The GrassCity Gazette

[MountyBounty]

Report: Congress Set to End Tax-Free Online Shopping

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The free ride may soon be over.

For the past decade and a half, most Internet shoppers haven't been forced to pay sales tax while buying goods online.

But now, according to CNet News, an alliance of "brick-and-mortar" retailers and state governments has teamed up to end that — and they've crafted federal legislation that may be introduced in Congress as early as next week.

Previous attempts in past years to do so have flopped.
The sheer complexity of sales-tax-collection in the U.S. — it's estimated there are about 7,000 different states, counties, municipalities and other governmental agencies that collect it — has made it nearly impossible to collect taxes from Online Retailers.In theory, customers are supposed to calculate how much they owe and to whom they owe it, and then pay it separately, but few if any people do.

The only exceptions until recently have been in cases where large online retailers have physical offices in certain states.

For example, Washington state residents pay sales tax on orders from Seattle-based Amazon, as do residents of Kansas, Kentucky and North Dakota, where the company has facilities.

States and municipalities hate the current system, but few have done anything about it — except New York state, which has very aggressively fought to get back its money.

As of June 1, 2008, all online retailers have been obliged to charges local sales taxes on items shipped to anywhere in New York — and also charge tax on the shipping and handling.Now the impetus is on to have it happen nationwide — and Congress is getting involved in what could be seen as a purely local issue.

"We will have the bill ready for introduction by next Monday," a spokesman for the National Conference of State Legislatures told CNet News in a story posted Wednesday. "We finalized the language and now we're working out the remaining issues and adding some new provisions at the request of various stakeholders."

It's not clear what exactly the bill would do, but it's expected to be introduced in the House by Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., and in the Senate by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

The real thinking behind it comes from the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP), a slow-but-steady effort to get states and municipalities to simplify and unify their sales-tax regimes so that online sales tax can reasonably be collected.

Nineteen states, most smaller ones from the Midwest and upper South, are full members, meaning they've already achieved that goal as defined by the SSTP. Three more are "associate members" who will comply by July 1 of this year.

Notably missing are the four monster-population states of California, Florida, Illinois and New York, or any of the five Deep South states. Of other states with large high-technology sectors, Utah and Washington are represented; Texas and Massachusetts are absent.

Nonetheless, SSTP head Scott Peterson is hopeful about the bill's chances.

"One of the big things the states have learned in the recession is they have declining revenues," Peterson told CNet News. "We're very optimistic about Congress this year."

[MountyBounty]

YouTube - America is now the new Fascist Power...

YouTube - America is now the new Fascist Power...

[aaronman]

YouTube - Peter Schiff: Barack Obama Is Saying...

[AK Infinity]

YouTube - Dr. Paul on Secession

[aaronman]

Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

(Join Jeff Stein for a live online chat at 3 p.m. today about his story, or submit a question for Jeff.)

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”
Harman declined to discuss the wiretap allegations, instead issuing an angry denial through a spokesman.

“These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact,” Harman said in a prepared statement. “I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves.”

It’s true that allegations of pro-Israel lobbyists trying to help Harman get the chairmanship of the intelligence panel by lobbying and raising money for Pelosi aren’t new.

They were widely reported in 2006, along with allegations that the FBI launched an investigation of Harman that was eventually dropped for a “lack of evidence.”
What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.

And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

As for there being “no evidence” to support the FBI probe, a source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretaps called that “bull****.”


“I read those transcripts,” said the source, who like other former national security officials familiar with the transcript discussed it only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping.

“It’s true,” added another former national security official who was briefed on the NSA intercepts involving Harman. “She was on there.”

Such accounts go a long way toward explaining not only why Harman was denied the gavel of the House Intelligence Committee, but failed to land a top job at the CIA or Homeland Security Department in the Obama administration.

Gonzales said through a spokesman that he would have no comment on the allegations in this story.

The identity of the “suspected Israeli agent” could not be determined with certainty, and officials were extremely skittish about going beyond Harman’s involvement to discuss other aspects of the NSA eavesdropping operation against Israeli targets, which remain highly classified.

But according to the former officials familiar with the transcripts, the alleged Israeli agent asked Harman if she could use any influence she had with Gonzales, who became attorney general in 2005, to get the charges against the AIPAC officials reduced to lesser felonies.

AIPAC official Steve Rosen had been charged with two counts of conspiring to communicate, and communicating national defense information to people not entitled to receive it. Weissman was charged with conspiracy.

AIPAC dismissed the two in May 2005, about five months before the events here unfolded.

Harman responded that Gonzales would be a difficult task, because he “just follows White House orders,” but that she might be able to influence lesser officials, according to an official who read the transcript.

Justice Department attorneys in the intelligence and public corruption units who read the transcripts decided that Harman had committed a “completed crime,” a legal term meaning that there was evidence that she had attempted to complete it, three former officials said.

And they were prepared to open a case on her, which would include electronic surveillance approved by the so-called FISA Court, the secret panel established by the 1979 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to hear government wiretap requests.
First, however, they needed the certification of top intelligence officials that Harman’s wiretapped conversations justified a national security investigation.

Then-CIA Director Porter J. Goss reviewed the Harman transcript and signed off on the Justice Department’s FISA application. He also decided that, under a protocol involving the separation of powers, it was time to notify then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Minority Leader Pelosi, of the FBI’s impending national security investigation of a member of Congress — to wit, Harman.


Goss, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, deemed the matter particularly urgent because of Harman’s rank as the panel’s top Democrat.
But that’s when, according to knowledgeable officials, Attorney General Gonzales intervened.

According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he “needed Jane” to help support the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times.

Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections. And although it was too late to stop the Times from publishing now, she could be counted on again to help defend the program
He was right.

On Dec. 21, 2005, in the midst of a firestorm of criticism about the wiretaps, Harman issued a statement defending the operation and slamming the Times, saying, “I believe it essential to U.S. national security, and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities.”

Pelosi and Hastert never did get the briefing.

And thanks to grateful Bush administration officials, the investigation of Harman was effectively dead.

Many people want to keep it that way.

Goss declined an interview request, and the CIA did not respond to a request to interview former Director Michael V. Hayden , who was informed of the Harman transcripts but chose to take no action, two knowledgeable former officials alleged.

Likewise, the first director of national intelligence, former ambassador John D. Negroponte, was opposed to an FBI investigation of Harman, according to officials familiar with his thinking, and let the matter die. (Negroponte was traveling last week and did not respond to questions relayed to him through an assistant.)

Harman dodged a bullet, say disgusted former officials who have pursued the AIPAC case for years. She was protected by an administration desperate for help.

“It’s the deepest kind of corruption,” said a recently retired longtime national security official who was closely involved in AIPAC investigation, “which was years in the making.

“It’s a story about the corruption of government — not legal corruption necessarily, but ethical corruption.”

Ironically, however, nothing much was gained by it.

The Justice Department did not back away from charging Rosen and fellow AIPAC official Keith Weissman with espionage (for allegedly giving classified Pentagon documents to Israeli officials).

Gonzales was engulfed by the NSA warrantless wiretapping scandal.

And Jane Harman was relegated to chairing a House Homeland Security subcommittee.
Jeff Stein can be reached at jstein@cq.com.

[aaronman]

The US economy is still facing "substantial risks" as the property bust spreads to commercial real estate and the recession engulfs the world, a top White House adviser has said.

Larry Summers, chair of the National Economic Council, said there were signs that worst may be over but warned that "it is a long road and it is going to take time" after the damage inflicted on the financial system.

"There are downside contingencies that we've got to prepare for, issues in the global economy, in commercial real estate. We can't know with certainty what's going to happen next, and there certainly are real risks ahead," he said at the Americas summit in Trinidad.


The University of Michigan's index of consumer confidence rose in April to levels last seen before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September.

US house-building appears to be stabilising near 500,000 a month, albeit a very low level. The number of new jobless claims has dropped over the last two weeks.

However, most analysts seem wary of this spring rally in equities. Duncan Niederauer, head of the New Stock Exchange, said institutional investors were holding off as short-term traders make the running.

The VIX volatility index − the "fear gauge" − has fallen to pre-Lehman levels but long-dated futures remain unusually high.

Dominic Wilson, a strategist at Goldman Sachs, said: "There are few clearer signals than this that the market remains highly uncertain about the recovery path and the risks ahead"

Mr Wilson said one-year VIX contracts have remained at elevated levels not seen since the Great Depression.

[aaronman]

GM 'likely' to shift Production to China

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., shuttering U.S. plants in a bid to avoid bankruptcy, is “likely” to build a new factory in China on surging demand.

“Operations in China are profitable and in the future China can finance its own growth,” Nick Reilly, the company’s Asia-Pacific president, said at the Shanghai auto show today. He didn’t give a timeframe for the new plant.

GM, the biggest overseas automaker in China, boosted sales in the country 38 percent last month as government stimulus measures spurred demand for its minivans. By contrast, the company’s U.S. sales slumped 45 percent on the recession, as it battles to convince the U.S. government that it’s still viable.

The automaker has also delayed expansion of an Indian plant for as long as two years as sales growth there has slowed, Reilly said. The company will seek to turn around sales in Australia and South Korea, he added.

GM is basing its business planning in Asia on the assumption that it will have to finance projects locally, insulating it from possible problems in the U.S., Reilly said.

“We won’t get money out of the U.S. into China,” Reilly said. Still, “we don’t need to because we have a very good balance sheet.”

China Sales

The Detroit-based carmaker said April 9 it expects to double annual sales in China to more than 2 million vehicles over the next five years, with more than 30 new and upgraded models being introduced in that span.

GM makes vehicles in China through two ventures, both of which are backed by SAIC Motor Corp. Reilly said he wouldn’t comment on the possibility of Chinese automakers buying GM brands.

GM is trying to prove it’s viable in order to keep $13.4 billion in U.S. federal loans. The company is seeking to shed some brands, cut 47,000 jobs worldwide this year and close five assembly plants as it faces a June 1 deadline to avoid a U.S. government-backed bankruptcy.

GM will keep its “most profitable” Buick brand, Reilly said. The carmaker is trying to sell or close Saturn, Hummer and Saab out of its eight brands.

It’s also studying plans to drop Pontiac and GMC as part of its broader cost-cutting moves, people familiar with the discussions have said. The Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick brands are likely safe, said the people last week, asking not to be named because decisions aren’t final.

GM is ready to cede controlling stakes in Adam Opel GmbH and Vauxhall Motors Holdings Ltd. in exchange for a promise to invest in a new venture formed from those European units, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the plans.
An investor will be asked to pay at least 500 million euros ($650 million) in equity for the units, while GM will inject the money directly into Opel, the newspaper said.

Translation: US taxpayer bailout money spent providing jobs for ... the Chinese.

[aaronman]

America lives in a fascist state

The merger of corporate and government powers in modern America is plain and simple fascism, believes Gerald Celente, the founder of the Trends Research Institute and publisher of Trends Journal.


RT: I’d like to begin by talking about the Treasury department. They’ve decided to extend bailout funds to a number of struggling life insurance policies. This is in addition to the auto industry and the banks. Do you think Americans are aware of what’s going on?

G.C.: They know about it, it’s a new trend. America is going from what used to be the major capitalistic country in the world of free market – a crusader – into what Mussolini would have called fascism: the merger of state and corporate powers. So it is not socialism as people believe, it is socialism’s egalitarianism. It’s not communism where the state controls monopolies – it’s fascism, plain and simple. The merger of corporate and government powers. State-controlled capitalism is called fascism, and fascism has come to America in broad daylight. But they’re feeding them it in little bits and pieces. First AIG was too big to fail. Mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were too big to fail. Banks too big to fail and auto companies. And now we give money to the people that make the auto parts. And now there’s talk about the technology companies, wanting their piece of the action. The merger of state and government is called fascism. Take it from Mussolini; he knew a thing or two about it.

RT: What can Americans do if they are opposed to the road that government officials are bringing them down?

G.C.: The people don’t really have a choice, there is no ballot box. I’m of Italian descent and I’ve heard enough of mafia stories for the rest of my life. If you want to look at a mafia, you can call it a republican and democratic party. And if you want to look at the two families, the heads of the mafia, all you have to do is to look at the Bushes and the Clintons. They’ve been running the show now for some 24 years. We heard about Obama who is going to bring in ‘change’. A change you could believe in if he is dumb, stupid and blind. Look who he’s brought in as his chief policy makers. Retreads from the old Clinton administration. It’s a two-headed one-party system. So it’s very difficult for the people to vote in a new administration that isn’t part of the old one.

RT: Can you tell me one thing that you like about President Obama?

G.C.: In the Trends Journal, the top trends of 2009, one of our trends was that people are going to be putting out ‘recession gardens’. And now as we see the Obamas, they are planting their own garden, and that trend is taking hold. So he is doing that in positive ways, he’s bringing an element of dignity back to society. Those are positives. But now let me look at whether it’s true or the hypocrisy. So, they are talking about planting their own gardens. And they are talking about buying local. Oh, all that is wonderful, but on the other side of the coin they are pushing genetically modified foods while they’re eating organic. So it’s like ‘let them eat Frankenfoods’ – this is the message. So I see hypocrisy at every level. When they show me truth and justice, and the real American way – then I’ll believe.

RT: If I revert to our previous interview, I asked you – “what kind of revolution do you think would happen and when, and why would it happen?” and you said there would be a tax revolt. And now we are hearing more and more about these ‘tea parties’. What do you make of that? Do you think that that’s just the first action and many actions to follow from the American public?

G.C.: There is going to be a lot more. This is just a beginning. As a Bronx boy, my saying is: ‘when people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose – they lose it’.
You’re gonna start see people taking to the streets, like they do in other countries. People have had it, they are fed up. They can’t afford it anymore. Look at what is going on. Ten major states are raising taxes again as people are losing their jobs, income is going down, they are losing their pensions, they are losing their investments – and the government is saying: more taxes, more taxes, more taxes…

At the same time, what’s happening is, on the top, they are changing the regulations so the thieves could steal more, just as they did with the new banking act. They call it mark-to-market. So it is now allowing them to do rather than putting the real loss of their assets – the toxic assets that they are holding – they are letting them make up what they want! Come up with fictitious numbers and you are going to start seeing ‘bank stocks going up again’.

It is fake, and what they are doing is they’re changing the regulations on the top so the big thieves could steal more, while they clamping down on the little people – and the little people have had it.

RT: These stimulus plans, both with former President Bush and with President Obama, were rushed through so quickly and you make a comparison to the way that the US launched the War on Iraq with the same urgency of the plans.

G.C.: They push it through so that people are kept off guard – they put fear into the people’s hearts. Remember the mushroom cloud that was going to explode if we did not do it very quickly with Iraq? And remember the financial system was going to collapse if we didn’t save AIG? And who ever knew the AIG was, to begin with?! “What’s an AIG?! I’ve never heard of one before!” most people would say.

When the AIG plan was rushed through, the only person outside of the Federal Reserve and Washington to sit on that AIG bailout was Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs got $13 billion of taxpayer money so that they wouldn’t take the loss of the AIG bailout because they bet bad with AIG.

And who was the Treasury Secretary at the time? Former CEO of Goldman Sachs Henry Paulson. Oh, and who did Obama bring in to run AIG now for the government? Ed Liddy. And where is Ed Liddy from? Goldman Sachs. The fix is in, the game is rigged. Forget about calling this ‘government’, Wall Street has hijacked Washington.

RT: So now what?

G.C.: We need a revolution. And we’re going to talk about that more in the future. And we’re going to be announcing our plans for the revolution in the coming weeks. And it is going to be much greater than the tea parties or the tax revolts.

My morality, the way I was raised, there are two things in the moral code that are against everything that I was taught. The first is that you don’t kill innocent people, and the US is involved in killing innocent people both in Iraq and Afghanistan. The facts speak for themselves. It has been proven that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, nor ties to Al-Qaeda. Yet the US is still waging war in Iraq. Number two, this whole thing about Afghanistan, taking over the country for whatever reasons, and the Russians know it even better than the Americans, and the English knew it before the Russians – this has been going on and on. The Afghani people have done nothing to the Americans. And now President Obama has sent another 21,000 troops into Afghanistan. So, killing innocent people is against my morality.

The second part of the revolution, why we are calling for revolution is that we are getting robbed in broad daylight. The numbers and facts we have discussed speak for themselves. They’re pick-pocketing the little people to pay off the big guys. This is against everything that has ever been taught to us in this country growing up as a free market society. It’s fascism.

RT: When somebody calls you a gloom-and-doomer, somebody that’s scaring the public… what is your response to that?

G.C.: My response is suppose you go to a doctor as if you feel that something is really wrong with you and the doctor gives you a diagnosis and this diagnosis is maybe cancer. Do you call the doctor a gloom-and-doomer? It’s the fact, people better grow up. The ship has hit the iceberg and it’s sinking.

We are telling people, just as the doctor would tell a patient, “Look, there are ways out of it but first we have to recognize what the disease is. And then we are going to have to be very inventive about trying to attack it in a number of different ways. We could go through complementary medicine, we could go through traditional… we could even go through a combination of things.” But you respect what the doctor is saying, and you don’t call him a gloom-and-doomer. It is a childish response that people have that want to believe that they have a new leader, and that the new leader would lead them down the yellow brick road of happiness. Rather than understanding that there is nobody behind the curtain. It’s the Wizard of Oz. They’d better grow up; nobody is going to save them.

So, we put out the information, we’re saying: “This is the direction things are going in. This is where we believe they are going to end up. Here are some strategies to consider so you don’t go down with the ship.”

edit: I dunno if this is a transcript of the above video or not, but w/e

[AK Infinity]

YouTube - Politics: Obama Addresses CIA Employees...

[MountyBounty]

An old news artical but one of my favorites.

Air Force Considered Gay 'Love Bomb' Against Enemies
WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Tuesday confirmed a report that in 1994 a military researcher requested $7.5 million to develop a non-lethal "love bomb" that would chemically alter the state of mind of enemy troops and make them want to have sex with each other rather than fight.

Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Cathy Reardon said the idea was proposed by an Air Force researcher at a lab at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas, but it was rejected by the Defense Department. Officials noted that the Air Force constantly is considering funding proposals.

No money was spent, Reardon said, and no such weapons are being considered. The goal was to create a non-lethal weapon to be used against enemy troops.

First reported by KPIX-TV in San Francisco, the discovery of the "gay bomb" proposal came from a Freedom of Information Act request made by Edward Hammond of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, a watchdog group that tracks military spending.

Click here to go to the Sunshine Project Web site.

As part of the military's goal of developing non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The proposal also offered other ideas, such as a "sex attractant" chemical that would make "annoying and injurious creatures" like stinging bugs more aggressive and draw them to the enemy's position. Another chemical would leave such a strong stench, the enemy would be detectable for weeks.

A portion of the proposal notes that some of the chemicals could be used on both enemy personnel and civilians and would require decontamination countermeasures to nullify the effects.

A Defense Department spokesman told FOX News that he was not aware of any "love bomb" proposal but called the idea one of the most ridiculous things he'd heard.

FOX News' Jennifer Griffin and Nick Simeone contributed to this report.

[AK Infinity]

Dailymotion - Chavez Obama, un vídeo de...

A different view of the "meeting" President Obama had with Hugo Chavez.

[aaronman]

Freddie Mac CFO "found" dead...

VIENNA, Va. (CNN) -- The acting chief financial officer of mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, was found dead Wednesday morning, police said.
The death "may have been an apparent suicide," said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for police in Fairfax County, Va.

Authorities said there were no signs of foul play when officers were called to Kellermann's home in Vienna shortly before 5 a.m. ET, Caldwell said.
The exterior of Kellermann's brick home was quiet later Wednesday morning, according to video from the scene. A police officer left the home, and two black vehicles were parked in front.

Sharon McCail, Freddie Mac's vice president for public relations, said the company has not yet been officially notified that Kellermann is dead.
Kellermann, 41, who also served as a senior vice president, had been with Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) for more than 16 years.

He was named to the CFO and senior vice president positions in September 2008, and was responsible for the company's financial controls. This included overseeing financial reporting, compliance with tax requirements and regulations, and annual budgeting and financial planning.

Before assuming his current posts, Kellermann was corporate controller and principal accounting officer.

Kellermann held a master's degree in finance from George Washington University and a bachelor's in political science and accounting from the University of Michigan. He has served as a volunteer board member of the District of Columbia Coalition for the Homeless.

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders.
The government took over Freddie Mac last year, as the nationwide subprime-loan crisis escalated. In September, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were placed under conservatorship by its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Both companies back mortgages held by private homeowners, and have received massive cash infusions from the government to keep them afloat.

Former Freddie Mac CEO David Moffett, who resigned in March, was replaced this month by Michael Williams, who had remained with the mortgage finance giant after the government takeover.

Williams said the company's immediate goals would be to modify mortgages, refinance home loans and avoid housing foreclosures in order to boost the housing market.

[aaronman]

Obama Proposes $100 billion loan to IMF

U.S. President Barack Obama Monday asked Congress to back an expansion of an IMF emergency fund by $500 billion in a move designed to expand its reach to big emerging-market nations.

Obama also asked lawmakers to approve a U.S. contribution to the fund to $100 billion, as part of the plan to swell International Monetary Fund reserves agreed at this month’s Group of 20 industrial and developing nations summit in London.

At the G20 summit, “the Germans did not want an EU effort to bail out the banks,” reported the Asia Times. “They wanted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out a substantial part of the EU financial system instead. The reason was simple: The IMF receives loans from the United States, as well as China and Japan, meaning the Europeans would be joined by others in underwriting the bailout. The United States has signaled it would be willing to contribute $100 billion to the IMF, of which a substantial portion would go to Central Europe. (Of the current loans given by the IMF, roughly 80% have gone to the struggling economies in Central Europe.)”

The president made the request in several letters to Democratic and Republican congressional leaders Monday, pointing out that the fund didn’t require an extra financial outlay from the U.S.

When Washington transfers funds to the IMF under the program, known as an expansion of the New Arrangements to Borrow, or NAB, it would receive interest bearing assets in return, backed up by IMF resources including gold stocks.

“Our proposal to increase U.S. participation in the NAB by up to $100 billion as part of an overall increase of $500 billion was warmly endorsed by the G20 Leaders,” the letters said.

“I am asking for your help to deliver on that commitment by supporting inclusion of the NAB and related IMF proposals in the most timely legislative vehicle that will enable the United States to act quickly,” Obama wrote.

“Rapid progress is essential to the restoration of confidence in the global economy and financial system so that the global economy can emerge from recession to recovery and to sustained growth.

The IMF was the main beneficiary at the Group of 20 London summit where leaders agreed to triple its war chest to $750 billion by adding $500 billion, some of it already pledged.

“Mexico became the first to win approval for the new credit line Friday, gaining access to a record 47 billion dollars,” reported the Economic Times.
“The IMF’s 47-billion-dollar credit line to Mexico was the largest financial arrangement in the 64-year-old institution’s history.”

“Other potential candidates for an IMF credit line are Brazil, Chile, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Singapore,” the Times continued.

“In a letter to U.S. congressional leaders, Obama said the U.S. funding ‘does not represent a budgetary expenditure or any increase in the deficit since it effectively represents an exchange of assets,’” reported Reuters.

Obama made the request in letters to two Democrats: House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; and Republican House Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

[Dickie4:20]

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Lawyers and Unicorns on the Wall


Dick Cheney is violating the National Security Act or at least claims he is. Any government official given access to any level of classified information is required to sign documents informing him what the rules are on handling and revealing state secrets and he is covered by these rules forever. To even acknowledge to a non-authorized individual that some information that is classified even exists is a crime. The kind of crime that can get you locked in a Supermax prison with no human contact forever.

Cheney claims he has seen secret CIA documents detailing the positive results from the wanton torture of prisoners. To say in public that he has seen still classified documents and revealing their purpose even without specifically revealing their content is a crime. Of course "shoot from the hip to the face" Dick Cheney doesn’t actually have to worry about going to prison for this. Saying he has seen something that doesn’t exist isn’t a crime. He might as well say he saw a lawyer riding a unicorn.

Cheney is desperate to create the myth that torture works; that torture is vital to National Security and that he is not party to numerous felonies that will get him locked away for the rest of his miserable life. He can draw pictures of unicorns and lawyers on the wall of his cell.

[Deutschbag]

Drama at GE shareholders meeting

'Open hostility' toward execs over MSNBC's 'leftward tilt'

By Paul Bond
April 22, 2009, 06:38 PM ET

Jeff Immelt in 2007 (Getty Images photo)


Things got testy Wednesday at the GE shareholders meeting courtesy of several complaints about political bias at its media division, NBC Universal.

Just don't expect to see the fireworks at the company's webcast of Wednesday's event, which contains prepared remarks from CEO Jeff Immelt and CFO Keith Sherin but leaves out their interaction with shareholders.

Just before GE board members were re-elected, shareholders asked about 10 questions of a mostly political nature concerning the viewpoints of MSNBC and CNBC, according to attendees.

First up was a woman asking about a reported meeting in which Immelt and NBC Uni CEO Jeff Zucker supposedly told top CNBC executives and talent to be less critical of President Obama and his policies.

Immelt acknowledged a meeting took place but said no one at CNBC was told what to say or not say about politics.

During the woman's follow-up question, her microphone was cut off. Later, during the umpteenth question about MSNBC, another shareholder's microphone was cut, according to multiple attendees.

"The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt," one attendee said. "Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it."

One specific complaint about MSNBC concerned Keith Olbermann's interview of actress Janeane Garofalo, who likened conservatives to racists and spoke of "the limbic brain inside a right-winger."

"They were upset that Olbermann didn't bother to challenge her," one GE shareholder said.

Immelt said he takes a hands-off approach to what is reported on the company's news networks, which prompted a shareholder to criticize him for not managing NBC Uni effectively.

"My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC," another shareholder said. "It was noticeable and loud. I don't remember any of this going on last year."

GE did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Drama at GE shareholders meeting