish police arrest 6 over $600M London share fraud
Spanish police have arrested six men over an alleged $600 million fraud on London's stock market.
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police have arrested six people linked to a $600 million fraud on the London stock market, after an investigation started by British authorities four years ago, a National Police statement said Wednesday.
The alleged kingpin is an Argentine man who lived in Barcelona. The other five suspects are Spanish men, a police spokesman told CNN. Their identities were not immediately provided.
The alleged fraud started in 2003 and British authorities began investigating in 2005, the police statement said.
"Through complex business and stock market operations, as well as fraud, the suspects managed to get the value of shares of a business to increase without deposits to back it up, subsequently enriching themselves through the sale of the fraudulent shares," the statement said.
Spanish police said Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) began investigating a company in 2005 that had traded for two preceding years on a branch of the London stock exchange but then went out of business after failing to vouch for £370 million (more than $600 million at the time) in deposits with two other financial entities.
Pakistan: U.S. must halt drone attacks
(...)
At least 17 people were killed in two drone strikes near the Afghan border on Friday, according to the Pakistani government, in the first attacks authorized since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last week.
Italy: Di Pietro criticizes Napolitano
Antonio Di Pietro was Minister of Public Works in the Prodi I Cabinet from 1996 to 1997. In 1998 he was elected Senator in a by-election in a Democrats of the Left stronghold in Tuscany and set up his own Italy of Values party, alongside with Willer Bordon of the Democratic Union. In 1998 Di Pietro led it into The Democrats, a new party fouded by Romano Prodi with the goal of the transformation of The Olive Tree in a single "Democratic" party.
In the 1999 European Parliament election The Democrats scored 7.7% and Di Pietro was elected MEP. After having been organizational secretary and speaker in the Senate for the party, Di Pietro left it in April 2000 because of his opposition to the nomination of Giuliano Amato, a long-time member of the Italian Socialist Party (which was the principal subject of investigation of Di Pietro when magistrate) at the time close to the Democrats of the Left. Shortly afterwards Di Pietro set up again Italy of Values.
IdV fought the 2001 general election alone on a populist platform, comprising tough management of illegal immigration and protest against waste of public money. Anyway, the campaign focused principally against Silvio Berlusconi, who was Prime Minister candidate for the centre-right House of Freedoms. The party scored 3.9% in the election for the Chamber of Deputies and obtained no seats, while electing one Senator, Valerio Carrara, who soon left the party and switched to Forza Italia, Berlusconi's party.[5]
The centre-left
In the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections he teamed up with one-time communist leader Achille Occhetto to run as Società Civile Di Pietro–Occhetto. The list gained 2.1% of the popular vote, and both men were elected MEPs; Occhetto immediately renounced to his seat in favour of the communist journalist Giulietto Chiesa.
In early 2006 Leoluca Orlando, former mayor of Palermo, some splinters from UDEUR Populars, including Pino Pisicchio and Egidio Pedrini, and former Democrats of the Left, such as Fabio Evangelisti, joined the party. In the 2006 general elections, IdV, this time member of the winning centre-left The Union, scored 2.1% and Di Pietro was sworn in as Minister for Infrastructures in Prodi II Cabinet.
2008 general election
After the fall of Prodi's government, Di Pietro formed an alliance with the Democratic Party for the 2008 general election. IdV made major gains but its coalition partner did not and they were drived into oppposition. With its 4.4% of the vote, 29 deputies and 14 senators, IdV became the fourth largest party in Parliament.
ROME (Reuters) - The criticism uttered by the leader of Italy of the Values, Antonio Di Peter, on the " silence" of the head of the State on justice has provoked a hard and unusual retort of the Quirinale, that has defined the expressions of the former mayor as "offensive and pretentious".
Napolitano:
"Di Pietro contests the presumed(implied) silence of the head of state by positioning himself into a retaliatory position (avenge )as well as
Di Pietro abuses the prerogatived position of the president in the constitution to pinpoint his criticism thru scrupulous observation."
Both slogans were obviously shown recently on square Farnese in Roma by the Associazione nazionale of Mafia victims.
Italian part of wikipedia: highest ranking consult of mayoral systemsThe protesters protested the abolishing of CSM, a system often used to fight the Mafia locally.
Napolititano:
"The head of state is totally estranged towards the vicissitude(altercation) of the banner in the manifestation shown today on Farnese square by the way it refers to the president.Di Pietro."
There are some now criticizing Harper
Let me share some quotes from Harper’s speech:
“It may not be true, but it’s legendary that if you’re like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians.”
“First, facts about Canada. Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. “
In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.”
“…the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.”
- this is actually a really good line, speaking as a humorist.
There’s an episode of Seinfeld when Jerry’s dentist Tim Whately converts to Judaism and Jerry suspects he did it so he could tell the jokes…Jerry goes to see a Priest. The Priest asks if this offends Jerry as a Jew and he says, “No, it offends me as a comedian”.
Am I offended by Harper’s sentiments about the country that he would eventually lead, ….
Or am I offended by his attempts to be funny?…..
Are these things Harper said even TRUE?
Doesn’t Canada rank considerably higher than the US in areas such as literacy and mathematics? Don’t more of our children attend post-secondary education? Aren’t American companies actively recruiting Canadians because of our high-calibre educational system? (otherwise referred to as the Great Canadian Brian Drain?)
So where does Stephen Harper get off saying most Canadians know nothing?….don’t believe me….read it again.
European Welfare State? Proud of it?…
Even the Taliban are (trigger-) happy with Obama - only Akmaydjinedjad stays nervy
Auch Taliban setzen auf Obama
Böse Taten gutmachen"
Ahmadinedschads Rat
Akmaydjinedjad needs compensation for evil actions
How to create a server part1: MySQL
MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS)[1] which has more than 11 million installations.[2] The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.
MySQL is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, now a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems,[3] which holds the copyright to most of the codebase. The project's source code is available under terms of the GNU General Public License, as well as under a variety of proprietary agreements.
"MySQL" is officially pronounced /maɪˌɛskjuːˈɛl/[4] (My S Q L), not "My sequel" /maɪˈsiːkwəl/. This adheres to the official ANSI pronunciation; SEQUEL was an earlier IBM database language, a predecessor to the SQL language.[5] The company does not take issue with the pronunciation "My sequel" or other local variations.[4]
mysql---wikipediaIran Capable of Producing Nuclear Bomb 'This Year'
- Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a single nuclear weapon later this year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reported on Tuesday.Fox News - Jan 27 10:11 PM
Mullen: Iranian arms probably were bound for Gaz
WASHINGTON - The nation's top military officer said Tuesday the United States did all it could to intercept a suspected arms shipment to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, but its hands were tied.
- US Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran Tuesday of engaging in "subversive activity" in Latin America, saying it concerned him more than Russia's recent naval forays in the region.AFP via Yahoo! News - Jan 27 11:19 AM
Biden heads to Germany, 1st foreign trip as VP
- Biden heads to Germany, 1st foreign trip as VP AP - Tue Jan 27, 5:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Joe Biden will make his first overseas trip as vice president next week when he heads to Germany for the 45th Munich Conference on Security Policy.
Troubled Times Bring Mini-Madoffs to Light
Troubled Times Bring Mini-Madoffs to Light
But the number of other people who have been caught running Ponzi schemes in recent weeks is adding up quickly, so much so that they have earned themselves a nickname: mini-Madoffs.
Some of these schemes have been operating for years, and others are of more recent vintage. But what is causing them to surface now appears to be a combination of a deteriorating economy and heightened skepticism about outsize returns after the revelations about Mr. Madoff. That can scare off new clients and cause longtime investors to demand their money back, which brings the charade tumbling down.
“There is no way for a Ponzi to survive given the large number of redemptions and a lack of new investors,” said Stephen J. Obie, the head of enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The agency has experienced a doubling of reported leads to possible Ponzi schemes in the last year, and its enforcement caseload has risen this year.
On Monday, at a suburban New York train station, Nicholas Cosmo surrendered to federal authorities in connection with a suspected $380 million Ponzi scheme, in which investors paid a minimum of $20,000 for high-yield “private bridge” loans that he had arranged.
Mr. Cosmo promised returns of 48 percent to 80 percent a year, and none of his investors apparently minded — or knew — that Mr. Cosmo had already been imprisoned for securities fraud. In the end, 1,500 people gave him their money, often through brokers who worked on his behalf.
And in Florida, not far from the Palm Beach clubs where Mr. Madoff wooed some of his investors, George L. Theodule, a Haitian immigrant and professed “man of God,” promised churchgoers in a Haitian-American community that he could double their money within 90 days.
He accepted only cash, and despite the too-good-to-be-true sales pitch, he found plenty of investors willing to turn over tens of thousands of dollars.
“The offices were beautiful, and I was told it was a limited liability corporation,” said Reggie Roseme, a deliveryman in Wellington, Fla., who lost his entire savings of $35,000 and now faces foreclosure on his home.
According to federal regulators who have accused him of operating a Ponzi scheme, Mr. Theodule bilked thousands of investors of modest means, like Mr. Roseme, out of $23 million in all, and put $4 million in his own pocket. This money helped pay for two luxury vehicles for Mr. Theodule, a wedding, a lavish house in Georgia and a recent trip to Zurich that federal authorities are now investigating. The fate of the other $19 million is still unknown.
Investors in Idaho say they lost $100 million in a scheme that promised 25 percent to 40 percent annual returns. In Philadelphia, a failed computer salesman tried his hand at trading nonexistent futures contracts for 80 investors and surrendered to federal authorities this month after losing $50 million.
A Ponzi scheme in Atlanta that promised investor returns of 20 percent every month through something called “30-day currency trading contracts” was shut down this month after losing $25 million. And Tuesday, Arthur Nadel, a prominent money manager in Sarasota, Fla., and philanthropist turned himself in to the authorities. He had disappeared this month, just days before the Securities and Exchange Commission charged him in a $300 million investment fraud that may be a Ponzi scheme.
Investors in many of the schemes were told that their money would go into stocks, foreign currencies and other investments and earn above-average returns — a deception backed up with what appeared to be legitimate monthly statements and fancy offices. Now, Ponzi-related losses are adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The S.E.C. does not keep statistics on Ponzi fraud, but it has brought cases involving losses of over $200 million since the beginning of October last year, including one against the disgraced Democratic donor Norman Hsu. Mr. Hsu was accused of using money from a $60 million Ponzi scheme to make campaign donations to leading candidates, including President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton later donated the money to charities.)
Regulators, chastened by failing to uncover the Madoff scandal, are focusing more on such swindles. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, for instance, has established a new Forex Enforcement Task Force to prosecute Ponzi cases in which investors were told their money was being invested in foreign currencies. In 2008, the agency prosecuted 15 Ponzi schemes and expects that number to increase this year.
Last Thursday, Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, who are both influential members of the Senate Banking Committee, introduced legislation to provide $110 million to hire 500 new F.B.I. agents, 50 new assistant United States attorneys and 100 new S.E.C. enforcement officials to crack down on such crimes.
GOP-Obama love affair fizzles
GOP-Obama love affair fizzles
yahoo.com
It was the love affair that could never be, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans.
The two sides came together en masse Tuesday for the first time since Obama took the oath of office. Despite the niceties, both sides walked away spurned.
In many ways, Obama told the assembled Republicans everything they would want to hear, according to people in the meetings.
He promised to make tough spending choices in his first budget blueprint — “everyone will have to take a haircut,” he said. He told them he wouldn’t increase the size of government just to increase the size of government. He even teased House Minority Leader John A. Boehner about his golf swing.
Likewise, Republicans left the meeting with kind words for the president — but still resolved to oppose him on the floor Wednesday when Democrats bring his massive economic stimulus plan up for a vote.
Beneath the polite give and take between the new president and the newly disempowered Republican caucus, there was a sense that Obama’s honeymoon had already begun to ebb. For the first time, it seems, congressional Republicans, shut out of power and seemingly cowed by the harsh verdict of voters and wild popularity of the new president, are finding their voice, rallying in large numbers against the centerpiece of Obama’s agenda.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) started the week swinging, declaring Sunday that he would oppose Obama’s stimulus package as written. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has kept up a daily din of opposition to specifics of the package, mocking the inclusion of a mob museum and a water park. Senate Republicans also are rallying against the Democratic version of a children’s health care bill being debated this week. And most Senate Republicans opposed the confirmation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday.
Special elections begin in Iraq
I mean this article is ok despite the image subtext. Why the heck is the guy shown an Iraqi soldier? This is clearly an US soldier
(CNN) -- Special provincial elections began Wednesday morning in Iraq, a precursor to the monumental elections that will be held this weekend in the country.
An Iraqi soldier stands next to elections posters on January 27, 2009, in Baghdad.
The special voting day allows Iraqi security forces, detainees and hospital patients to cast ballots in the provincial elections.
On Saturday, millions of people are expected to go to the polls, with 14,000 candidates competing for 440 provincial council seats.
As they will on Saturday, polls opened at 7 a.m. Wednesday and were to close at 5 p.m. The provincial vote is viewed as a key vote for the country, because Iraqis have not voted since 2005.
The polls will be held in 14 of 18 provinces. More than 600,000 people are expected to vote in the special election Wednesday, Iraqi election officials said.
Mexico:Twenty-two people were found shot dead
The killings are likely the result of the ongoing war between powerful drug cartels for control of lucrative access corridors to the United States, officials said.
Petroleos de Mexico workers found the bodies of the four men, some half-dressed and with tape over their eyes, piled up in a well on company property some 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of Monterrey, on the US-Mexican border.
The men had all been shot in the head, police in this prosperous and heavily industrialized city told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile to the west in the state of Chihuahua, a state also bordering the United States, police found 18 bodies.
Among the dead were three men were found Tuesday afternoon in the state capital Chihuahua with their hands and feet tied. Police said that witnesses saw how the victims were forced out of a vehicle and riddled with bullets on the spot.
Other bodies were found in different state cities, including five in Ciudad Juarez, the epicenter of a war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels. Already 116 people have been killed in drug violence in Juarez in 2009.
In 2008 some 2,400 people were murdered in Chihuahua state, 1,600 of them in Ciudad Juarez, according to government figures.
The Mexican government has deployed some 36,000 soldiers across the country to battle organized crime.
Across the country, 5,300 people were murdered in 2008, the government said.
911
rawstory 
The super-secretive National Security Agency has been quietly monitoring, decrypting, and interpreting foreign communications for decades, starting long before it came under criticism as a result of recent revelations about the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Now a forthcoming PBS documentary asks whether the NSA could have prevented 9/11 if it had been more willing to share its data with other agencies.
Author James Bamford looked into the performance of the NSA in his 2008 book, The Shadow Factory, and found that it had been closely monitoring the 9/11 hijackers as they moved freely around the United States and communicated with Osama bin Laden's operations center in Yemen. The NSA had even tapped bin Laden's satellite phone, starting in 1996.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Unemployment sweeps nation
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Unemployment spiked in all states nationwide in December for the first time as companies shed hundreds of thousands of positions, federal data released Tuesday shows.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate increases compared with the previous month and the year prior period, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.
The report marked the first time every state recorded a rise in monthly unemployment since the bureau began keeping such records in 1976.
Michigan and Rhode Island once again led the nation with the highest jobless rates at 10.6% and 10% respectively. Rhode Island's rate is the highest in more than three decades.
The national unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in December, up from 6.8% the previous month and from 4.9% a year earlier.
More pain is in store in January. On Monday alone, companies announced more than 71,000 job cuts.
President Obama is pushing for quick passage of an $825 billion package it hopes will stimulate the economy and promote job growth.
"Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last 26 years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits," Obama said Saturday. "If we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse."
However, some critics say the bill will not do enough to reverse the spike in unemployment.
"There is too much wasteful spending and the plan in our view won't do what it is intended to do -- create jobs and preserve jobs in America," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Swiftly rising unemployment claims is wreaking havoc on state unemployment trust funds. These accounts, which are funded by taxes levied on employers, are running dry.
Four more state funds -- Indiana, New York, South Carolina and Ohio -- have become insolvent in the last four months, according to a forthcoming report from the National Employment Law Project. They join Michigan in borrow from the federal government to continue paying benefits.
Another 13 states are at "major risk" of insolvency, up from eight in September, according to the advocacy group. These states have eight months or less of average monthly benefits in their trust funds. These include: New Jersey, California, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Minnesota, Connecticut and Illinois.
Some experts predict up to 30 states could see their funds become insolvent this year if the recession deepens.
While the jobless in these states will continue to get benefits, there are serious ramifications to having insolvent funds. State legislatures must bring the funds back into balance, which means either cutting benefits or raising taxes on employers. Neither are palatable during a recession.
Companies aren't as quick to hire new workers if they have to pay higher unemployment taxes on each one, experts said.
"It does tend to slow down their rehiring," said Richard Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. 
Watch: Obama's first TV interview: Al-Arabiya
BILD.de
Obama reaches out to Muslims
Israel confirms that Mr.Mitchell is on route to Mid east
Obama reaches out to Muslim world
New Ponzi sceme - cops arrest Nicholas Cosmo
Cops verhaften Cosmo
Head of the investment firm Agape World, Nicholas Cosmo, is reported to have cheated customers for about 380 mio dollars. The 37 year old surrendered to police on monday evening after police searched his office on Long Island.
Schroder visits Iran
Ein Iran-Besuch von Ex-Kanzler Schröder kommt der Bundesregierung nicht sehr gelegen
clik below on german social dems: when scrolling down u'll see some recent pic of Muentefering. This visit isnt exactly left also. During last election in Hessia (state of Germany) the social dems didnt loose voters to the conservatives, but to other "left" parties. Stupid.
Wikipedia may change rules
rawstory
Doctored Evidence' Tossed on First Day of Coleman/Franken Election Contest
In what TPM's Eric Kleefeld describes as "a truly brutal moment, one that could undermine the credibility of Norm Coleman's whole case," the Republican fomer Senator's political director was called to testify about doctored evidence, as revealed by Al Franken's attorneys last week, which they'd submitted in their U.S. Senate election contest against the apparent-winner in Minnesota.
By the end of the day today, the first official day of the trial, the 3-judge panel threw out the tainted evidence --- photocopies of rejected absentee ballots where the Coleman camp had either removed written comments from election officials as to why they were rejected, or left in text added by the campaign itself --- and allowed Coleman's team to subpoena and then re-submit the actual ballot envelopes.
Pretty nice of them, considering they could have fined Coleman and/or struck the claim entirely, as Kleefeld notes in his coverage this afternoon.
In memoriam of the victims of the holocaust
Gedenken an Holocaust
On 27th of jan 1945 the red army liberated Ausschwitz.
Obama offers some kind of partnership to Muslims
Obama reaches out to Muslims
Israel confirms that Mr.Mitchell is on route to Mid east
Obama reaches out to Muslim world
Monday, 26 January 2009
Geithner sworn in as U.S. treasury secretary
The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm Tim Geithner as the next treasury secretary amid ongoing uncertainty about the nation's economic future. Geithner, who will spearhead U.S. President Barack Obama's response to the financial crisis that threatens to unravel growth around the globe, was sworn in by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. developing story
Wolf said that recession and growth are cyclical. Now if it's cyclical and everybody knew beforehand the next depression would hit 2010, why the fuark do I try to sell fukking f-150's in 2004 instead of slashing out the last shit by selling honda accords, save my money and be well prepared for the coming crisis?
Well, Wagenknecht gave the answer before: we call this shareholder value or simply greed. US companies did not invest into the own company but gave fat dividends. Stocks now worth a dime had immense value before and the companies now peppered with state money did in fact pump the money onto private bank accounts. And they will suck the the money like some glibberish dodge ram for while. Now what does this mean? Would I say that certain people within the US should move to the Bahamas soon? Well, sure. Take Mr. Nadel or Mr. Madoff. They got every reason.
So what's the macroeconomical perspective on this? Dark till shitty. Like said before: the money is on private bank accounts and not in development for the past five years. Ok, Obama said today that the US needs fuel efficient cars. But if u build'em now from scratch, it'll take a while. And: money for development or for example diffrent car plants is hard to get in times of crisis. What if u need to change the infrastructure for a two engine car? (one electrical, one liquid fuel pumped) Its expensive. at first hand. if mass production arrives, fukking cheap. but now itll take US producers 2 years to change. So, the disaster is not a bit bigger than expected but fat-bigger than expected. And good as I am, I like to call this intention. Or fat EVIL. greetinx to the imperial presidency, Mr Bush, fukking scum bastard.
Another point Wagenknecht mentioned was that ever since Reagan came into power, growth didnt mean higher wages automatically. In fact Reagan did everything to allow people taking bigger loans. That was in fact concerning houses, id est mortages taken onto houses. An ever bigger bubble developed since 1980 while people were taking loans for education, cars or simply everyday needs. The growth ensured an ever higher worth for houses. Well, Wolf suggested also that the breakdown of the communist block prolonged this bubble to sustain. 1/3 of the worlds raw materials were suddenly available to private capital as well as there were unsaturated markets that paid thru these materials and kept high end (US) plants going. Now, these markets are saturated now. The bubble bursts. A combined effect.
Now, I dont want to insinuate a shit to fukking imperial scum bastard Bush, but his ass would look a lot better if there was some coup d'etat on 11-9-2001, I guess.
Now, Wagenknecht couldn't hesitate to mention it: capitalist aggresion will cause ever higher capacity of production as long as there is somebody who pays for the product. Now, China and Russia are saturated now. I wrote it before: 1 ton of recycable paper dropped from 77 euros to 2 euros. It's not only the case that China and Russia are saturated, but they produce themselves. To be precise: Recycled paper to be transported in freighters. Or simply fresh paper. Just cheaper.
Now, what will happen now? As wrote before, firms need money. As wrote before, there are sheer OVERCAPACITIES. THEY WILL OUTDUMP EACH OTHER!
Obama pushing stronger fuel-efficiency standard
AP – 3 mins agoWASHINGTON – President Barack Obama ordered the government Monday to re-examine whether California and other states should be allowed to have tougher auto emission standards, a clean break from Bush administration policy. Full Story»
Canon urges workers to multiply
The pope urges acceptance of the holocaust. I guess he does so in defense of life like our beloved prophet Jesus taught us.
Or, maybe not. But that could be only another small failure of the Vatican to position themselves below Canon, Japan. Nothing but the sewer perspective I guess.
updated 10 minutes ago
Pope outrages Jews over Holocaust denier
Berlusconi latest
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, no stranger to verbal gaffes, has come under fire again for a remark that critics say makes light of rape.
In 2008 Berlusconi claimed right-wing female politicians were better looking than their left-wing counterparts.
While campaigning for local elections in Sardinia Sunday, Berlusconi was asked by reporters to comment about an interior ministry proposal to deploy troops on city streets after a series of sexual assaults on women.
"We can't think of deploying a large force," Berlusconi said. "We would have to send as many soldiers as there are beautiful girls. And I don't think we would manage."
The comment drew widespread criticism, including from his political opponents. Opposition leader Walter Veltroni accused the prime minister of "ignoring the seriousness of sexual violence."
Later, Berlusconi said he meant his remarks as a "a compliment."
The mexican army caught a gangster who dissolved 300 corpses in acid last year
He worked for Teodoro García Simental.
Philips posts 1.5bio€ loss
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/01/26/philips.corus.jobcuts/index.html
(CNN) -- The economic gloom continued on Monday as electronics giant Philips and steel maker Corus both announced thousands of job cuts.
Netherlands-based Philips said 6,000 jobs would be lost worldwide in 2009 following quarterly losses of €1.5 billion ($1.9 billion), its first quarterly loss since 2003.
A spokesman for Philips, which employs 121,000 people around the world, told the Press Association it had not announced where the job cuts would fall, saying they would be decided on a "case by case" basis.
Philips' loss is worse than anticipated with analysts in a poll for Reuters.com expecting a net loss of just €1.2 billion.
"The development of our quarterly results reflects the unprecedented speed and ferocity with which the economy softened in 2008," Philips Chief Executive Gerard Kleisterlee said in a statement.
Philips' announcement follows similar news from its competitors, such as Japan's Sony, which warned it was likely to post a record $2.9 billion annual operating loss, and Samsung posting its first-ever quarterly loss.
Meanwhile Monday, Indian-owned Corus said it would axe 3,500 jobs, including 2,500 of its 24,000 employees in the UK.
The company said the measures would improve profits by more than £200 million ($273 million). Corus, part of the Tata Group which also owns Jaguar and Land Rover, has 42,000 workers around the world and says it will try to achieve the 3,500 cuts through voluntary redundancies.
The crisis in the steel industry has been caused by the downturn in the two main markets, construction and car manufacturing.
Steel prices, which had been driven to record highs by strong demand from China, have more than halved in the last year.Bingo. There we go. BNP paribas is down. Way down
BNP Paribas, which only recently went on a shopping spree, posts a billion euro loss. 1.4 bio € to be precise.Looks like certain factorz r slumping faster than expected
Fortis Bank to record loss of up to €19bn
Fortis Bank, the Belgian state-owned lender, will record a net loss of up to €19bn for 2008 due to the financial crisis and the break-up of the banking and insurance group that owned it.
(Fortis belongs to the state of Belgium meanwhile)
Some renegades are turning in on... Greenspan
Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006 -- Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with star status, named the "oracle" and "the maestro". Now he is viewed as one of those most culpable for the crisis. He is blamed for allowing the housing bubble to develop as a result of his low interest rates and lack of regulation in mortgage lending. He backed sub-prime lending and urged homebuyers to swap fixed-rate mortgages for variable rate deals, which left borrowers unable to pay when interest rates rose. For many years, Greenspan also defended the booming derivatives business, which barely existed when he took over the Fed, but which mushroomed from $100tn in 2002 to more than $500tn five years later. Warren Buffett famously described them as "financial weapons of mass destruction" - but Greenspan did all he could to protect the market from what he believed was unnecessary regulation. In 2003 he told the Senate banking committee: "Derivatives have been an extraordinarily useful vehicle to transfer risk from those who shouldn't be taking it to those who are willing to and are capable of doing so".
19-2
map
Global warming? Dont panic. We got Helicopters
1 less car
Bush monitors
Privacy issues
Bush citation 1
bush cite3
McCain Evergreens