Wall Street bankers find new way to scam the system

When politicians from both parties fail to step in and act like adults with shady industries like this, what else should we expect? Was it cowardice or was it a real belief in the system's ability to bring back the economy? It didn't come as a surprise to see Bush protect the bankers but it's hard to swallow Obama's continuation of the same policies including some of the same people. Rather than "change" is the typical Washington model of kicking the can down the road and hoping the next meltdown happens when the next person is in office.

So much for Wall Street feeling the pain if their stock prices drop. The high-priced scam artists have done it again.

But it turns out that executives have a way to get around those best-laid plans. Using complex investment transactions, they can limit the downside on their holdings, or even profit, as other shareholders are suffering.

More than a quarter of Goldman Sachs’s partners, a highly influential group of around 475 top executives, used these hedging strategies from July 2007 through November 2010, according to a New York Times analysis of regulatory filings. The arrangements were intended to protect their personal portfolios when the firm’s stock was highly volatile, especially at the height of the crisis.

In some cases, executives saved millions of dollars by using these tactics. One prominent Goldman investment banker avoided more than $7 million in losses over a four-month period.

Read the rest of this post...

Reagan administration was number one

And the race wasn't even close. The Reagan administration managed to even have more convictions against their team than the Nixon administration. That takes some serious effort, but by gosh, they did it. Read the rest of this post...

Poll: Americans overwhelmingly support alternative energy progress from Congress

Even revising the tax code is less important to voters. So will the GOP listen to what the American public want or will they continue moving forward with their creepy ideas like redefining rape? Instead of throwing more money at Big Oil, why not shift money into alternative energy, as everyone wants? More from Gallup. Read the rest of this post...

Is the half-term Palin really questioning Obama's work ethic?

Few of us really know one way or the other about Obama's work ethic. What we do know is that Sarah Palin cut and ran because her job became too difficult. People who can't manage to stay for a full four year term really have no business questioning how anyone else works. CNN:

Sarah Palin, in her first comments on the uprising in Egypt, called the situation President Barack Obama's 3 a.m. phone call and said, "It seems the call went right to the answering machine."

Palin, the former GOP vice presidential candidate, spoke with Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody after her speech Friday night at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California.

In the interview, the potential Republican presidential candidate said, "We need to know what it is America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have all that information (from the administration) yet."

What's interesting is that Dick Cheney sounds like he is at the complete opposite end of what Palin is saying. He may have come to the wrong conclusion on most political issues, but he's right that it's not possible to negotiate through an exit in public.

Cheney said the U.S. should take measured steps in public, and suggested that too much pressure could backfire.

"There is a reason why a lot of diplomacy is conducted in secret. There are good reasons for there to be confidentiality in some of those communications. And I think President Mubarak needs to be treated as he deserved over the years, because he has been a good friend," Cheney said at an event commemorating the centennial of President Ronald Reagan's birth.

Read the rest of this post...

Guardian: 'Mubarak family fortune could reach $70bn'

Well well well. The Guardian:

President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast.

After 30 years as president and many more as a senior military official, Mubarak has had access to investment deals [note the careful phrasing] that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels. ... His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.

Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the estimate of $40bn-70bn was comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.

"Investment deals"? I suppose you have to acquire it to invest it, don't you. The article later says:

There are only sketchy details of exactly where the Mubaraks have generated their wealth and its final destination.

After which it attempts to sketch in those details with well phrased kid-glove speculations. Don't be fooled.

This, by the way, is why Scott Horton says Mubarak has to plan his exit very carefully — prosecution for (a) corruption and (b) criminal brutality is all the rage these days.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Al Jazeera English website traffic up 2500%

Anything that can provide a new view of the world outside of the US is a good thing. The current top news providers have been failing for years so a shakeup can't hurt. When the US media went along with the invasion of Iraq, they proved how little they had to offer. LA Times:

Tony Burman, Al Jazeera’s head of strategy for the Americas, said traffic to the satelite network's English-language website, where a live stream of its broadcast is available, increased 2,500% during the past week of Egypt coverage. He said up to 60% of the traffic was from the United States.

In a commentary in Saturday's Toronto Star, Burman noted that during that period, an estimated 7 million Americans have watched 50 million minutes of Al Jazeera coverage.

California-based Link TV, watched by more than 33 million American households via the DirecTV and Dish satellite systems, has been broadcasting up to 12 hours of Al Jazeera coverage daily, said Burman, former managing director of Al Jazeera English and a former editor-in-chief of CBC News.

Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

No surprise that the Sunday shows are focused on Egypt again this week. ABC is doing its show from Cairo. CNN, CBS and NBC all have foreign policy types, Senators, former Ambassadors, there are even two former Secretaries of State (James Baker and Madeline Albright). For the latest developments in Egypt, check Al Jazeera's live blog. Ken Bazinet's blog, The Baz File, is tracking Egypt-related developments here in the U.S.

FOX News is eschewing the Egypt talk. FOX is broadcasting the Super Bowl, so FOX News is interviewing the NFL Commissioner and a couple of former players.

The full line up is here. Read the rest of this post...

Bobby Fuller - I Fought the Law

The first hit version of the classic, though it was performed and written a few years early by someone else. I'm still partial to The Clash's recording, but the the older version is still fun.

OK, so who will it be in the Super Bowl? Both teams have some of the best, most die hard fans out there so it's easy to like either. Jojo has family from Pittsburgh who are big time Steelers fans though I can't quite get over my dislike of them due to the relationship with Cleveland. Even though I prefer college ball, I still loved going to Browns games back in the old rusty, paint chipped stadium along Lake Erie. During one of those down years for both teams (which, isn't as frequent for the Steelers) I remember the fun along the Flats as fans from both sides made their way into the stadium. I have to go with the Packers but what would be best is a close game. Read the rest of this post...

British comedian calls out BBC racist stereotype of Mexicans

Yesterday the BBC defended their popular TV show hosts from recent criticism. Here is the start of what they considered to be humor:

Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.

While the BBC claimed that the jokes were all in good fun and nothing more than traditional British humor, an actual comedian, Steve Coogan, slammed them today in the media. Coogan struck back at the presenters as "three rich, middle-aged men laughing at poor Mexicans." As surprising as the BBC's defense was to read, it's also somewhat predictable due to the high ratings of Top Gear. While I could mostly care less about a car show let alone a car, I do enjoy British comedy and Top Gear has none of the qualities that make actual British humor funny. Steve Coogan at The Guardian:

The Beeb's hand-wringing suggested tolerance of casual racism, arguably the most sinister kind. It's easy to spot the ones with the burning crosses. Besides, there is not a shred of truth in Top Gear's "comic" stereotype. I can tell you from my own experience, living in the US, Mexicans work themselves to the bone doing all the dirty thankless jobs that the white middle-class natives won't do.

What makes it worse is that the Lads wear this offensive behaviour as a badge of pride, pleased that they have annoyed those whom they regard, in another lazy stereotype, as sandal-wearing vegans with beards and no sense of humour.

Well here's some Twitter hot news: I don't have a beard, I'm not a vegan, I don't wear sandals (unless they're Birkenstocks, of course), and I have, I think, a sense of humour. I also know something about comedy. It's true there are no hard fast rules; it's often down to judgment calls. It's safe to say, though, that you can get away with saying unsayable things if it's done with some sense of culpability.

Looking at this recent poll, it's obvious that the UK has a serious problem with xenophobia so now might be a good time to quit making excuses and do something about it. Read the rest of this post...