Minnesota Supremes: It’s Franken Time; Hell In Honduras
June 30th, 2009 - by: danny
SENATOR AL FRANKEN !!! (YES, HE DID)
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DOWN
MORE ON MICHAEL AND MADOFF
AT LAST: Minnesota’s Supreme Court has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the state’s disputed U.S. Senate race. His adversary Norm Coleman has conceded which means there will be no Supreme Court Challenge. The Senate needs Stuart Smiley to keep things real.
The indisepensable Brad Blog has more: “The decision was a unanimous 5 to 0 ruling, finding that Franken was “entitled” to be certified by the state’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and its Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.
Pawlenty has recently said he would sign the certification for Franken, if ordered to do so by the MN Supremes. The state requires a signature for certification from both the Governor and the Sec. of State before Congress members may be seated. State law also allows for all election contests to be settled in the state before certification is signed.
Franken’s seating would give Democrats a theoretical 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, following Arlen Specter’s recent move to the Democratic party.
COUP BLOODSHED
HONDOURAS: Two Killed, 60 Injured In Anti-Coup Protests
The UN Called for the former President to be reinstated. Honduran authorities respond:
“Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi said Zelaya would be arrested ‘as soon as he sets foot on Honduran soil’ and faces at least 20 years in prison for treason, abuse of authority and other charges.
“‘We have already issued an international arrest warrant to capture the former president anywhere in the world,’ he said.”
TELESUR TV TEAM ARRESTED: Telesur, which has been the ONLY media outlet to provide non-stop coverage on the coup in Honduras since yesterday, has just been the victim of violent repression in Honduras. During the beginning of the meetings taking place this afternoon in Nicaragua with all heads of state from Latin America, Telesur abruptly interrupted coverage to broadcast the words and cries of Adriana Sivori, Telesur correspondent in Tegucigalpa, denouncing she was being detained, along with her cameraman, by military forces in Honduras under orders by the coup dictatorship. There is massive repression underway in Honduras right now. The Telesur team has been detained by armed forces and placed under arrest in clear violation of international law. Their identification documents have been confiscated by the military and they have been kidnapped.
Analysis From The NY TIMES:
The United States has a history of backing rival political factions and instigating coups in the region, and administration officials have found themselves on the defensive in recent days, dismissing repeated allegations by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela that the C.I.A. may have had a hand in the president’s removal.
Obama administration officials said that they were surprised by the coup on Sunday. But they also said that they had been working for several weeks to try to head off a political crisis in Honduras as the confrontation between Mr. Zelaya and the military over his efforts to lift presidential term limits escalated.
The United States has long had strong ties to the Honduras military and helps train Honduran military forces. Those close ties have put the Obama administration in a difficult position, opening it up to accusations that it may have turned a blind eye to the pending coup. Administration officials strongly deny the charges, and Mr. Obama’s quick response to the Honduran president’s removal has differed sharply from the actions of the Bush administration, which in 2002 offered a rapid, tacit endorsement of a short-lived coup against Mr. Chávez.
Laura Carlsen, Center For International Policy:
Thousands of Hondurans are now in the streets to protest the coup d’etat in their country. They have been met with tear gas, anti-riot rubber bullets, tanks firing water mixed with chemicals, and clubs. Police have moved in to break down barricades and soldiers used violence to push back protesters at the presidential residence, leaving an unknown number wounded.
If the coup leaders were desperate when they decided to forcibly depose the elected president, they are even more desperate now. Stripped of its pretense of legality by universal repudiation and faced with a popular uprising, the coup has turned to more violent means.
KIDNAPPING ON HIGH SEAS (IT’S NOT PIRATES)
McKinney, Gaza aid workers kidnapped by Israeli navy on high seas
FreeGaza.org: ISRAEL ATTACKS JUSTICE BOAT; KIDNAPS HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS; CONFISCATES MEDICINE, TOYS AND OLIVE TREES
[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] – Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.
“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”
According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released yesterday, the Palestinians living in Gaza are “trapped in despair.” Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel’s December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel’s disruption of medical supplies.
JINSA Neocon (war for Israel advocate) Michael Ledeen says Israel will attack Iran:
United For Peace and Justice On Iraq Withdrawal:
Today,(June 30) the Iraqi people are celebrating the beginning of U.S. troop withdrawals as ‘National Sovereignty Day’. This, because under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed by the Iraqi government and the Bush administration, all U.S. combat troops are to withdraw from Iraq’s cities and towns on June 30th, today. After six long years of war and occupation, it is no wonder Iraqis are celebrating this first symbolic benchmark.
But huge challenges lie ahead for the Iraqi people, as they work to regain control of their country and address the fragile political, economic, and security situation found there.
The road for the U.S. military out of Iraq remains much too long.”.
27 Iraqis killed in Bomb Blasts marking the “pullout.”…US Oil Companies and Iraq Government Cannot agree on deal to exploit Iraqi oil. Many US companies reject Iraqi terms in Live TV Bid Procdss
WorldPublicOpinion.org: Obama Rockets to Top of Poll on Global Leaders
Putin and Ahmadinejad Receive Lowest Marks
US President Barack Obama has the confidence of many publics around the world – inspiring far more confidence than any other world political leader according to a new poll of 20 nations by WorldPublicOpinion.org. A year ago, President Bush was one of the least trusted leaders in the world.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin now have the most negative confidence ratings around the world. On average across all nations about half have little or no confidence that they will “do the right thing regarding world affairs” while just a third or less do have confidence.
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Economy: Consumer Confidence Down, More On Madoff, Housing Mess
June 30th, 2009 - by: danny
LBN: GLOOMY U.S. CONSUMERS CLIP HOUSING RECOVERY HOPES
U.S. consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June, figures released on Tuesday showed, suggesting the 18-month-long recession had yet to loosen its grip on the economy.
Bloomberg: PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK SAYS CRISIS NOT OVER
IS THERE MORE TO THE MADOFF SCHEME THAN WE KNOW?
Wayne Madsen reports (t/h Undernews):
Wayne Madsen Report – The failure of federal prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against Bernard Madoff, the mega-billion dollar Ponzi scammer who pleaded guilty March 12 to eleven counts of fraud and other crimes in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, is providing cover to those who pulled the strings on Madoff’s illegal operation.
WMR spoke to a former close aide to Madoff who related how he handled a number of transactions personally for Madoff. The source said that Madoff was running a special type of “pump and dump” scheme. The source said Madoff would “pump money out of the system and dump it out to another place.” When asked what that “other place” was, the source replied, “Israel.”
The source believes that no conspiracy charges were brought by the federal government against Madoff because it is the government and not necessarily Madoff that is trying to protect his “network and superiors.”. . .
WMR has learned how some of Madoff’s international operations were conducted. At 3:30 pm every day Madoff Investment Securities employees would call banks in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and tell them to “roll the accounts.” That was insider language for “lend the money.”
In some cases, money was moved to the Belize Bank, which was described by a Madoff insider as a “back side” for secretive banking operations in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland.
Madoff would also dispatch messengers to 55 Water Street in New York’s financial district to pick up securities bearer bonds that could fit into an “Army duffle bag.”
Guardian, Where Did The Madoff Money Go?
SHOULD THEY HAVE GONE HARDER ON MADOFF?
Business Journalist Gary Weiss thinks so:
So far, Madoff has done an excellent job of keeping his accomplices out of prison. Hopefully his string of luck in that regard will win out.
Right now the only leverage that can be imposed on him is in the hands of the Bureau of Prisons. The conventional wisdom is that he’ll get sentenced to a medium security prison, possibly the one in Otisville northwest of New York.
That strikes me as absurd. Why throw away the only remaining leverage the government has on Madoff?
Medium security prisons are no picnic, believe me. They’re surrounded by forbidding barriers of razor wire, and the atmosphere is suitably cramped and depressing. Still, they’re nothing compared to maximum or supermax prisons, which is where the really worst offenders are held–terorists, top-ranking Mafiosi and convicted spies.
I’d toss him in one of the supermaxes.”…..
Gary, unless you support prison torture, please think again.
VANITY FAIR:DID HIS SONS KNOW?
Newser, MICHAEL WOLF ASKS: How many more years in prison did Bernie Madoff get for being Jewish?
“The notion is that Bernie has come to represent the financial meltdown; he’s symbolically paying for the whole thing. He’s going to jail not just for the $15 billion he stole (which was once, without adequate explanation for its restating, $50 billion more – what happened there?), but for the other $6 or $7 trillion (if I’m keeping up with my sums) lost in the collapse.
We might as well get the question out there. It’s surfaced since the Madoff arrest in March and then disappeared: How much is this a Jewish affair?”
VANITY FAIR:ON AIG AND THE MAN WHO CRASHED THE WORLD
SUPREMES CRACK DOWN DOWN ON BANK RACISM
Writes financial blogger Linda Biehl
… it is refreshing–and surprising–to see a divided Supreme Court hand down a decision that will permit states to continue to use the courts to protect the little guys against national banks. Andrew Cuomo won his case. Cuomo v. Clearing House Association, LLC (No. finding that states can sue national banks to enforce the state’s fair lending laws, in spite of a Controller of the Currency ruling that federal regulations preempted such state actions). Cuomo called the decision “a huge win for consumers” that will protect them “from predatory financial practices.” The American Bankers Association whined that regulation of banks would “make it more difficult [for national banks] to serve consumers.” See Cuomo vs. Clearing House Represents Victory for Taxapyers, Center for Responsible Lending (Jun 29, 2009); Court Allows States to Challenge National Banks, Washington Post (Jun 29, 2009)
Elliot Spitzer originally began the investigation of racially discriminatory lending practices, sending letters of inquiry asking for non-public information about mortgage policies and practices. The Office of the Controller of the Currency and the Clearing House Association (formed by various national banks) sued to enjoin the AG’s investigation and enforcement, claiming that the National Bank Act 12 USC section 184(a), as interpreted by the OCC in 12 CFR 7.4000(a)(2)(iv), barred the states from enforcing their state predatory lending laws against national banks. The AG argued that the OCC regulation violated the administrative procedure act and that the banks activities showed racial disparities that “established a prima facie case under the federal Fair Housing Act.”
Bloomberg: OBAMA FAILS TO MAKE HOUSING PROGRESS
Four months after President Barack Obama pledged $275 billion to shore up home sales, the engine that powered every U.S. recovery since 1960 is stalled. Bankers’ reluctance to finance buyers who won’t live in properties is one barrier to a turnaround.
WANT THE DETAILS? Graphics Tracking the Bailout
WSJ: BAILOUT TRACKER: TRACKING THE TARP
TIME TO FIGHT BACK: Resisting the Corporate Media
Comment on Madoff—From Eric Lotke, Our Future.org
“There is no closure here. We can’t let Madoff’s sentence distract us from the underlying problems. This isn’t just about Madoff. This is about the system in which Madoff’s scam took place. This is about systemic fraud and malpractice, the cultural trade of due diligence for easy profit. It’s about conflicts of interest where companies paid ratings agencies for their ratings. It’s about ideological blinders that let regulators and the Federal Reserve look the other way while banks turned into betting parlors.
So Madoff got 150 years for breaking into the bank. Fine.
But what about the guard who was asleep out front? What about the clerk who forgot to lock the door? What about the $300 billion that Citigroup walked out with from one vault, and the $200 billion that AIG took from another? Does anybody know where that money went or what we got for it? Don’t they get in trouble too? Did you know that, or do you know why, Goldman Sachs is paying its biggest bonus payouts in its 140 year history?”
Amen.
Corporate Crime Beat: AP:
ODESSA, Texas — Ten people have been arrested in the theft of about $2 million worth of oil and gas condensate from oil companies and producers in West Texas. The arrests Tuesday came following a seven-month investigation by a regional oil theft task force.
Six of the suspects face charges of federal wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy. Four were arrested on state money laundering charges.
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Was Jacko Wacko And Why Do the Media and His Fans Love Him So?, Letters
June 30th, 2009 - by: danny
PEJ NEWS COVERAGE INDEX
In Just Two Days, Jackson’s Passing Nearly Passes Iran in the News of the Week
With unrest in Iran and a new political scandal, the media had its pick of stories to report on the week of June 22-28. But by week’s end, the death of Michael Jackson quickly dominated the media agenda, according to a report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Early last week, ongoing attention to protests over the Iranian election continued to dominate the news narrative, and by week’s end Iran filled 19% of the newshole, making it still the No. 1 topic of the week. But much of that came early. Indeed, in the first two days of the week, nearly a third of all coverage (31%) was devoted to events in the country. But as the protest movement moved underground, and the story became harder to cover, coverage subsided. By Wednesday attention shifted to the third biggest story of the week – the controversy around South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who admitted to an extra-marital affair after having gone missing for several days (11%).
Notice how TV stories debunking Michael, ridiculing him and implying the worst are followed by an announcement of their special.
The Latest On Why He Died: Take Your Pick
Daily Beast: A close Michael Jackson confidante tells the Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner he believes the star triggered his death with a foolhardy plan to void a concert commitment: mixing pills to prompt a minor hospital visit. Plus, behind the scenes at the stormy meetings where Jackson’s advisors told him he was insolvent; threats that creditors would seize his assets if he didn’t do the concerts; friends’ worries that he couldn’t physically do the tour; and the pop star’s bartering of performances in exchange for works of art.
This top advisor, who spoke about this explanation for the first time on the condition of anonymity, says that he believes Jackson was determined to force the AEG Group, the promoter of his 50-concert London series scheduled to commence next month, to reduce the number of dates. But the advisor says that Jackson was also well aware that he was subject to serious cancellation penalties if he failed to show up for any gigs. Medical infirmity, a standard clause in most contracts like this, might have provided him a consequence-free out. AEG did not return calls for comment.
“Like a child who doesn’t want to go to school,” the team member tells me, “Michael thought he could get away from his obligations if he had a ‘note from the doctor.”
AP: Jackson was so distraught over persistent insomnia in recent months that he pleaded for a powerful sedative despite warnings it could be harmful, says a nutritionist who was working with the singer as he prepared his comeback bid.
Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse whose specialty includes nutritional counseling, said Tuesday that she repeatedly rejected his demands for the drug, Diprivan, which is given intravenously. But a frantic phone call she received from Jackson four days before his death made her fear that he somehow obtained Diprivan or another drug to induce sleep, Lee said.
CNN: — Michael Jackson’s body will be taken to Neverland Ranch in California for a public viewing on Friday, CNN has learned.
NY: Thousands of people were lining up in Harlem with various tributes to Michael Jackson outside the Apollo Theater for a major tribute last night.
TVBizWire: Michael Jackson Left Behind Nearly Finished Secret ‘Dome’ Video; 100 Hours of Concert Rehearsal Video
Your Comments:
Naomi Pinson writes from Cambridge Ma:
The story of Michael is one of child abuse and neglect and some triumph over that. I always saw him as victimized by a favorite social game, the witch hunt. A weirdly gendered person, seemingly neither fully male or female yet heightening the experience of both for his public. ‘We’ being the numerous victims of child abuse and neglect. Becoming neither black nor white, he challenged all that too. Challenging the status quo, all those stereotypes. It was too much. As in, “Too much! Too f****** much!”
CDC has tracked for fifty years how children who had the kind of experience Michael did trying to grow up pretty much always become chronic pain sufferers, psychology in its unimaginative and judgmental way details how people “like him”, like me, experience gender, pathologizing this experience. One in three transgendered people wind up suiciding these days. How hard is it? Michael was a testament to the human spirit, with huge achievements and resiliency despite living daily with all that.
I am in total agreement with you about Madoff. He could not have operated without widespread collusion. Again, “Tell me, who are the criminals?” Deterrence has no efficacy after seven years even in the case of murder one, so say criminologist. So it’s revenge, a ‘feel good’ but essentially empty way to go. Another sixties song, “When will we ever learn?”
Jeanette Friedman is not so understanding:
I used to work for tiger beat and right on. I worked with gay people in show biz who would tell me when Jacko was in town chicken hawking in Times Square or down in the Village. He would wear these disguises and go do his deeds. He was let off the hook for child molestation the same way OJ was let off the hook for first degree murder.
He dangled his kid over a balcony, and constantly wrapped rags around his kids’ heads.
So what he wrote Man in the Mirror and We are the World and knew how to sing and dance.
To ignore the other is just plain stupid and propagandistic.
sigh”.
Marshid Zarmani writes about Iran;
Adam’s children are the limbs of one body
In their creation they are made of the same essence
If one limb is in pain the whole body will be restless
” Saadi, Persian poet, 13th century”
Today the limb in pain is Iran.
Iranians have gone through a revolution; ten years imposed war, sanction and oppression. However we endured them all with patience and pride.
All of the crises have made us stronger, wiser and more united
The time to test our wisdom came a few weeks ago by Iran’s presidential election;
We all decided to vote regardless of our differences.
We voted to cry out for change.
We voted to say “No” to the government of lies and deception.
We voted to say “No” to the government that had embarrassed us in front of International community.
We voted to say “No” to the government that had stolen our confidence.
Yet, they ignored our votes by rigging the election and silent our cries by the sound of their weapons.
Now time has come to test our strength and unity:
Thus, we followed Dr. Luther king’s and Gandhi’s way by becoming green and peaceful.
We mourn peacefully for more than 100 martyrs who demanded their rights, a very basic right of “being counted, being counted as human being”
We keep our fury and desperation like a lump in our throat and let our tears roll in silence
This is not politics. This is life. Adding one more democratic country to this world will make the world a better place for all of us and for our children. This is what Iranians are fighting for.\
Iranian government has imprisoned us in our own country by clamping down all the communication means.
And this is where you can play an important role.
You as a human being regardless of your nationality, gender, religion or race.
You can be our peace ambassador:
By wearing green
By posting any of the attachments to the emails you send out
By translating this message in any other language and forwarding it to as many people as possible
By demanding your government not to recognize the Iranian Coup government
By isolating the government of Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad financially
By… Be creative in supporting us!”:
Richard Hatch writes:
You got it right, Danny boy. We are in a Depression right now, and sadly Obama, who got my vote in November, appears to have become a captive of the banking industry. All you have to do is look at the financial advisers he appointed: Summers and Geithner, foxes who helped engineer the deregulation of the financial industry that helped create the mess, and now they’re in charge of the financial coop.
What a pity. The Obama dream, his audacity of hope, slipping sl-o-w-l-y down the tube of what may end up the daddy of all depressions.
Mark Demoryalso writes about Obama
I am highly skeptical of this whole narrative, in which Mr. Obama is pure of heart, but too weak to stand in the fact of the powerful corporate masters. I don’t know him well enough to be certain that the alternative which looms large in my mind is actually correct; I could easily be dead wrong. On the other hand, I have kept myself free of his speech.
So here’s my alternative narrative: Barack Obama is to us as the Wizard of Isengard is to Middle Earth.
MILITARIZATION OF EDUCATION IN CHICAGO
When I was in Chicago, I spoke with some friends on the front line of innovation in education. Sylvia Ewing works with charter schools, some of which have just unionized. She likes the diversity and range of options they provide students. Michael and Susan Klonsky work with the small schools movement. They have an amazing book out on their experiences with the privatization of education. Its called Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets The Ownership Society (Routledge)
But as Nydia Leaf writes there is another phenomenon underway in the second city–the militarization of education which some fear is shaping students on the Hitler Youth model:
Read this:
“….Chicago has more military academies and more students in JROTC than any other city in the US. As the tentacles of school militarization reach beyond Chicago, the process used in this city seems to serve as a model of expansion…..”
Brian Roa | The Chicago Model of Militarizing Schools
“For the past four years, I have observed the military occupation of the high school where I teach science. Currently, Chicago’s Senn High School houses Rickover Naval Academy (RNA). I use the term ‘occupation’ because part of our building was taken away despite student, parent, teacher and community opposition to RNA’s opening.
And Speaking of Chicago, Ray Yerkes writes: “I once had a terrible nightmare that I had died and went to O’Hare. There are things worse than Hell.”
Andy Borowitz on Ruth Madoff
Just hours after her husband Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for masterminding a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, Ruth Madoff expressed shock and dismay at her husband’s behavior, telling reporters,
“This is not the man I owned nine homes with.”
“When you spend hundreds of millions of dollars with someone, you think you know him,” she said. “I guess I was wrong.”
Mrs. Madoff said she was kept “totally in the dark” about her husband’s activities because he used a clever cover story: “He told me he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.”
NEWS NOT MUCH IN THE NEWS (From Harpers.org)
Tennessee man was charged with sexual exploitation for Photoshopping the faces of little girls (two local girls, and Miley Cyrus) onto the bodies of nude adult women, and a child porn stash was found in the sewer drain of a public bathroom in Saginaw, Michigan, but the images were too damaged by fecal matter for authorities to use in an investigation. Cosmetic nipple surgery was on the rise in England, seagulls off Argentina were attacking whales and eating their skin, and Latvians, asked to provide collateral for loans of up to 500 lats, were offering their eternal souls (must be previously unmortgaged).
That’s my blog for today. Comments welcome to dissector@mediachnnel.org
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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