Supreme Court approves class action lawsuit against Cheney's Halliburton

It's surprising that the right wing Supreme Court is allowing legal action against Cheney years at Halliburton. Not that you would know it, but cooking the books is illegal in the US. Bloomberg:

The U.S. Supreme Court made it easier for investors to press securities fraud suits, ruling for shareholders who accuse Halliburton Co. (HAL) of misrepresenting its financial condition while under Dick Cheney’s leadership.

The justices today unanimously said the shareholders can sue as a group without first establishing that they lost money as a result of the alleged fraud.

The shareholders, led by the Erica P. John Fund, contend that Halliburton from 1999 to 2001 falsified earnings reports, played down estimated asbestos liability and overstated the benefits of a merger. Cheney, later the U.S. vice president, served as chairman and chief executive officer of the oilfield services provider during part of the disputed period.

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Video: The gay who wasn’t gay enough (it’s brilliant)

This is a recruitment mockumentary by Toronto's gay rugby team. I have no idea if it's related to this story, of some bi guys who weren't "gay enough" to play on a gay softball team, or whether it's coincidence. Either way, it's a wonderful video.

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Bank of America sends foreclosure notice for $0

Remind me again why Washington wants to keep making life easy for the financial industry?

The housing crisis ended with many homes in foreclosure, which is why it was no joke when a man from Northampton got a letter stating his home would be seized if he didn't pay up zero dollars and zero cents!

Not wanting to lose his house, he called the 22News I-team and finally got some answers.

Following the mortgage meltdown, struggling homeowners dread getting that nasty letter in the mail announcing your home is listed under foreclosure.

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Cash-poor states looking to tax the Internet

Amazon is fighting back.  Good for them.

Faced with state budget shortfalls, some large states like Texas, California and Illinois are looking to online retailers for additional tax revenues. As a result, large e-tailers — such as Amazon.com — have threatened to cut off affiliates who sell in those states rather than start collecting taxes.

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Weiner speaks to media, but Breitbart took the podium first

Update from Gaius Publius (4:45 pm EST):

NPR:

Saying that "I have made terrible mistakes and have hurt the people I care about the most," a tearful Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) just admitted lying about a lewd photo he sent to a young woman and to having "inappropriate conversations" over social media and on the phone with "six women over the last three years."

He also said he is not going to resign from office.

The congressman's statement follows the posting online today of more photos of him that were allegedly sent to women in recent weeks — including some of a shirtless Weiner. The images surfaced on the BigGovernment.com website of conservative activist Andrew Breitbart.

And, at the tabloid-style website RadarOnline.com, there's a story today about an unnamed woman who claims she recently engaged in many "sexting" exchanges with the married New York Democrat.

He says he's never had sex outside his marriage; that no one was physically co-present (my word) in these exchanges. As I listen, he's being badgered about apologizing to Andrew Breatbart and about his wife (with whom he says he's come clean).

He sounds pretty shaken. His wife, by the way, is former (CORRECTION: present) Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Two take-aways: (1) Watch for a week of Fox and Breitbart victory dancing. May not be a pretty sight.

(2) Watch for a full-court press for the scalp to come fully off the head (Weiner's).

(3) I think Weiner will survive. Unless something else comes out, this is "just" text-sex and no more, and these are New Yorkers after all. (Of course, the key to the mayor's or governor's mansion may be out of reach for a bit.)

The Breitbart faux-vindication may be the worst fallout from this, when all is said and done. Mes centimes.

GP
________

A bizarre afternoon on cable news. It pains me to write about this. And, remember, David Vitter, who broke the law, is still in the Senate. In fact, he was reelected last November.

Rep. Anthony Weiner scheduled a press conference to discuss the latest revelations in the scandal in which he's enmeshed. It got more complicated today with the news of more photos.

Before Weiner took the podium, Andrew Breitbart got on the stage to talk to the media. Among other things, Breitbart said he had another photo of Weiner that he won't produce unless Weiner keeps attacking him.

Then, a few minutes later, Weiner came on the stage to acknowledge that the tweeted photo was of him. He meant to send it as a direct message, but it went out publicly instead. Weiner said he panicked and claimed he was hacked. And, he admitted there have been other interactions with women online. He called them "online relationships." He apologized profusely -- mostly to his wife, Huma.

When asked if he could say that an x-rated photo does not exist, Weiner said he could not. He also said he would not resign.

The Q and A portion of the presser is still ongoing....it is painful. Read the rest of this post...

MN GOP’s favorite "minister" wants gays jailed, says Muslim Rep. Ellison wants to overthrow Constitution

And he was invited to give the opening invocation at the Minnesota House of Representatives.  (Then again, let's not forget Rick Warren.)  This rather odd fellow, who looks like a leftover child of the AC/DC 70s, says that US Congressman Keith Ellison, who is a Muslim, wants to institute "sharee" (sic) law in the US, and overthrow the US Constitution.  Why?  Because he's a Muslim.  He also thinks gays should be thrown in jail, for being gay.  And no one in the Republican party thought it odd to invite this guy to give the opening invocation in the state House. Read the rest of this post...

Dean Baker on "the very real chance of another Great Depression"

Yes, both alarmist and depressing at the same time, sort of like an uppers-and-downers soup. But he makes his case, and by reference to the actual Great Depression and not just some generic horrifically large catastrophe.

Economist Dean Baker, writing in The New Republic, begins by comparing the bank bailouts of 2008 to the lack of bank bailouts in the 1930s. According to Baker, the lack of bailouts in the Hoover era was not what caused the prolonged tragedy of the Great Depression — it was the failure of government spending to address unemployment.

Mr. Baker (bolding mine):

Allowing the cascade of financial collapses at the start of the first Great Depression was a mistake. However, there was nothing about this initial collapse that necessitated the decade of double-digit unemployment that was the central tragedy of the Great Depression. This was the result of the failure of the federal government to respond with sufficient vigor to mass unemployment. Indeed, the economy only broke out of the Depression when the federal government undertook massive deficit spending to fight World War II. Deficits peaked at more than 25 percent of GDP. This would be the equivalent, in today’s economy, of running annual deficits of $4 trillion.

There was no economic reason that the government could not have spent on this scale in 1931, as opposed to 1941; the obstacles were political. Then, as now, politicians in Washington were obsessed with the budget deficit. They never would have countenanced such spending, apart from the threat to the nation posed by Hitler and the Axis powers. The New Deal deficit spending helped boost the economy and bring the unemployment rate down to single-digit levels, but fear of deficits limited the scale of New Deal programs and caused Roosevelt to reverse course and cut back on spending in 1937, just as the economy was gaining momentum.

Unfortunately, the country seems destined to follow the same course in the current slump as it did in the 30s.

The article continues with good wonk material: information about the decline in consumption, the role of trade in a possible recovery, and reasons that trade won't do the trick.

He closes where he started, and where others have gone:

[T]here are more factors pointing to slower growth than faster growth going forward. In addition to the state and local cuts kicking in next month, the new fiscal year for the federal government begins October 1. This is also likely to involve further cuts in spending. ... At some point, the pain of high unemployment across the country may lead to some new thinking in Washington, but until that time, welcome to the second Great Depression.

This considered, a simple double dip might be one of the kinder outcomes. But ask yourself: What do you see politically in the next five years that will cause government to address unemployment and to stimulate consumer demand?

Me, I don't see much — just that pesky 2012 election, the need for Obama to raise $1 billion in campaign contributions from the only folks with money, and the need to pay them back when he's done.

Jeez; now I'm depressed.

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So cute it hurts

Just go and watch it.  Guaranteed smile. Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: There’s a political "apparatchik test" for professional economists who want to work with Republicans

Finally, Mr. Krugman cottons to what's growing in the Republican professional fields; it's not integrity, it's not honest disagreement about ideas, and it's not "learned helplessness."

It's obeisance to power and political reality. If you're an economist who wants to work on the Republican side, to get your career in gear you get your mouth in line.

The Professor (my emphasis):

I think the rejection of a Nobel laureate for a seat at the Fed is tied, in a fundamental way, to the willingness of economists with decent professional reputations to sign on to the increasingly crazy proclamations issued by Republican politicians. Whether they are honest with themselves or not, what they’ve realized is that they face a loyalty test — or maybe that’s an apparatchik test; if they have any ambitions of serving in a policy position, they have to prove themselves willing to follow the party line wherever it goes.

There’s nothing comparable on the other side. For one thing, you don’t find people like Christy Romer or, well, me taking positions on policy issues that are directly at odds with what they’ve said in their professional writings; whereas you see that a lot on the Republican side.

Occam's Switchblade: They're acting like political operatives because they are political operatives.

This is as close as we've gotten yet to a mainstream economist admitting that Movement Conservative "intellectuals" are just party operatives in professional's clothing. You can't fight an army if you can't spot the soldiers.

The state of the Krugman is clear-eyed, at least today. Thank you, sir.

GP Read the rest of this post...

What $2.7m buys you in London

You have to scroll through the photos of this flat.  I'm sure 3 bedrooms in London is a big deal, as it is in NYC, but still.  You'd think for $3m they could at least clean the place before posting pictures of it for sale. Read the rest of this post...

Santorum is running; supports privatizing Social Security

And the jokes will most assuredly write themselves.

And good thing Santorum is making the lynchpin of his campaign something the voters hate: privatizing Social Security.

In case you haven't heard, Rick Santorum has a problem. Read the rest of this post...

Homeowner cheated by Bank of America legally seizes bank property

It's good to see someone use the law to stick it right back to Bank of America. Read the rest of this post...

Peru elects left for president

As Europe votes for the right (Portugal being the latest) South America has increasing been voting for the left. In the case of Peru, voting for another Fujimori hardly sounded like a viable option.

Ollanta Humala appeared on course to narrowly win Peru's presidential election on Monday after moderating his firebrand left-wing image and promising to rule from the centre.

Unofficial results gave the former army officer 51.3% of the vote against 48.7% for Keiko Fujimori, the right-wing daughter of a disgraced former president, after a bruising campaign which polarised the country.

Humala's supporters celebrated on Sunday night hours after polls closed, and Fujimori said she would concede - and not demand a recount - if official results confirmed the exit polls and unofficial tallies.

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Florida GOP gov. defends drug testing for welfare recipients

If they're going to approve silly requirements like this, how about they go the full distance and include drug testing for politicians as well? How can we be sure that the governor and the rest of the state politicians aren't using taxpayer money to support drug habits? When they waste everyone's time with policies like this rather than solving the employment problem, one has to wonder what drugs they're on. CNN:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday defended recent legislation that requires adults applying for welfare assistance to undergo drug screenings, saying the law provides "personal accountability."

"It's not right for taxpayer money to be paying for somebody's drug addiction," Scott told CNN's T.J. Holmes on Sunday. "On top of that, this is going to increase personal responsibility, personal accountability. We shouldn't be subsidizing people's addiction."

But the ACLU of Florida, which has already filed suit against Scott over a measure requiring government employees to undergo random drug testing, disagrees, and may sue over the welfare law as well.

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Belgium trains get power boost from 3 kilometers of solar panels

An interesting idea for the roof of the train tunnel.

The high-speed line running from Paris to Amsterdam passes the city of Antwerp and a nearby ancient forest. To avoid the need to fell protected trees, a long tunnel was built over the line which has now been topped with 16,000 solar panels watch the video flyover. The electricity produced by the panels will be equivalent to that needed to power all the trains in Belgium for one day per year, and will also help power Antwerp station.

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Lib Dems to lose more seats due to redistricting

At this point they deserve all of this and then some. They agreed to this odd coalition and then they even agreed to this, which will likely cause them to lose as much as 25% of their seats. They gambled and lost badly so let them pay the price. The Guardian:

The Liberal Democrats face losing up to a quarter of their seats when a Tory-imposed plan to redraw the entire electoral map comes into force from September, figures seen by the Guardian suggest.

The boundary review to equalise constituencies and reduce their number by 50, agreed by Nick Clegg in exchange for the AV referendum in the coalition agreement, is threatening the biggest upheaval to the Commons of this parliament. MPs have been warned that almost no seat is safe.

The issue could force a mutiny in the coalition amid mounting evidence that the Liberal Democrats will fare far worse than predicted and with David Cameron facing further tensions with his backbenchers, some of whom are certain to lose their seats.

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