Did Just 170,000 Passengers Get Groped by Strangers Last Week? Or a Million?
You know how I mocked the White House for dismissing the problem of gate rape by saying only 170,000 passengers had had their genitalia groped by a stranger working for the government?
I noted that their pushback was potentially inconsistent.…
Michael Barr--Liaison on Foreclosure Fraud Investigation--Leaves Treasury
Just one week ago, Iowa's Attorney General Tom Miller told Chris Dodd that Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions Michael Barr was the key person from Treasury working with the Attorneys General investigation into foreclosure…
White House: Only 170,000 People Have Had Genitalia Groped by Complete Stranger in Last Week
The White House has started a pushback campaign on gate rape that is reminiscent of "Recovery Summer" or "Mission Accomplished" for its credibility.
It consists of a number of things, in addition to the inevitable army of talking-point-people…
John Pistole Ignored DHS Advice to Warn about Gate Rape
Apparently, John Pistole not only promised to Congress--but failed to deliver--public education about why gate rape was necessary. But he ignored advice from DHS to provide a public explanation in advance, too.
In an hour-long discussion…
How Ireland Is Like AIG
This summarizes everything I've been hearing about the forced bailout of Ireland over the weekend.
The pressure for a bailout of Ireland did not come from Ireland itself—it came from Eurozone officials. If anything, Irish Finance Minister…
John Pistole Wants Us to Be Afraid of His Shadow
I'm working on a longer post on John Pistole, the head of Transportation Security Administration who ordered the TSA to touch your junk.
But in the meantime I wanted to point out something appalling about his recent testimony to the Senate…
Oversight and Investigation: "Why Should They Take You Seriously?"
Yves Smith has a post laying out one of the most troublesome aspects of the response to the revelation of foreclosure fraud. As she explains, to conduct an "independent review" of its PR-servicing "review" of its own servicing practices,…
House Committee on Homeland Security Expressed Concerns about "Gate Rape" on September 22
Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie Thompson sent Transportation Security Administration Director John Pistole a letter on Friday expressing concern that the TSA did not review privacy and civil liberty concerns before implementing…
Trash Talk: The Parity Before The Lock-Out
So here's some things to contemplate about this week in the NFL. The Jay Cutler-led Bears already won this week (it helps to play a team the week after they got cleaned out of QBs), putting them, for the moment at least, half a game ahead…
Debbie Stabenow to Chair Agriculture Committee
Finally, some good news coming out of November's election.
Debbie Stabenow has been selected to replace the outgoing Blanche Lincoln as Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. (There had been some concern that Big Ag would oppose someone…
Both Dodd and Frank Call on Admin to Use Powers of Dodd-Frank
DDay has a really important post that--along with a great interview with Brad Miller--includes a letter from Miller and other members of Congress, urging the Financial Stability Oversight Council to take action to prevent the foreclosure fraud…
Crist's Morrison Pardon: 21st Century Fox In A Lizard King's Henhouse
/
bmazCharlie Crist makes noises about freeing the soul of Jim Morrison. He should do it.
CIA Secretly Breaking the Law with Impunity Again
Apparently, the Jan Schakowsky's House Subcommittee completed its investigations of all the times the CIA failed to inform the Gang of Eight about covert ops and in other ways broke the law. Apparently, that investigation found "several instances"…
Rattner's Pump Dump
When Steven Rattner published this piece on the GM IPO in HuffPo, he had not yet been sued by NY's Attorney General for allegedly being "willing to do whatever it took to get his hands on pension fund money including paying kickbacks, orchestrating…
Happy GM Day.
Wall Street and the Administration are hailing the GM IPO and claiming victory.
General Motors Co GM.UL pulled off the biggest initial public offering in U.S. history on Wednesday, raising $20.1 billion after pricing shares at the top of…
We Convicted a Guy the Bush Administration Tortured
More like this please:
"So, we tried a guy (who the Bush Admin tortured and then held at GTMO for 4-plus years with no end game whatsoever) in a federal court before a NY jury with full transparency and international legitimacy and -- despite…
Ahmed Ghailani Guilty of Conspiracy, But Not Murder
The jury in Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's trial for his role in the 1998 embassy bombings has found him guilty of conspiracy, but not the charges of terrorism he was accused of. With the one count, however, he may still face a life sentence.
It…
Expect Our Banana Republic-Like Access to Justice to Get Worse
Not long ago, an independent group showed that the access to justice for the average American rivaled that of a banana republic. And no one is making much of an effort to fix that problem. As DDay reported last week, while the Dodd-Frank bill…
Unemployment Insurance Keeps Middle Class Families Out of Poverty
As Arthur Delaney reports, CBO just came out with analysis that shows unemployment insurance kept an extra percent of the population out of poverty last year (which would work out to be around 3 million people).
Extended unemployment insurance…
Fed Orders New Stress Tests
One of the things the Congressional Oversight Panel recommended the other day was new stress tests for banks, given the mounting evidence that botched securitization may make them insolvent (okay -- that last bit is my shorthand).
Today,…
