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~ o ~
Third non-Hawaiian admitted to KamehamehaSpace was open after all qualified applicants were chosen, school officials say in a letter By Gregg K. Kakesako Kamehameha Schools has admitted a third non-native Hawaiian student. The student will attend classes this fall and was picked from a wait list of 45 students because there were spaces available, according to a letter from the board of trustees and chief executive officer posted on the school's website and e-mailed to school alumni. The letter does not say what campus the non-Hawaiian student will attend. The private school has campuses at Kapalama and on Maui and the Big Island. "Non-Hawaiian applicants who meet our admissions criteria can be admitted if vacancies exist after the preference is applied," the letter said. Kamehameha's decision to admit its first non-native Hawaiian in 2002 sparked controversy and forced the board of trustees to defend its recruiting efforts, admissions procedures and native Hawaiian preference policy. Dee Jay Mailer is the school's chief executive officer, and Corbett Kalama is chairman of the five-member board of trustees. The school said there were five additional spaces in the 11th and 12th grades after all applicants in the wait pool were admitted, allowing five additional native Hawaiian applicants in the sophomore wait pool to be admitted on Maui. "I think they didn't have a choice (under the school's admissions policy)," said Roy Benham, a past president of the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association. "I think they did the right thing, and they didn't deny admission to any Hawaiian applicants," he said. "The good thing is that more students were admitted in the lower grade. You generally don't get many students trying to get in the 11th and 12th grades." Some 800 new students will be starting at Kamehameha Schools' three campuses next month. Kamehameha Schools was founded in 1887 by the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha. The school gives preference to applicants of Hawaiian ancestry, orphaned and indigent students who demonstrate the ability to be academically successful.... CONTINUED AT... DIRTY MONEY, DIRTY POLITICS & BISHOP ESTATE RELATED SIGHTINGS AT... CONFESSIONS OF A WHISTLEBLOWER * * * AND FOR MORE BUZZARD SIGHTINGS, FLY TO ... ~ o ~
This Fourth of JulySunday, July 4, 2010 9:00 PM
From:
"Barack Obama" info@barackobama.com
To:
"Bobby Harmon"
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tim Adams, a senior elections clerk in 2008 for the City and County of Honolulu, says Barack Obama was definitely not born in Hawaii.|
May 14, 2010
New York AG opens probe of 8 big banksAssociated Press NEW YORK — New York's attorney general has launched an investigation into eight banks to determine whether they misled ratings agencies about mortgage securities, according to a person familiar with the inquiry.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is trying to figure out if banks provided the agencies with false information to get better ratings on the risky securities, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the investigation has not been made public. Cuomo's office is investigating Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, UBS AG, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole and Merrill Lynch, which is now part of Bank of America Corp.... http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100514/BUSINESS14/5140327/-1/
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May 14, 2010
Obama pledges end to'cozy' oil relationshipsBy ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama angrily decried the "ridiculous spectacle" of oil industry officials pointing fingers of blame for the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico and pledged on Friday to end a "cozy relationship" between the oil industry and federal regulators that he said had extended into his own administration. Obama said he shared the "anger and frustration" felt by many Americans, and he acknowledged differing estimates about just how disastrous the damage from the leak could become. He said the administration's response has "always been geared toward the possibility of a catastrophic event." As Obama spoke in the White House Rose Garden, undersea robots in the Gulf tried to thread a small tube into the jagged pipe that is spewing oil into the water. The blown-out well has pumped out more than 4 million gallons of crude. BP engineers were trying to move the 6-inch tube into the leaking 21-inch pipe, known as a riser. The smaller tube was to be surrounded by a stopper to keep oil from leaking into the sea. BP said it hoped to know by Friday evening if the tube succeeded in taking the oil to a tanker at the surface. The Gulf spill is not only a potential environmental and economic catastrophe. It also is a major political challenge for Obama to demonstrate that his administration is doing everything it can to deal with the disaster. An AP-GfK poll this week found that to this point the spill hasn't stained Obama nor dimmed the public's desire for offshore energy drilling. Although some conservative pundits have called this "Obama's Katrina," that's not how the public feels. Obama slammed BP and other companies responsible for equipment involved in the spill for pointing fingers at each other instead of accepting responsibility. But he said responsibility rests with the federal government, too, and that oil drilling permits had been granted without appropriate environmental reviews. "That cannot and will not happen anymore," Obama said. He announced a new examination of the environmental reviews that must happen before oil and gas development goes forward. With millions of gallons of oil fouling the fragile Gulf ecosystem after a drilling rig exploded April 20 and later sank, Obama said: "It's pretty clear that the system failed and it failed badly." Eleven workers were killed in the accident. "There is enough responsibility to go around, and all parties should be willing to accept it," the president said. He said he would not be satisfied until the leak was stopped, the spill was cleaned up and all claims were paid. This week executives from three oil companies — BP PLC, which was drilling the well, Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, which was doing cement work to cap the well — testified on Capitol Hill, each trying to blame the other for what may have caused the disaster. Obama decried that scene. "I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else," the president said. "The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't." Not long before the spill the president had announced plans for a limited expansion of offshore oil drilling. After the catastrophe, he said those plans would be put on hold pending a 30-day review by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar of safety procedures on oil rigs and at wells. On Friday the president announced there would be more stringent environmental reviews, too. The Interior Department said those will focus on whether the Minerals Management Service is following all environmental laws before issuing permits for offshore oil and gas development. "For too long, for a decade or more, there has been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill. It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies," Obama said. Echoing President Ronald Reagan's comment on nuclear arms agreements with Moscow, he said, "To borrow an old phrase, we will trust but we will verify." Still, Obama didn't back down from his support for domestic oil drilling, saying it "continues to be one part of an overall energy strategy." "But it's absolutely essential that, going forward, we put in place every necessary safeguard and protection so that a tragedy like this oil spill does not happen again," he said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100514/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill * * * FOR MORE COZY RELATIONSHIPS, SEE VULTURES IN THE NATURE CONSERVANCY AND, SIMPLY * * * * * WATCH VIDEO * * * * * SEE ALSO MEET DR. RAND PAUL FROM KENTUCKY * * * * *  From wikipedia:
The Monsanto Company is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as "Roundup".
Monsanto is also by far the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In March 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, making it also the largest conventional seed company in the world. It has over 16,000 employees worldwide, and an annual revenue of US$7.344 billion reported for 2006. Monsanto's development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone, as well as its aggressive litigation and political lobbying practices, have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the anti-globalization movement and environmental activists. While other chemical and biotech multinationals face similar criticisms, Monsanto tends to be targeted more routinely and more strongly. Some activists have referred to Monsanto's products as frankenfoods. * * * MUST WATCH! RUSSIA REPORTS OVER 2 MILLION DEAD IN U.S. AS MYSTERIOUS DIE-OFF ACCELERATES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHpNGpyizI0 CONTINUED AT... http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/the-monsanto-monster- * * * It’ll blow your mind!
MORE AT...
* * *
 "THEY PAVED PARADISE"
They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdLEdkiXm9c CONTINUED AT http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/paradise-paved ~ o ~ |
MUST WATCH!!!
COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
May 5, 2010
* * *
SEE ALSO
MEET DR. RAND PAUL OF KENTUCKY
THE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
VULTURES IN THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
AND MORE ABOUT THE
AT
AND EVEN MORE AT
~ o ~
May 4, 2010
XL has $30 million exposure
to Gulf oil disaster
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- XL Capital Ltd.Chief Executive Mike McGavick said late Tuesday that the insurance and reinsurance giant has $30 million of exposure to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is from claims tied to property damage to the Deepwater Horizon rig itself, he explained during a conference call with analysts.
"It's much too early to know what the insurable losses are on the total basis and what portion of these losses XL might cover but we can say this. We believe that our total property damage exposure to the rig itself is approximately $30 million including $5 million in reinstatement premiums and we have in fact already paid much of this in claims," McGavick said.
"That would equate to a roughly $900 million industry event."
* * *
CONTINUED AT...
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Ace believes forecast already
covers oil disaster
Property and casualty insurer Ace Ltd. said Monday it does not expect to change its accident loss estimates for this year due to the Gulf Coast oil spill off the Louisiana coast.
Ace said it "believes this event is contained within the current accident year loss ratios for 2010 as contemplated in its annual guidance." Ace cautioned that there is still some uncertainty, since the disaster is still playing out.
In January, Ace forecast full-year operating income of $6.25 to $6.75 per share, including estimated catastrophe after-tax losses of $317 million.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was caused by an April 20 oil rig explosion and sinking of an offshore platform that killed 11 people. An oil slick is lapping at southeastern Louisiana's ecologically sensitive coast. On Monday, oil producer BP PLC said it will pay for all the cleanup costs from the spill.
Ace is a unit of ACE Group, based in Zurich, Switzerland. Shares of Ace fell 20 cents to $52.99 in morning trading.
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Dear Activist,
The oil spill in the Gulf is all over the news. Right now, it is on pace to be worse than the Exxon Valdez and is pumping at least 5,000 barrels of oil a day - that's over 200,000 gallons - into the biologically diverse and commercially productive Gulf of Mexico. As the massive oil spill continues to grow, it exposes the dangers of offshore drilling. We need to send a message to President Obama and your Senators to ban new offshore drilling and support clean energy alternatives. It has never been more clear that offshore oil and gas production is a dirty and dangerous business and that our ability to prevent and contain spills has not kept pace with our ability to access oil below ocean waters. Drilling is not safe and alternatives such as offshore wind power can provide more jobs and help solve climate change while never spilling. Send a clear message to President Obama and your Senators that you demand a clean energy future that breaks our dependence on oil and stops the drilling. Please sign the petition to Stop The Drilling »
PS. At least 400 species of wildlife are threatened by the oil spill in the Gulf.
|
For the oceans,Hawaii governor announces
'exact' place of Obama birth
'The question has been asked and answered, and I think we should all move on now'
Posted: May 05, 2010
10:13 pm Eastern
By Joe Kovacs
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
 Gov. Linda Lingle, R-Hawaii |
More than a year and half after Barack Obama was elected commander in chief, the governor of Hawaii is now publicly voicing the alleged exact location of Obama's birth, saying "the president was, in fact, born at Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii."
The disclosure is believed to be the first time a state government official has declared the precise place where Obama was born, despite numerous other published claims, including some for a different hospital in Honolulu.
The remark came Sunday night when Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, was interviewed on New York's WABC Radio by host Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. (The subject was addressed at the 77-minute mark.)...
It's been an odd situation," Lingle said, referring to the continuing controversy over the disputed natural-born citizenship of Obama. "This issue kept coming up so much in the campaign, and again I think it's one of those issues that is simply a distraction from the more critical issues that are facing the country.
"So I had my health director, who is a physician by background, go personally view the birth certificate in the birth records of the Department of Health, and we issued a news release at that time saying that the president was, in fact, born at Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. And that's just a fact and yet people continue to call up and e-mail and want to make it an issue and I think it's again a horrible distraction for the country by those people who continue this." ...
 The Kapi'olani Medical Center for Woman and Children in Hawaii is one of two Honolulu hospitals at which that President Obama is alleged to have been born. |
Although the governor now claims she issued a news release stating Kapi'olani is Obama's birthplace, the actual release said no such thing, making no reference to Kapi'olani nor any other specific location of Obama's birth.
At the time of the 2008 election, the release featured the state's director of health, Chiyome Fukino, who said: "There have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's official birth certificate. State law (Hawaii Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record.
"Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai'i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.
"No state official, including Governor Linda Lingle, has ever instructed that this vital record be handled in a manner different from any other vital record in the possession of the State of Hawaii."
Months later, in July 2009, she added another comment: "I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, Director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American. I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago."
Lingle's radio statement could add further confirmation that a long-form, hospital-generated birth ceritifcate still exists, despite a February report by Britain's Sky News which stated: "Authorities in Hawaii have provided an electronic record of Obama's birth because the paper copy was destroyed in a fire which wiped out much of the state's archives."
Ironically, the governor's pinpointing of the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children as well as her health director's previous public statements on the matter statement are in apparent violation of Hawaii state law.
In two separate telephone interviews with WND, Janice Okubo, the Health Department's public information officer, told WND that Hawaii law prohibited her from commenting on the birth records of any specific person.
Okubo cited Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 338-18, which pertains to "Disclosure of Records."
That section states regarding the release of vital statistics records, "The department shall not permit inspection of public health statistics records, or issue a certified copy of any such record or part thereof, unless it is satisfied that the applicant has a direct and tangible interest in the record."
More than one hospital?
An intriguing aspect to the story is that Kapi'olani is not the only Honolulu hospital touted as Obama's place of birth. Another facility, the Queen's Medical Center, has also been mentioned as the actual site in numerous publications, including United Press International and the online, myth-busting site Snopes.com....
CONTINUED AT...
Obama Delivers Laughs at Dinner
By JOHN D. MCKINNON
WASHINGTON—After a year of tough political sledding, President Barack Obama struck a more subdued tone in his standup comedy routine at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
It was still funny.
"It's been quite a year since I've spoken here last," he began. There have been "lots of ups lots of downs -- except for my approval ratings, which have just gone down."
After a year of tough political sledding, President Barack Obama gave a funny standup comedy routine at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Still, he insisted the dropoff doesn't bother him, because his ratings remain "very high in the country of my birth" -- a teasing dig at so-called birthers who still question whether he was born in the U.S.
At another point, Mr. Obama conceded that "obviously I've learned this year [that] politics can be a tough business."
Mr. Obama tried to balance the humor of the occasion with the seriousness of real-world events. He's scheduled to go to Louisiana Sunday to examine the extent of the huge Gulf Coast oil spill, and he said he also is "mindful" of Americans serving in the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan....
Recalling a congressman's account of being accosted by a naked Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, in a shower at the gym, Mr. Obama said: "Welcome to my world! ... It's a tense moment."
Mr. Obama also spoofed senior White House adviser David Axelrod, not renowned for his devotion to physical fitness. Mr. Obama suggested that Mr. Axelrod had recently done a "salacious" nude photo spread for a Krispy Kreme catalogue.
The president added a few new targets this year, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., under scrutiny for its practices in the runup to the financial crisis. "All of the jokes tonight are brought to you by our friends at Goldman Sachs," Obama said. "They make money whether you laugh or not."...
The president also took his accustomed digs at the media, including favorite target Fox News. This time he added a shot at more liberal cable channel MSNBC. At one point he suggested MSNBC had hailed him for pitching a no hitter when he threw out the first pitch at the Washington National's first game. Fox, by contrast, accused him of pandering to the extreme left wing of the batter's box. News Corp. owns both Fox and The Wall Street Journal.
He suggested that the media has been taking sides throughout U.S. history. "So this is nothing new," he said...
Obama Birth Certificate Critic Visits Hawaii
He Claims President Is Not a Natural Born Citizen
HONOLULU --
Andy Martin said he is not a birther, because he said he believes Obama was born in Hawaii. Birthers allege Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore is ineligible to be President.
In his bio, Martin describes himself as “a legendary New York and Chicago-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic.” He is also a lawyer.
He said the state of Hawaii is improperly keeping Mr. Obama’s birth certificate secret.
Martin arrived at the state attorney general's office Friday afternoon to demand the release of e-mails and other communications among state departments about President Obama's Hawaii birth certificate. But he ran into a problem: the office was closed on what's called a "furlough Friday" because of state budget cuts.
KITV4 was the only media organization to cover a news conference Martin held fronting the attorney general's office. One of Martin's Hawaii supporters showed up to listen to the interview, but refused to give his name to a reporter.
Martin threatened to sue the state, because state officials denied his request for internal communications involving the governor, her cabinet and others about President Obama's birth certificate, claiming their communications are protected by “executive privilege.”
"Executive privilege became famous during Watergate. So I guess we now have an Obama-gate here in Hawaii, because they're saying any communications between any branch of Hawaii government internally is exempt from disclosure," Martin told KITV4....
Martin already lost one lawsuit here trying to force the state Health Department to disclose Mr. Obama's birth certificate, because state law only allows disclosure to the person themselves, their family or legal representatives.
Martin believes records pertaining to the President should be public. "My birth certificate, if it was in Honolulu, was probably private, his is, and probably yours is and his is. But the president of the United States, it's a historical archive," he said.
Martin also said President Obama violates the constitutional requirement the President be a natural born citizen, because his father was a Kenyan national, so both his parents were not U.S. citizens.
KITV4 asked him if the child of an immigrant should not be the president of United States. "If his parents didn't meet the natural-born test when he was born, personally, I would enforce the constitution, yes,” he said.
Asked if that position is racist and xenophobic, Martin responded, “No, not at all, that's what the founding fathers intended. That you have some long-standing ties."
"You can't say we're just not going to obey the constitution because it's out of date," he said, when a reporter pointed out that requirement came about more than 200 years ago when Americans feared that royalty from Germany or other countries might try to become President of the fledgling United States, undermining its independence....
Hawaii lawmakers have just approved a new law aimed at blocking repeated requests for President Obama's birth certificate.
Martin said he’s not to blame for that problem, since he only made one request for the President's birth certificate.
But hundreds of people from across the country keep making repeated requests for Mr. Obama's birth records. State health officials said they get them every day, sometimes from the same people, and that's why they convinced lawmakers to pass the law allowing them to ignore repeat requests from the same person within a one-year period....
CONTINUED AT...
http://www.kitv.com/news/23328002/detail.htmlSEC sends Goldman case
to prosecutors
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Securities and Exchange Commission has referred the ongoing investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, according to a source familiar with the matter.
But any Justice Department investigation that may be ongoing had yet to enter a formal stage, as key officials involved in the Goldman case had not been interviewed by federal prosecutors or FBI agents, according to another source familiar with the matter....
CONTINUED AT:
All the president’s Goldman Sachs men;
Update: A look at the White House visitor logs
Scroll for updates…
My syndicated column today shines light on all the Goldman Sachs company men in the Obama administration’s midst. The GOP wants SEC correspondence disclosed. Here’s that story. In related news, Goldman Sachs cheerleader and beneficiary Rahm Emanuel met with NYC business elite about the financial reform plan. Listen up:
Another attendee, who spoke anonymously to discuss remarks that were intended to be private, said the chief-of-staff emphasized that there was a “12-week legislative calendar” to get the administration’s main goals accomplished.
Related must-read from Conn Carroll at The Foundry: The Crony Capitalist Threat to Our Economic Freedom.
***
All the president’s Goldman Sachs men
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
While President Obama assails the culture of greed and recklessness practiced by the men of Goldman Sachs, his administration is infested with them. The White House can no more disown Government Sachs than Da Boss-in-chief can disown Chicago politics.
Obama is headed to Wall Street on Thursday to demand “financial regulatory reform” — just as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil suit against Goldman Sachs for mortgage-related fraud. Question the timing? Darn tootin’. There are no coincidences in the perpetually orchestrated Age of O. Everyone from disgraced former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to analysts at the Brookings Institution and Barclays Capital to the GOP leadership and Rush Limbaugh has noted the reeking political opportunism in the air.
As the New York Post reported Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee immediately bought sponsored Internet ads on Google that direct web surfers who type in “Goldman Sachs SEC” to Obama’s fundraising site. “It’s time to hold the big banks accountable,” the money-grubbing DNC message bellows. But just like his crony capitalist predecessor George W. Bush, Obama has relied on Goldman Sachs and Wall Street power brokers to engineer massive government interventions to “rescue” failing businesses with the tax dollars of ordinary Americans.
While irony-challenged Democratic candidates like mob-linked banker Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois (who hopes to fill Obama’s old Senate seat) call on Republicans to return their fat-cat Goldman Sachs donations, the Democrats are silent on the $994,795 in Goldman Sachs campaign cash that Obama bagged. The class-warfare Dems are also mum on all the president’s Goldman Sachs men sitting in the catbird’s seat...
CONTINUED AT...
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/michelle-malkin
AP/Huffington Post
The government has accused Goldman Sachs of defrauding investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage investments it sold as the housing market was faltering.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday civil fraud charges against the Wall Street powerhouse and one of its executives. The agency alleges Goldman failed to disclose that one of its clients helped create -- and then bet against -- subprime mortgage securities that Goldman sold to investors. In essence, Goldman is accused of pushing a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail.
Investors in the mortgage securities are alleged to have lost more than $1 billion, the SEC noted.
The SEC claims Goldman Sachs and one of its top officers misled investors by not disclosing that hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made billions betting against the housing market, selected the assets that went into a complex security called "Abacaus."
Paulson & Co. is one of the world's largest hedge funds, and paid Goldman roughly $15 million for structuring these deals in 2007.
"The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen," finance expert Sylvain R. Raynes told the New York Times about such deals. "When you buy protection against an event that you have a hand in causing, you are buying fire insurance on someone else's house and then committing arson."
Goldman Sachs shares fell more than 10 percent after the SEC announcement...
CONTINUED AT: DIRTY GOLD IN GOLDMAN SACHSApril 26, 2010
today's featured
The One Thing
— By Glenn Beck
-
Why Goldman is willing to take the heat
• Video: Watch Beck's One Thing
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,591542,00.html
BORN IN THE USA?
Officer challenging Obama 'reassigned'
No charges yet for surgeon demanding eligibility proof
Posted: April 14, 2010
8:35 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
The U.S. Army says a surgeon who has publicly refused to follow any further orders until he sees documentation that Barack Obama is eligible to be president is being "reassigned" at Walter Reed Army Hospital after he refused to deploy to Afghanistan as scheduled.
 Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is the highest-ranking and first active-duty officer to refuse to obey orders based on President Obama's eligibility. |
While there have been reports Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is facing an imminent court-martial, Army spokesman Chuck Dasey told WND today that Lakin is only "under investigation" at this point.
"Lakin reported to the commander, Medical Center Brigade, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, on Monday, 12 April, after failing to report for duty at Fort Campbell, Ky.," a statement sent by Dasey to WND today said.
"Lakin will be assigned to duty at Walter Reed pending investigation."
A spokeswoman for the case, Margaret Calhoun Hemenway, told WND that whatever the "assignment" amounts to, Lakin's access privileges were revoked, his computer was confiscated and he "is not permitted to support his Hippocratic oath … and take care of the troops as a doctor and a surgeon."
On the day he was supposed to have reported for deployment, Lakin was read his rights by Col. Gordon Roberts, his brigade commander, who discussed the situation with him and told him he had the "right to remain silent" because he was about to be charged with "serious crimes."
Hemenway said the message was that "he will shortly be court-martialed for crimes (specifically, missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer) that for others has led to lengthy imprisonment at hard labor." ...
CONTINUES AT: http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/mr-obama-show-we-the-people-your-birth-certificate-please
ASB's parent company, Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., said it has hired the executive search firm Korn/Ferry International to conduct a nationwide search.
Last year, Schools earned $1.15 million as ASB's president, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission....
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100410/BUSINESS01/4100308/-1/
* * *
S-H-H-H-H ... LOTS MORE GOING ON BEHIND THE BLINDS AT...
School blames lawyer in Hawaiians-first dispute
Advertiser Staff
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 |
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A California lawyer for the Big Island student who challenged Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-first admission policy has been accused of misrepresentation by the multibillion-dollar charitable trust.
Kamehameha Schools sued California attorney Eric Grant, the Big Island student and his mother in state Circuit Court in Hilo last year after an Advertiser news story in February 2008 revealed that the lawsuit had been settled for $7 million.
In an amendment to the lawsuit this month, Kamehameha said Grant failed to tell his clients that they would be legally liable if the confidential terms of the settlement were made public.
Grant received about 40 percent of the settlement — about $2.8 million — for his work on the lawsuit, which was settled just before the U.S. Supreme Court was to decide whether it would hear an appeal of the case.
"It would be unjust for Grant to obtain his share of the proceeds of the settlement agreement where ... he has caused the validity of the settlement agreement to be called into doubt," trust attorney Paul Alston said in court papers.
Grant could not be reached for comment.
Kamehameha Schools' amended complaint asks for damages that would be proven at trial plus attorney fees and other costs.
Grant had represented the Big Island student and his mother, who have never been publicly identified and are known only as Jane and John Doe.
In June 2003, the Does sued to overturn Kamehameha Schools' century-old, Hawaiians-first admissions policy.
U.S. District Judge Alan Kay upheld the admissions policy in November 2003 but a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in August 2005, saying the admissions policy constituted unlawful racial discrimination.
By an 8-7 vote, the full 9th Circuit upheld the policy a year later before the lawsuit was settled as Does' attorneys were preparing an appeal before the Supreme Court.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2010/Apr/09/ln/hawaii4090341.html
~ ~ ~
MORE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SIGHTINGS AT
DIRTY MONEY, DIRTY POLITICS & BISHOP ESTATE
JOHN GOEMANS: CRUSADER FOR A COLOR-BLIND AMERICA
Ex-Citi exec says he warned
Rubin on mortgage risk
Ex-Citigroup mortgage exec says he warned Rubin and others about crisis starting in 2006
Daniel Wagner, AP Business Writer
Ex-Citigroup leaders defensive on crisis
Reuters – Former Citigroup Chief Executive Charles Prince waits for the start of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission … 
By Rachelle Younglai and Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Charles Prince and Robert Rubin, who led Citigroup (NYSE:C - News) in the run-up to the 2008 banking crisis, voiced regrets on Thursday, but accepted no responsibility for the mega-bank's massive losses.
The two came under heavy fire in a congressional panel hearing for being blind to Citi taking on huge financial risks under their watch, leading ultimately to the bank's near collapse, prevented only by a $45-billion taxpayer bailout.
His hands visibly shaking as he answered questions, Rubin, formerly U.S. Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, told panel members that he was not a key decision-maker at Citi during the worst of its troubles.
Former CEO Prince came to the defense of Rubin, saying that as an advisor he was not responsible for Citi's losses. Prince offered up multiple apologies for his own ignorance.
"I can only say that I am deeply sorry that our management -- starting with me -- was not more prescient and that we did not foresee what lay before us," Prince said.
Some members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission -- charged by Congress with explaining the origins of the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression -- did not buy the two executives' half-hearted mea culpas.
"You either were pulling the levers or asleep at the switch," commission Chairman Phil Angelides said to Rubin....
CONTINUES AT: http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/financial-crisis-inquiry-commission-or-coverup
April 1, 2010
Royal Dutch Shell biggest winner in
Obama’s Lackluster Oil Plan
In Texas parlance, it’s a classic case of all hat, no cattle.
HOUSTON — Royal Dutch Shell appears to be the biggest winner in Wednesday’s much-heralded but underwhelming announcement by President Barack Obama about opening up new offshore areas of the U.S. to oil and gas drilling.
Finally, after three years of wrangling, Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSA – news – people ) will be allowed to drill test wells in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. But while the president giveth, he also taketh away. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on a conference call Wednesday that the government would cancel another set of leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas pending further environmental study. The administration banned altogether any future drilling in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.
Shell President Marvin Odum was upbeat about the announcement in a conference call Wednesday afternoon. At least Shell would get to drill something. The company has paid more than $2 billion to the government since 2006 to lease blocks in the Chukchi, and it has invested $3 billion more since then on seismic testing, overhauling drilling ships to meet draconian air standards and environmental testing.
Shell’s vice president for Alaska, Pete Slaiby, explained in an interview with Forbes late last year that Shell had invested more than $15 million to install more than 60 sound recorders on the seafloor to study the movements of whales, walruses and seals. It has made agreements with the captains of Eskimo whaling boats to move drilling ships out of hunting grounds during the open-water period so they can hunt Bowhead whales. Even if Shell ever gets the clearance to fully develop its Chukchi leases, the costs of the buildout would top $15 billion.
As for the rest of Obama’s oil plan, it is (in Texas parlance) a classic case of all hat, no cattle. Even under the best circumstances it will be a couple years before the feds will auction off new acreage to oil companies offshore Virginia and Florida. Expect environmentalists to try to block the proposals all the way....
CONTINUED AT...
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/31/obama-oil-drilling-business-energy-offshore-oil.html
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ENJOY MORE SUCKER TRICKS AT...
GOOGLING FOR OBAMA & SHELL OIL
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March 26, 2010
JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named
in Bid-Rigging Conspiracy
By William Selway and Martin Z. Braun
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S. state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.
A government list of previously unidentified “co- conspirators” contains more than two dozen bankers at firms also including Bank of America Corp., Bear Stearns Cos., Societe Generale, two of General Electric Co.’s financial businesses and Salomon Smith Barney, the former unit of Citigroup Inc., according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24.
The papers were filed by attorneys for a former employee of CDR Financial Products Inc., an advisory firm indicted in October. The attorneys, as part of their legal filing, identified the roster as being provided by the government. The document is labeled “list of co-conspirators.”
None of the firms or individuals named on the list has been charged with wrongdoing. The court records mark the first time these companies have been identified as co-conspirators. They provide the broadest look yet at alleged collusion in the $2.8 trillion municipal securities market that the government says delivered profits to Wall Street at taxpayers’ expense....
CONTINUED AT...
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Letter: Lehman accounting tricks
possibly illegal
In letter, fired Lehman whistleblower calls bank's accounting tricks possibly 'unlawful'
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Lehman Brothers whistleblower warned his bosses that accounting gimmicks the bank used before its collapse may have been illegal, his lawyer said Friday.
Matthew Lee, a former Lehman senior vice president, was fired days after questioning the accounting tricks in a letter to his superiors, attorney Erwin Shustak said. Shustak gave a copy of the letter to The Associated Press.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. imploded in September 2008, becoming the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. The collapse sent financial markets across the globe into a free-fall and prompted a massive bailout of the U.S. banking system.
An examiner appointed by the bankruptcy court said in a 2,200-page report last week that Lehman hid its debt and perilous financial condition by using an accounting gimmick called Repo 105. The report revealed Lee's warnings to the bank, though his letter makes public the first internal assessment of the legality of Lehman's bookkeeping.
In a letter dated May 18, 2008, Lee wrote that he discovered that the bank had been underreporting its debt by about $5 billion at the end of each month. Lee, a 14-year Lehman veteran, wrote that he felt compelled to report the "discrepancies" under the firm's code of ethics, saying he believed they "possibly constitute unethical or unlawful conduct."
"I believe the manner in which the firm is reporting these assets is potentially misleading to the public and various governmental agencies," Lee wrote. "If so, I believe the firm may be in violation of the code."
Days after sending the letter, the firm told Lee he was being terminated as part of a general layoff, Shustak said. After his firing, Shustak wrote a letter to the bank saying that Lee "believes he has been the victim of retaliation for bringing what he believed, in good faith, to have been ethical and securities law violations by Lehman."
Lee, 56, later reached a severance agreement with Lehman, however, he stopped receiving payments after the firm's collapse, Shustak said. He has filed a claim with the bankruptcy court to recover the unpaid amount.
The bankruptcy examiner's report and Lee's letter could provide a framework for any future legal action against Lehman executives.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Friday called for Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the circumstances that led to Lehman's collapse. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department would review the request.
The examiner, Anton Valukas, discovered that Lehman put together complex transactions that allowed the firm to sell "toxic," mostly mortgage-backed, securities at the end of a quarter -- wiping them off its balance sheet when regulators and shareholders were examining it -- and then quickly buy them back.
His report doesn't conclude whether executives violated securities laws. It does say that the executives' decision not to disclose the effects of its business judgments appears to be sufficient evidence to support the awarding of civil damages in a trial.
The executives named by the report include former CEO Richard Fuld and three chief financial officers. Fuld has denied knowing what the transactions were or the accounting for them.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said Wednesday that the agency is investigating several companies' actions in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008. She said the SEC's review of the Lehman disaster "has taken us down a path where we're looking broadly" and that Valukas's report will be helpful to the agency in its investigation.
She did not name other firms.
CONTINUED AT...
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/lehman-brothers-and-the-liars-brew
RELATED SIGHTINGS
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/what-price-waterhouse
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/confessions-of-a-whistleblower
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/the-silence-of-the-whistleblowers
Hawaii state auditor:
'Lack of integrity' in administration
Higa challenges administration over state investments
Advertiser Staff Writer
Marion Higa
A feud between state auditor Marion Higa and Gov. Linda Lingle grew more heated yesterday with Higa challenging the administration to take a lie detector test.
At issue are more than $1 billion in state investments in student-loan-backed securities that have declined in value by about $250 million over the past several years. The state won't necessarly lose that money, because the principal will be paid back in full if the investments are held until their maturity.
However, Higa said yesterday that state purchases of so-called auction rate securities violated the law and put state funds at increased risk.
According to a report released by the auditor yesterday, the investments didn't comply with state laws and policies that require diversity of investments, that investments maintain a AAA rating and that short-term investments mature in less than five years.
The audit, which covered the Department of Budget and Finance from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, said the agency lacked leadership and accountability and is not effectively managing the state's $3.8 billion treasury.
Earlier this month, Lingle harshly criticized a draft version of the report, calling it "shoddy," "unprofessional" and "politically motivated." The governor also called on state lawmakers to investigate Higa.
Higa yesterday said she and others within her office would be willing to take a lie detector test to prove their veracity.
"If the administration will do the same, we'll see where the truth might lie," Higa said.
Higa took the unusual step of releasing the results of the audit at a news conference yesterday in which she criticized Lingle's administration and Department of Budget and Finance officials who made the investments.
"I believe that the administration's attack on our reputation and our credibility deserves some unprecedented attention," Higa said. "I think we need an affirmative response to set the record straight.
"The behavior of the administration has also been unprecedented. I believe it reflects a lack of integrity."
Lingle yesterday was unavailable to comment on the audit.
In a written response attached to the audit, Georgina Kawamura, the Budget and Finance Department director, said the report includes inaccurate , misleading and false statements. She also expressed concerns that the audit's allegations of a lack of leadership and accountability could hurt the state's reputation.
"We are concerned that this baseless conclusion may damage Hawai'i's hard-earned reputation as a prudent manager of public resources and adversely affect our ability to sell bonds," Kawamura wrote.
The main issues raised in the audit resulted from a rise in the popularity of auction-rate securities as "near cash equivalents," investments that can be easily and quickly converted into cash. The rate of return on auction-rate securities is typically higher than for comparable investments. However, the liquidity of the securities evaporated when the auctions began failing last year as dealers hamstrung by subprime losses pulled back from purchase guarantees and credit markets started to tighten.
Cash crunch
The state shifted large amounts of its investments into the bonds even as the auction rate market started to tighten in second half of 2007, because of their high rate of return. The investments were legal and in line with an opinion by the state attorney general, according to the state.
However, those yield -driven purchases were in conflict with state policies that emphasize safety and liquidity of investments over yield, Higa said.
Money tied up in auction rate securities reduces the state's potential cash reserves, could affect the state's ability to meet future cash needs and could potentially be a factor behind state plans to delay income tax refunds , she said.
"It's very obvious the state is in a cash crunch," she said. "Having the billion dollars frozen like this presents a cash crunch. Whether we might still have to delay tax refunds is a possibility even without the billion dollars being frozen, but it exacerbates the situation."
The audit recommended that the state formalize polices and procedures and improve cash and investment management practices , including doing a regular review of investment policies.
Kawamura agreed with some recommendations, but maintained that the audit's main findings were unsubstantiated and lacked merit.
"The result of the review is an undeserved attack on the hard-working men and women of this department," she wrote.
RELATED
CONFESSIONS OF A WHISTLEBLOWER
to ignore Obama 'birthers'
HONOLULU – Birthers beware: Hawaii may start ignoring your repeated requests for proof that President Barack Obama was born here.
As the state continues to receive e-mails seeking Obama's birth certificate, the state House Judiciary Committee heard a bill Tuesday permitting government officials to ignore people who won't give up.
"Sometimes we may be dealing with a cohort of people who believe lack of evidence is evidence of a conspiracy," said Lorrin Kim, chief of the Hawaii Department of Health's Office of Planning, Policy and Program Development.
So-called "birthers" claim Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was actually born outside the United States, and therefore doesn't meet a constitutional requirement for being president.
Hawaii Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino issued statements last year and in October 2008 saying that she's seen vital records that prove Obama is a natural-born American citizen.
But the state still gets between 10 and 20 e-mails seeking verification of Obama's birth each week, most of them from outside Hawaii, Kim said Tuesday.
A few of these requesters continue to pepper the Health Department with the same letters seeking the same information, even after they're told state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest. Responding wastes time and money, Kim said.
Both Fukino and the state registrar of vital statistics have verified that the Health Department holds Obama's original birth certificate.
The issue coincides with Sunshine Week, when news organizations promote open government and freedom of information.
"Do we really want to be known internationally as the Legislature that blocked any inquiries into where President Obama was born?" asked Rep. Cynthia Thielen, R-Kaneohe-Kailua. "When people want to get more information, the way to fuel that fire is to say, 'We're now going to draw down a veil of secrecy.'"
Nobody at the hearing questioned the fact that the president was born in Hawaii.
Attorney Peter Fritz asked why the state would pass a law punishing repetitive requests for open records. Instead, the state could simply say it would only answer each person's question once.
If the measure passed, the state Office of Information Practices could declare an individual a "vexatious requester" and restrict rights to government records for two years.
The committee will schedule a vote on the measure, said Chairman Jon Riki Karamatsu, D-Waipahu-Waikele....
CONTINUED AT...
MR. OBAMA, SHOW "WE THE PEOPLE" YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE ... PLEASE?
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Related:
The Video That Will Put Geithner Behind Bars
Mike Whitney
Information Clearing House
March 14, 2010
If this doesn’t convince you that Timothy Geithner knew about the securities shenanigans that were going on at Lehman, then I don’t know what will.
Keep in mind, that Geithner ran Lehman through 3 “stress tests” prior to bankruptcy; all of which Lehman failed, and yet, nothing was done. Anton R. Valukas–the examiner who wrote the 2,200 page investigative-report which was released on Thursday– has provided plenty of information detailing Lehman’s “materially misleading” accounting and “actionable balance sheet manipulation.”
In other words, they cooked the books.
“Quite a few observers… have been stunned and frustrated at the refusal to investigate what was almost certain accounting fraud at Lehman. ….The unraveling isn’t merely implicating Fuld (Lehman CEO) and his recent succession of CFOs, or its accounting firm, Ernst & Young, as might be expected. It also emerges that the NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict in the performance of their duties, and may well be culpable in aiding and abetting Lehman in accounting fraud and Sarbox violations….
We need to demand an immediate release of the e-mails, phone records, and meeting notes from the NY Fed and key Lehman principals regarding the NY Fed’s review of Lehman’s solvency. If, as things appear now, Lehman was allowed by the Fed’s inaction to remain in business, when the Fed should have insisted on a wind-down ….. at a minimum, the NY Fed helped perpetuate a fraud on investors and counterparties.
This pattern further suggests the Fed, which by its charter is tasked to promote the safety and soundness of the banking system, instead, via its collusion with Lehman management, operated to protect particular actors to the detriment of the public at large.
And most important, it says that the NY Fed, and likely Geithner himself, undermined, perhaps even violated, laws designed to protect investors and markets. If so, he is not fit to be Treasury secretary or hold any office related to financial supervision and should resign immediately. (Naked Capitalism)
Repeat: “Accounting fraud”, “collusion”, “aiding and abetting.” These are serious charges by a usually restrained blogger.
And this is from Zero Hedge:
“Lehman has become merely the latest example of all that is broken with today’s crony capitalist system…. The evident conclusion is that the core driver of modern capitalist society is fraud at its very core, and nothing short of a massive revolutionary overhaul of the political system, which is the number one defender .. of very lucrative bribes and kickbacks originating from the same rotten Wall Street that (is) nothing but a sham filled with toxic assets” Zero Hedge
This story isn’t going away. Someone has to go to jail. It’s clear that Geithner acted as the “chief facilitator” of industrial scale securities flim-flam which led directly to the Great Crash of ‘08. He needs to be held accountable for his actions.
(Thanks, CJ)
http://www.infowars.com/the-video-that-will-put-geithner-behind-bars/
Senators question $1 million pay for charity's CEO
WASHINGTON – A group of Republican senators is questioning high salaries and expensive travel bills for executives at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, raising issues that could jeopardize millions in federal funding for the national charity.
The four senators said they were concerned that the chief executive of a charity that has been closing local clubs for lack of funding was compensated nearly $1 million in 2008. They also questioned why in the same year officials spent $4.3 million on travel, $1.6 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, and $544,000 in lobbying fees.
"The question is whether or not a very top-heavy organization might be siphoning off federal dollars that should be going to help kids," said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
The senators sent a letter to the head of the charity's board of governors Thursday seeking detailed financial information about executive compensation, travel and lobbying expenses, and how the national charity awards grants to local clubs.
The issues they raise could threaten the reputation of a popular charity that supports 4,300 local Boys & Girls Clubs serving about 4.8 million children. The timing threatens a bill moving through the Senate that would provide up to $425 million in federal money to the national organization over the next five years....
The senators noted in their letter that the organization posted a $13.6 million loss in 2008, according to tax records.
"We find it hard to reconcile this loss with the amount spent on executive salaries, perks, and lobbying expenses," the senators wrote. "We are especially concerned because it is our understanding that some independent clubs have closed or are on the cusp of closing because of a lack of funding."
Community Boys & Girls Clubs are all locally governed, but most receive tens of thousands of dollars each year from the Atlanta-based national charity. In 2008, the national charity reported receiving $41 million in government grants and $51 million in other gifts and contributions.
That same year, the national organization spent $57.6 million on grants to local clubs and $37.5 million on salaries and benefits, according to tax records.
In 2009, the Justice Department awarded the Boys & Girls Clubs of America a $44 million grant for mentoring services. The money came from the economic recovery package enacted last year. The grant was more than twice the size of the next largest, $19 million, which went to Goodwill Industries International.
Roxanne Spillett, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, received a total compensation of $988,591 in 2008, according to the charity's tax filings. She got a base salary of $360,774, a bonus of $150,000 and other compensation of $83,152, for a total of $593,926. She also received $385,500 in deferred compensation, most of which went to a retirement plan, and $9,165 in nontaxable benefits.
The organization listed two registered lobbyists among its highest paid employees. Glenn Permuy, a senior vice president, received $427,355 in total compensation, including $22,500 deferred. Kevin McCartney, senior vice president of government relations, had $217,859 in total compensation, including $13,502 deferred....
In the e-mail, McElroy said the charity's compensation committee follows Internal Revenue Service guidelines for nonprofit organizations. He said Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, analyzed executive compensation and found it was "appropriate for a large, national, tax-exempt, youth organization."...
Annual compensation averaged $462,000 last year for the CEOs of charities with expenses of more than $100 million, according to a compensation study by Charity Navigator, a Web site that evaluates charities.
"The people who use our site, donors, would be appalled by a salary like this," Ken Berger, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, said of Spillett's compensation. "If you want to be a millionaire, go and work in the for-profit sector."...
Saipan families sue Isle firm over hotel sale
Complaint alleges shares lost value, asks for $25 million
Pacific Daily News
March 5, 2010
AIG AND GOLDMAN SACHS FED FRAUD
Straight from JUDGE NAPOLITANO & RON PAUL !
CLICK > MUST WATCH! < HERE
Listen to this JUDGE!
He puts it all out there as we know it…
who is going to argue with his points!
* * *
MORE AT...
AIG: THE AMERICAN IDOL OF GREED!Court's ruling doesn't end battle
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Legal skirmishing between the Kamehameha Schools and attorneys challenging the school's admissions policy continues, despite yesterday's federal appellate decision upholding dismissal of the latest legal challenge.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in a 2008 lawsuit filed by four anonymous students who claimed that the school's admissions policy that favors students of Native Hawaiian ancestry violates federal civil rights laws.
The ruling upheld earlier decisions last year by Hawai'i Magistrate-Judge Barry Kurren and District Judge J. Michael Seabright that denied anonymity to the student plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs agreed last year to drop their suit because they could not proceed anonymously, but preserved their rights to an appeal.
"Few tenets of the United States justice system rank above the conflicting principles presented in this case: the transparency and openness of this nation's court proceedings and the ability of private individuals to seek redress in the courts without fear for their safety," the appellate court said.
Attorneys for Kamehameha Schools argued they would be prejudiced in their defense if the plaintiffs' identities were kept secret.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued their clients would be in physical danger if they were publicly identified.
"We are sympathetic to the concerns of the children and their parents, but we recognize the paramount importance of open courts," the court said.
David Rosen, one of the attorneys challenging the admissions policy, said yesterday: "I'm not sure what to say about the (9th Circuit) ruling. It looks like the end of the line, although we're considering whether to continue with the appeal."
anonymity at issue
Kamehameha Schools trustees said in a statement: "We have believed from the outset that if this case were to proceed, it should do so as openly and honestly as possible. We understand that these plaintiffs may appeal this decision further, but we are heartened by the consistent, unanimous and affirming legal determinations that have been made so far."
Rosen said another challenge to the admissions policy would have to come from a non-Hawaiian student willing to be publicly named in a lawsuit.
"I'm not sure I would want to be involved in such a case," Rosen said.
Rosen and his co-counsel in the suit, Eric Grant of California, are still enmeshed in a legal struggle related to an earlier admissions suit that Kamehameha Schools settled out of court in 2007 for $7 million.
That original suit, now called "John Doe One," was filed by Grant and Honolulu attorney John Goemans on behalf of an anonymous non-Hawaiian Big Island student who was denied admission to Kamehameha Schools.
The school did not challenge the plaintiff's anonymity in that case, which was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A federal judge here in 2003 upheld the legality of the admissions policy, agreeing with the school's argument that it helped address cultural and socioeconomic disadvantages that have beset many Hawaiians since the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
The school's assets, including thousands of acres of land bequeathed by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, are worth billions of dollars, making the institution one of the wealthiest nonprofits in the world.
Today, Kamehameha Schools occupies a central role in Hawai'i society, in part because of its financial clout and also because of its mission to educate children of Hawaiian ancestry.
The 2003 court decision upholding the admission policy was overturned by three judges of the 9th Circuit in 2005, prompting protest rallies, prayer vigils and other gatherings around the state in support of the schools.
Lawyers for Kamehameha Schools then won another legal reversal when the full 9th Circuit overturned the 2005 ruling by an 8-7 vote in December 2006.
Grant then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, and the schools agreed to the $7 million confidential settlement on the eve of a high court announcement on whether it would hear the case.
legal fees dispute
Goemans revealed the $7 million figure to The Advertiser in 2008, saying he was not a party to the settlement, did not agree with it and did not sign it. Goemans died last year.
The school filed a state suit on the Big Island against John Doe and his mother and Grant, demanding return of $2 million because of the breach of secrecy.
Now the school has expanded its claims in the Big Island case, alleging that the 2008 civil rights suit, dubbed "John Doe Two," was a "copy cat" action filed only after the $7 million settlement figure in John Doe One was revealed.
"Doe Two was expressly modeled on Doe One ... about five months after Goemans disclosed the purported amount of the settlement in Doe One," schools attorney Paul Alston said in court papers filed last week.
Alston is arguing that the John Doe One plaintiffs and their lawyers should be liable for legal fees and expenses incurred by the schools in their now-successful defense of John Doe Two.
Rosen said in a declaration filed in the Big Island case that he and his clients in John Doe Two had agreed to sue Kamehameha Schools months before the $7 million settlement was made public. Now Alston wants Rosen to produce records supporting his claims.
"Mr. Rosen injected himself into the case by offering a one-sided declaration," Alston said yesterday. "All we want is to get at the relevant documents and information."
"They're being vindictive," Rosen said yesterday of Kamehameha Schools. "They're trying to run up and cause expenses to Eric Grant and myself."
The Kamehameha Schools "continue to spend ridiculous amounts of money" to avoid a court decision on the legality of the admissions policy, Rosen said.
"We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, if not more, to frustrate efforts to find out what the law is," he said.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100303/NEWS20/3030347/-1/
MORE AT...
DIRTY MONEY, DIRTY POLITICS AND BISHOP ESTATE
JOHN GOEMANS: CRUSADER FOR A COLOR-BLIND SOCIETY
GOOGLING FOR THE GREAT NEST EGG ROBBERIES
KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS, THE IRS, AND ME
THE KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS GREAT NEST EGG ROBBERY
KAMEHAMEHA'S PIG-PEN PENSION PLAN
~ o ~
U.S. Equities
AIG's Ghastly Quarter
Kelsey Swanekamp, 02.26.10, 10:30 AM ET
After two profitable quarters American International Group was back in the red for the last three months of 2009.
AIG reported a loss of $65.51 per share, lower than the $458.99 per share it lost last year, but the narrower loss failed to meet the expectations of the few analysts who still cover the stock, which was for a loss of $3.94 per share. The insurer recorded a loss of $8.9 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with its loss of $61.7 billion in the year-ago period.
Government loans weighed on the balance sheet, and AIG recorded $6.2 billion in expenses from repaying the debt. The insurer received $182.5 billion in aid packages from the U.S. government in September 2008 in return for an 80% stake. As of the close of the fourth quarter, AIG still owes taxpayers $129.3 billion.
Beyond its government debt, AIG also reported weakness in its insurance business. The insurer recorded a 2.2% decrease in net premiums for its general insurance unit, Chantis, which it attributed to the poor economy and pricing decisions.
Investors weren't pleased with the results and sent shares down by 8.1% to $25.28 on Friday morning.
During the quarter AIG continued to focus on sales of some of its units to repay its debt. The insurer is in talks with MetLife to sell its American Life Insurance Co., known as Alico, in a deal said to be worth as much as $15 billion. (See "AIG: Alico Sale Rumored, IPO Off.")
In addition, we have always been concerned that many Hawaii residents are uninformed about the actual contents—and ramifications—of the proposed Akaka bill. For example, the recent Zogby poll found 32% uninformed about the Akaka bill. To combat that lack of knowledge, many of us have worked long and hard to highlight unintended consequences like higher taxes, loss of property values, expensive lawsuits, and tensions between native Hawaiians due to the Akaka bill’s “blood quantum” provisions. This indicates to us an urgent need for further education of Hawaii’s public, which we intend to do while continuing to call for Congressional Hearings in all of our counties.
We would like to thank Governor Lingle for frankly expressing her concerns with the most recent version of the bill. We agree that Hawaii’s residents should not be subject to two different sets of rules as outlined in the Akaka bill, and we share her concern regarding the Native Hawaiian Governing Entity’s apparent immunity from lawsuits. These issues will threaten our system of governance, our economy, and our unity as a state.”
Jamie Story is the president of The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Honolulu. The mission of the Grassroot Institute is to promote individual liberty, free market economic principles and limited, more accountable government.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?da49b781-3e72-4714-aa42-722f26c35c90
WATCH THE LOVELY MALIA ZIMMERMAN ON YOUTUBE AT
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by News Article Monday, March 01, 2010 |
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In an effort to dispel concerns that the creation of a race-based tribe violates the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, Mr. Abercrombie added a six-page list of membership criteria that could include non-Hawaiian state residents. But the provision contains a self-destruct clause—as soon as the tribe is officially recognized, it can extend and deny membership based on any criteria it sees fit.
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Video of Hawaiians’ future: Indian families “disenrolled”, homes bulldozed
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“In a majority of disenrollment cases, however, some tribal officials are, without any concern for human rights, tribal traditions or due process, arbitrarily and capriciously disenrolling tribal members as a means to solidify their own economic and political bases and to winnow out opposition families who disapprove of the direction the tribal leadership is headed.” -- David E. Wilkins, Lumbee, professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota read more... |
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Reservation for a Broken Trust? |
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Contrary to popular opinion, Indian reservations have a history in Hawaii. An Oct. 12, 1999, article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin describes the efforts of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate (KSBE) trustees in 1995 to evade oversight of their corrupt doings. The Trustees’ self-serving investments caused losses of $264,090,257 in 1994 alone. To avoid scrutiny, they considered moving KSBE corporate headquarters out of Hawaii to the windswept plains of the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota. read more... |
Hon. James David Manning says Obama was CIA operative who used Columbia University as a cover up to go to Pakistan in 1981 when the United States and the Taliban worked together against Russia
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Q: Is 21st Century insurance the same as AIG?
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Will Rebranding Rescue AIG's Future?
Posted by Barry Silverstein on September 15, 2009 02:30 PM
In 2007, AIG, with a brand value of over $7 billion, led all insurance companies in BusinessWeek's ranking of global brands. But today, "AIG has become the Enron of brand names," according to author Liz Goodgold. "The brand name is what people remember and that name is forever tainted." Maybe that's why every division of the embattled financial services company is scrambling to distance itself from those three initials. The automobile insurance division was renamed 21st Century Insurance before it was sold to Farmers Insurance Group.
AIG Annuity has been re-christened Western National Insurance. And AIG's property/casualty business is now operating under the newly introduced brand name Chartis, Insurancenewsnet reports.Continue reading...
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AIG, BusinessWeek, Liz Goodgold, Enron, AIG Annuity, Farmers Insurance Group, 21st Century Insurance, Western National Insurance, Chartis, Financial
THE BUSH FAMILY'S PROJECT HAMMER
PART 1 of 2
Deanna Spingola
February 20, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
Hammering the USSR’s Economy
In 1989 President George H. W. Bush began the multi-billion dollar Project Hammer program using an investment strategy to bring about the economic destruction of the Soviet Union including the theft of the Soviet treasury, the destabilization of the ruble, funding a KGB coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 and the seizure of major energy and munitions industries in the Soviet Union. Those resources would subsequently be turned over to international bankers and corporations.
On November 1, 2001, the second operative in the Bush regime, President George W. Bush, issued Executive Order 13233 on the basis of “national security” and concealed the records of past presidents, especially his father’s spurious activities during 1990 and 1991. Consequently, those records are no longer accessible to the public.[1]
The Russian coup plot was discussed in June 1991 when Yeltsin visited with Bush in conjunction with his visit to the United States. On that same visit, Yeltsin met discreetly with Gerald Corrigan, the chairman of the New York Federal Reserve.[2]...
CONTINUED AT: http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/the-bush-family-s-project-hammer
Associated Press
Marsh & McLennan Cos. spent $270,000 in the fourth quarter to lobby the federal government on health care and other issues, according to a recent disclosure report.
That's slightly down from the $280,000 it spent in the year-ago period, but up from the $220,000 it spent in the third quarter of 2009.
The insurance broker and consulting firm, based in New York, also lobbied on issues including risk regulation, executive compensation practices and financial regulatory reform.
In the October-December period, the company lobbied Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the report filed Jan. 20 with the House clerk's office.
The Obama administration has proposed a series of measures to tighten the reins on financial institutions in hopes of preventing a recurrence of the crisis that struck both Wall Street and Washington in the fall of 2008.
RELATED SIGHTINGS...
AIG: THE AMERICAN IDOL OF GREED
CONFESSIONS OF A WHISTLEBLOWER
MARSH & McLENNAN: THE MARSH BIRDS
~ o ~
FEBRUARY 16, 2010
Bowles, Simpson to Head Debt Commission
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is plowing ahead with a commission to tackle the federal debt despite resistance from Republican leaders.
Mr. Obama will name former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson as co-chairmen of the commission Thursday when he signs an executive order creating the panel, an administration official said.
The commission's job will be to help bring down the federal budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2015, compared with nearly 10% today, and to propose ways to hold down the surging costs of government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The president will also ask the panel to look at the U.S. tax code and has not ruled out tax increases for the middle class should the commission deem them necessary.
Republican leaders and lawmakers said Tuesday they still had not been consulted on the panel's composition or mandate. The 18-member panel is to include eight Republicans, six named by GOP leaders in Congress and two by the White House.
![[DEBT1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BE324_DEBT1_D_20100216201339.jpg)
Associated Press Alan Simpson, above, and Erskine Bowles will tackle Medicare, Medicaid.
![[DEBT2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BE325_DEBT2_D_20100216201518.jpg)
Associated Press Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) will decide whether he will name members after he has seen the details, said spokesman Don Stewart.
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) has been more critical. "Blue-ribbon commissions are fine and dandy, but we're still waiting for a response from the president on our proposal to start cutting spending right now," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel, referring to a letter from House GOP leaders, who demanded upfront spending-cut commitments before they would take part.
The executive order, announced during Mr. Obama's State of the Union address, has been delayed as the White House tried to rally support for the panel. Officials say Mr. Obama will move forward for now with or without Republicans....
White House officials hope Mr. Simpson's participation will lend credibility to the effort, officially called the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Mr. Simpson served as a senator from Wyoming from 1979 to 1997 and Senate GOP whip, the second-highest post in leadership, from 1985 to 1995. He served on the Iraq Study Group during the Bush administration, a bipartisan panel named to study options for the Iraq war.
Mr. Bowles, currently president of the University of North Carolina, brokered the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 with Republicans in Congress when he was White House chief of staff. He ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2002 and 2004.
Toyota Wins A Round; Whistleblower
Attorney Can't Divulge Secret Docs
Feb. 15, 2010
An arbitrator has ruled that Dimitrios Biller, a former top in-house lawyer for Toyota, cannot make public thousands of confidential documents that he says prove the automaker regularly hid evidence of safety defects from consumers in hundreds of court cases.
Biller today told ABC News he was "thrilled" by the arbitrator's ruling because it denied Toyota's demand that he immediately return the documents to the company and provide an inventory of them. Biller said a pending lawsuit in Texas may allow him to spill company secrets on the witness stand anyway.
Biller says he has four boxes worth of documents that he claims were deliberately withheld from plaintiffs' lawyers suing Toyota in product liability lawsuits, despite court orders requiring that the automaker disclose the information.
"They were hiding evidence, concealing evidence, destroying evidence, obstructing justice," said Biller.
A lawsuit Biller has filed against Toyota alleges the company "engaged in improper and illegal activities, including concealing and destroying evidence, perjury, violation of court orders, obstructing justice, mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit crimes." Toyota has also sued Biller, claiming that he had violated a non-disclosure agreement he made when he left the company.
The suits are currently in arbitration, and the former judge overseeing the case issued a preliminary injunction last week prohibiting Biller from releasing the documents in question to the "press or other third parties."
According to retired judge Gary Taylor, the ruling will "preserve the status quo" until a ruling on the merits of the case is decided at a later hearing. An earlier California Superior Court ruling had granted Toyota's motion that the documents remain confidential.
|
MARJAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 14, 2010
Civilian Deaths Mar Marjah Offensive12 Civilians Killed in Rocket Attack; U.S. General Apologizes; 2 Coalition Servicemen Killed
(CBS/AP) Two U.S. rockets slammed into a home outside the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, killing 12 civilians after Afghanistan's president appealed to NATO to take care in its campaign to seize the town.
Inside Marjah, Marines encountered "death at every corner" on Sunday, their second day of a massive offensive to capture this bleak mud-brick city filled with booby traps, hardcore Taliban fighters and civilians unsure where to cast their loyalty.
Marines confronted a fierce sandstorm as they ducked in and out of doorways and hid behind bullet-riddled walls to evade sniper fire. To the north, U.S. Army troops fought skirmishes with Taliban fighters, calling in a Cobra attack helicopter against the insurgents. Special Report: Afghanistan Insurgents littered the area with booby traps and explosives before the offensive, and the sound of controlled detonations - about three every hour - punctuated the day along with mortars and rocket fire. "Our children are very scared by the explosions. When will it end?" asked Zaher, a 25-year-old poppy farmer who like many Afghans goes by one name. CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark toured the area with the Marines' commanding officer there, Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson. "They got a suspected IED site over there and they got a souk, a market, over there," the general said. As he crossed the bridge his troops erected only yesterday, the Nicholson had one overriding concern - improvised explosive devices "We expected a lot of IEDs but we're finding even more than what we expected, so I think the amount of IEDs is surpassing even our expectation," he said. The Taliban has had plenty of time to place booby traps in the path of advancing coalition forces. So the Marines are advancing very carefully, Clark reports. The owner of one property was ordered by the Taliban to clear out - an occurrence suspicious enough to cause the Marines to search every inch of the property for bombs. Overhead, unmanned planes scanned the terrain for suspected traps. When one is located the drone fires a missile to safely set off the bomb. The civilian deaths were a blow to NATO and Afghan efforts to win the support of residents in the Marjah area, a major goal of the biggest ground offensive of the eight-year war. Marjah, which had a population of 80,000 before the offensive, is a Taliban logistical centre and a base for their lucrative opium trade which finances the insurgency. The rockets were fired by a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, at insurgents who attacked U.S. and Afghan forces, wounding one American and one Afghan, NATO said in a statement. Instead, the projectiles veered 300 yards (meters) off target and blasted a house in the Nad Ali district, which includes Marjah, NATO added. The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, apologized to President Hamid Karzai for "this tragic loss of life" and suspended use of the sophisticated HIMARS system pending "a thorough review of this incident," NATO said. Before the offensive began Saturday, Karzai pleaded for the Afghan and foreign commanders to be "seriously careful for the safety of civilians." Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar said the president "is very upset about what happened" and has been "very seriously conveying his message" of restraint "again and again." Allied officials have reported two coalition deaths so far - one American and one Briton, who were both killed Saturday. Afghan officials said at least 27 insurgents have been killed in the offensive.... CONTINUED AT: CBS NEWS
RELATED SITES
January 7, 2010
Tim Geithner's NY Fed told AIG to keepquiet about $105bn paid to banksTim Geithner's Federal Reserve Bank of New York urged American International Group (AIG) to remain silent on $105bn (£65bn) of payments made to banks including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank at the height of the financial crisis.By James Quinn, US Business Editor
Tim Geithner's Federal Reserve Bank of New York urged AIG to remain silent on $105bn of payments made to banks in the financial crisis
The New York Fed, under Mr Geithner's leadership until he was appointed US Treasury Secretary in January 2009, instructed the troubled insurer to withhold details of the payments from the American public, which bailed out AIG by as much as $182bn at its financial nadir. According to a series of emails obtained and made public by Congressman Darrell Issa, AIG had planned to inform investors in a regulatory filing published on December 24, 2008, that it had paid counter-party banks owed money at a rate of 100 cents on the dollar. The banks were owed the money for credit-default swaps they had entered into, mainly on behalf of clients.... |
- REVIEW & OUTLOOK
- DECEMBER 17, 2009
Aloha, Segregation
The Akaka bill would create a race-based state in Hawaii.
President Obama speaks proudly of his childhood in Hawaii, so we wonder what the state's voters think of his support for a bill that would redistribute its wealth based on race. That's what would happen under the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, which Congress is trying to sneak through in its final days this year.
Sponsored by Senator Daniel Akaka, the bill would transfer a percentage of public-owned lands to a native Hawaiian government within the state of Hawaii. The legislation would collect some 400,000 ethnic Hawaiians scattered across the country into a newly affiliated tribe, eventually endowed with the powers of a sovereign state, including freedom from state taxes and regulations and separate police power.
Proponents say the plan would duplicate the legal scenario set up for Native Americans, but the Akaka bill carves out new territory. Unlike Indian tribes made up of tightly knit populations that have lived together continuously, participation in the new group would be available to nearly anyone able to trace their roots back to a Native Hawaiian ancestor, no matter where they now reside. U.S. Civil Rights Commission member Gail Heriot told Congress in June that, "If ethnic Hawaiians can be accorded tribal status, why not Chicanos in the Southwest? Or Cajuns in Louisiana?"
Under the Akaka bill, someone will have to divine exactly who qualifies as a Native Hawaiian. In the bill's current version, the determination would be handled by a nine member commission staffed by experts in native Hawaiian genealogy. That, says the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, amounts to racial discrimination and would "subdivide the American People into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."
The Supreme Court has already ruled that elections based on a blood quota violate the Fifteenth Amendment's ban on restricting voting along racial lines. In its 2000 decision in Rice v. Cayetano, the Court held that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs could not hold elections limited to ethnic Hawaiians. "Ancestry can be a proxy for race," the court wrote, "and is that proxy here."...
CONTINUED AT: http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/aloha-segregationTiger Woods, Mind Control & MK Ultra
by PAUL A. DROCKTON (DEAD MAN MUSINGS)
As we read the sordid details of Tiger Woods personal life, the question raises its ugly head: How could a man with so much going for him outwardly be such a mess inwardly?
Marital fidelity and family life mean nothing to the Illuminati Satanists that are actively manipulating our world. In fact, they are diametrically opposed to family and community. Instead, they adhere to Socrates sexual fantasies expressed in his discussions about "Communism".
You see, marital fidelity and family mean nothing to the Global Elite. They sexually abuse their own children. They sexually abuse the children of other Illuminati families. In fact, raising a MK Ultra sex slave is purely a matter of business to these psychopaths. Just ask those who investigated the Jon Benet murder mystery.
"Despite the neo-Nazi nuance, Yeager and Knoke were positively certain that JonBenet's mother forged the kidnap letter. "Our conclusion," Yeager offered, "is that you are investigating a child's murder with ritualistic overtones.
Strangulation and sexual assault are most commonly seen in sadomasochism between heterosexual and homosexual adults....
Was it because of the ritual, sexual abuse being perpetrated upon her - was it because of the child-porn ring being run out of Denver in which child 'Models' were being used for sexual favors and of which Jonbenet was one of those 'Models' or is it that Patsy simply could not stand the competition - on the stage and at home and therefore she (JonBenet) must be sacrificed for her (Patsy's) 'sins'?"
If they are nothing else, the Illuminati are materialists. People are objects that need to be controlled. Evil is incapable of love and becomes numb to physical pleasures over time. The brain is a funny thing, when you block out love and compassion, you end up blocking out every other human emotion. In the end, all you are is machine, incapable of feelings and lusting after more power, more energy without consideration for the consequences.
Tiger Woods, it is reported, was raised through the MK Ultra program. J. Lee said the following:
"Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is HATED by other golfers, who know he's a manufactured product of Pentagon MKULTRA mind control. I was told this by a pro golfer while we were at an aircraft factory in Oregon hand-building our own personal jet aircraft.
Baby Tiger's colonel Green Beret Special Forces Vietnam baby-killer daddy hired a military drill instructor to scream at him while putting and swinging.
"Tiger's" parents ancestry is from [Communist] China and [Communist] Thailand, home of Manchurian Candidates, so "Tiger" is only 1/4 black. "Tiger" is a Buddhist who "studied" with monks at monestaries in [Communist] Asia. Since his mommy is a Thai citizen, "Tiger" is a citizen of Communist Thailand. "Tiger" is named for a South Vietnamese army officer who assassinated 50,000 South Vietnamese government employees who opposed the Communists of the New World Order (Phoenix Program). (http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=18&t=41001 )
"Tiger" first played golf at age 3 on the Bob Hope TV Show. Bob Hope is a notorious MKULTRA programmer and pedophile CIA sexslave handler. Homosexual rape is required by MKULTRA as torture to create multiple personalities, often on military bases, as proven in the Franklin Cover-up.
It's not just steroids or nutrition. No matter what body you possess, you are still governed by a mind. The Illuminati, through "Delta Programming" can dramatically enhance the mental game of an athlete through trauma based programming....
CONTINUED AT
~ o ~
News Release Release Date: June 11, 2009 U.S. Labor Department recovers more than $9 million for retirement plans of bankrupt Aloha Airlines San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into settlement agreements with Aloha Airlines Inc., Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank, which agreed to pay $9,545,454 to the airline’s three pension plans for losses the plans suffered on investments in stock of the airline’s holding company. Both Aloha and its holding company are bankrupt. The money will be paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the trustee of the plans. The Labor Department contended that Aloha and Bank of Hawaii, as the plans’ fiduciaries, breached their duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). They allegedly caused or permitted the plans to buy newly issued stock of the airline’s holding company in September 2000 for more than its fair market value and without investigating the merits of the purchase for the plans, as well as failed to take steps to protect the plans as the stock lost all of its value. In the department’s view, the transaction also was prohibited because there was no purchaser independent of the issuer. Additionally, the department contended that First Hawaiian Bank, which was an investment manager for a portion of the plans’ investments not involved in the transaction, facilitated the stock transaction and therefore knowingly participated in the fiduciary breaches or violated its duties as a co-fiduciary. Under separate settlement agreements, Aloha Airlines has agreed to pay a total of $5.5 million, including $500,000 in civil penalties paid to the federal government. The banks each agreed to pay $2.5 million, for a total of $4,545,454 in restitution and $454,546 in civil penalties. “We will vigorously pursue plan fiduciaries who engage in transactions with employer securities that are prohibited by ERISA,” said Alan D. Lebowitz, deputy assistant secretary for the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). In an earlier settlement agreement, in September 2008, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP agreed to pay $250,000 to the plans and a $50,000 civil penalty. The Labor Department contended that PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the auditor for the plans and the companies, knowingly participated in the fiduciary breaches.... For information about ERISA enforcement, visit http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/erisa_enforcement.html .... For more information, please visit the Department's Compliance Assistance page.
Release Number: 09-652-SAN
Contact Name: Gloria Della
Phone Number: 202.693.8664
Lt Col James Gentry dies from cancer
after Toxic Exposure in Iraq
Ex-Indiana Soldier Who Blamed Cancer
On Chemical Dies
WILLIAMS, Ind. (AP) – A former Indiana National Guard commander has died after suffering from lung cancer he believed was caused by exposure to toxic chemicals in Iraq.
A funeral home says 52-year-old retired Lt. Col. James Gentry died Wednesday at his home in the southern Indiana community of Williams.
Gentry was commander of the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, which was assigned to guard a water pumping plant in Basrah, Iraq, shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Several soldiers from the unit have sued defense contractor KBR Inc., alleging it knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a known carcinogen. Houston-based KBR denies any wrongdoing.
Gentry was not a party to the suit but believed his cancer was caused by exposure...
CONTINUED AT:
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/kbr---killings-bribery-rape
Robin Campaniano steps down from Farmers
Pacific Business News (Honolulu)
Robin Campaniano has retired as president and CEO of Farmers Insurance Hawaii Co., following 17 years with the company.
Michele Saito has been named president of the insurer, which was previously AIG Hawaii Insurance before being sold to Los Angeles-based Farmers Group Inc.
The company began doing business as Farmers Insurance Hawaii on Jan. 1.
Saito previously was executive vice president and chief operating officer for the company, which has 300 employees and offices on Oahu, Maui, the Big Island and Kauai.
Campaniano, who joined AIG Hawaii in 1992 and is active in the Hawaii business community, will serve as an advisor to the company. He also will devote more time to his role as a general partner in the Ulupono Initiative, a fund formed last year by philanthropists Pierre and Pam Omidyar to invest in local businesses and organizations involved in renewable energy, local food production and waste reduction.
http://sites.google.com/site/cozyrelationships/home/pierre-pam-omidyar
Kamehameha Schools endowment
declines by $1.7B
Meltdown in financial markets reduced value
by 18 percent, to $7.7B
BY RICK DAYSOG. Advertiser Staff Writer
The value of Kamehameha Schools' endowment plunged by more than $1.7 billion in four months due to the meltdown in the nation's financial markets.
The charitable trust said the value of its investments portfolio and real estate holdings fell 18 percent, to $7.7 billion, between June 30 and Oct. 31.
The declines reverse a stellar 2008 fiscal year when the trust's endowment increased by $367.9 million to $9.44 billion.
"While the overall diversification of our portfolio enabled us to weather the initial volatility of the 2008 equity markets, we are by no means immune to the effects of the dramatic fluctuations triggered by the U.S. and global financial challenges that unfolded in the last half of the year," said Kirk Belsby, Kamehameha Schools vice president for endowment.
Kamehameha Schools is hardly alone among the multibillion-dollar endowments affected by the turmoil in the financial markets.
Last month, Harvard University said its endowment dropped by 22 percent, or about $8 billion, over a four-month period while Yale University said the value of its investments dropped by $5.9 billion, or about 25 percent.
The State of Hawai'i Employees Retirement System saw the value of its investment portfolio drop by about $1 billion to about $9 billion since June.
"What began as an apparent cyclical downturn in the financial markets has become a world economic crisis with ramifications that reach far beyond Wall Street," Kamehameha Schools spokeswoman Ann Botticelli said.
Founded by the 1883 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the Kamehameha Schools is a tax-exempt charity that educates children of native Hawaiian ancestry. The trust is one of the nation's wealthiest charities and is the state's largest private landowner.
The investment downturn is not expected to have a severe impact on Kamehameha Schools' educational spending policy. That policy is based not on single-year returns, but on a five-year rolling average of the value of Kamehameha Schools' endowment.
For the fiscal year ending June 30, Kamehameha Schools said it spent $273 million on its educational programs, an increase of $23 million during the year-earlier period.
During the same period, the trust said it served more than 38,100 students, which represents an increase of 2,100 or 7.2 percent.
During the past five fiscal years, the estate said it has spent more than $1.1 billion on educational programs.
Kamehameha Schools endowment declines by $1.7B
Continues at
Dirty Money, Dirty Politics & Bishop Estate
CEO Eric Yeaman and chairman Walter Dods
Hawaiian Telcom
Hawaiian Telcom just lost $30.5 mil. Why are these guys smiling? They believe local leadership can save the struggling company.
When you define ‘local’ the way I define ‘local’,” says Eric Yeaman, who took over as CEO of Hawaiian Telcom this past June, “when you live and grow up in this community, you understand that this is a special place. There’s a lot about Hawaii that’s unique, and I think you have to know and have an appreciation of that in order to best serve your customers.”
Walter Dods, the new chairman of the board, nods his head vigorously as Yeaman speaks. The two of them are trying to explain the importance of local management, a subject about which both are passionate. “It has to do with sensitivity to the local marketplace,” Dods says, offering an example. “The old McDonalds in Hawaii was owned by Sully [Maurice Sullivan, founder of Foodland], and it was extremely successful. It was also the only McDonalds in the United States that had Spam. Had saimin, too. Because Sully understood this was a different market. That’s what we’re talking about. We want Spam and saimin at the phone company.”
As Yeaman has named his management team at Hawaiian Telcom, there’s been plenty of Spam and saimin to go around. “I’ll tell you,” Yeaman says, “I looked first and foremost for people who were seasoned in what they were doing; second, people who were what I would call ‘natural leaders’; and third—and this was the non-negotiable piece—people who were teamplayers.” He also managed to put together a team composed almost entirely of people with strong local ties. John Komeiji, for example, the company’s new general counsel, was a founding partner at the well-connected local firm Watanabe, Ing and Komeiji. Steve Golden, the new vice president for external affairs came over from the Gas Company. William Chung, the new vice president of human resources and labor relations, spent eighteen years at Hawaii Tug and Barge. Even Geoff Louie, the new vice president of strategy and marketing, who spent most of his career on the Mainland, was born and raised here...
http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/October-2008/Hawaiian-Telcom/
TWO MONTHS LATER
December 2, 2008
Carlyle Takes Another Hit As Telecom Firm Goes Under
By Thomas Heath, Washington Post Staff Writer
Carlyle Group, the District-based private-equity firm, suffered a new setback yesterday when one of its investments, a Hawaiian provider of local and long-distance telephone service, filed for bankruptcy protection.
Carlyle had put $425 million in Hawaiian Telcom Communications and borrowed almost $1.2 billion to buy the company from Verizon in 2005. But the telecommunications company struggled almost from the start.
Its collapse followed other reversals for Carlyle this year. In March, Carlyle wrote off a $700 million investment in Carlyle Capital, an offshore public company that invested in mortgage-related securities. Then Carlyle announced in July that it would liquidate Carlyle-Blue Wave Partners Management, which made similar bets in mortgages.
In October, Carlyle said it was suing a Russian steel company, Novolipetsk Steel, that was seeking to back out of a $3.5 billion deal. Finally last month, Carlyle announced it was shutting down its 12-person Warsaw office and laying off another seven people throughout Asia as it pulls back from two specialized ventures in emerging markets.
Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman said yesterday that the various events are unrelated and that the firm is still producing healthy returns for investors. In all, Carlyle has $92 billion of investors' money under management, including $40 billion that it is looking to invest.
Carlyle Partners III, the $4 billion buyout fund that bought Hawaiian Telcom, is up 230 percent despite the telecom's bankruptcy filing, Ullman said.
Carlyle bought Hawaiian Telcom with an eye toward upgrading and expanding its network to deliver new products and services in bundled packages. The bundles would include broadband Internet, video and wireless telephone service.
But the deal took a year to get approved by regulators, and the company began losing land-line telephone customers faster than anticipated. Meanwhile, the company faced stiff competition from Time Warner Cable for its packages of services.
At the same time, Hawaiian Telcom had to create its own back-office operations to handle administrative tasks such as accounting, billing, public relations and human services. A person familiar with the process, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company is in bankruptcy proceedings, said the process proved more difficult than Carlyle expected.
Carlyle, which reinvested $100 million in cash in the company, brought in management turnaround experts to help salvage Hawaiian Telcom, but it didn't work.
The company and seven affiliates filed for Chapter 11 protection yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., listing $1.4 billion in assets and $1.3 billion in debts.
The telecom company said it will continue to operate its business without interruption to customers and employees.
Firm buys $7.6M stake in HawTel
Cerberus' presence in Isles found in such hotels
as Mauna Kea, Royal Hawaiian
BY RICK DAYSOG, Advertiser Staff Writer
A private equity firm that controls some of Hawai'i top hotels will become a shareholder in Hawaiian Telcom Inc.
Cerberus Capital Management LP on Tuesday filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court saying it acquired more than $7.6 million of Hawaiian Telcom's bank debt from JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Cerberus already owns a 65 percent stake in the Japan-based owner of the Sheraton Waikiki, The Royal Hawaiian and the Sheraton Moana Surfrider.
It also owns 30 percent of the company that owns the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki and the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort and the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island.
Much of that debt will be converted into Hawaiian Telcom equity once the company emerges from bankruptcy protection sometime next year.
A Cerberus spokeswoman declined comment when asked whether the investment firm plans to increase its stake in Hawaiian Telcom.
Cerberus is just one of several investment firms looking to purchase Hawaiian Telcom's secured bank debt, according to a person familiar with the bankruptcy proceedings.
Currently, the company's bank debt, which amounts to about $500 million, is trading around 60 percent of the original loan value.
Under a $460 million reorganization plan confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court last week, Hawaiian Telcom plans to slash its debt by nearly $800 million by converting much of its bank loans into equity.
The reorganization, which requires approval from the state Public Utilities Commission, wipes out all but a small portion of The Carlyle Group's interest in the local phone company. Carlyle, a Washington, D.C.-based investment firm, purchased Hawaiian Telcom in 2005 for $1.6 billion.
Founded in 1883, Hawaiian Telcom is the state's largest communications company, with 1,400 workers and annual operating revenues of about $500 million.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection last December due to its heavy debt load and the loss of thousands of customers to wireless firms and other competitors.
Established in 1992, Cerberus is one of the largest private equity firms with more than $27 billion under management.
Cerberus — named after the mythical three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the ancient Greek underworld — controlled Chrysler Corp. prior to its recent bankruptcy and owns a majority stake in lender GMAC Inc.
The company also owns a 65 percent share of Kokusai Kogyo KK, which owns The Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton hotels in Waikíkí, and holds a 30 percent stake in Seibu Holdings Inc., which owns the Prince hotel chain in Hawai'i.
UNFORTUNATELY CONTINUED AT...
Hawaiian Telcom: Don't Ask, Don't Tel
Obama loosens missile technology controls to China
Washington Times
by Bill Gertz
President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.
The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. >>>
The presidential notice alters a key provision of the 1999 Defense Authorization Act that required that the president notify Congress whether a transfer of missile and space technology to China would harm the U.S. space-launch industry or help China's missile programs.
The law was passed after a late-1990s scandal involving the U.S. companies Space Systems/Loral and Hughes Electronics Corp.
Both companies improperly shared technology with China and were fined $20 million and $32 million, respectively, by the State Department after a U.S. government investigation concluded that their know-how was used to improve China's long-range nuclear missiles....
"It's as though Commerce's mishandling of missile-tech transfers to China in the 1990s never happened," said Mr. Sokolski, a former Pentagon proliferation specialist. "But it did. As a result, we are now facing much more accurate, reliable missiles from China." >>>
"It was foolish for us to do this in the 1990s and is even more dangerous for us to do now," he said....
Don't You Think It's Time to Reinstate the Laws That Would Have Prevented the Financial Crash?
By Nomi Prins, AlterNet
November 14, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143942/
This week marks the tenth year anniversary of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley or Financial Services Modernization Act, marking the moment when we were royally screwed by the banking system. Thank you to all those involved.
It's amazing how downright ebullient, President Bill Clinton was at that signing ceremony on November 12, 1999. an event introduced by then Treasury Secretary (now Obama advisor) Larry Summers, successor to Robert Rubin. Those restricting, anti-competitive Depression era, laws were finally behind us. Awesome.
Fast-forward to now and must of us know how devastatingly expensive that signature was for the American public. Yet, despite our government having deployed or made available over $14.1 trillion worth of federal subsidies to fix Wall Street, the banking landscape is less stable than it was before last year's crisis. And, despite national unemployment approaching double digits, and another record quarter of foreclosures, we stand farther away from the intent of Glass Steagall than ever.
Banks weren't handled with kid gloves then. They were treated like the spoiled, reckless, destructive beings they were. After the stock market crash in 1929, the country sunk into the throes of the Great Depression, characterized by 25% unemployment, bread lines, rampant foreclosures, and general despair.
In 1932, the Pecora commission examined the shady banking practices that contributed to the devastation, all of which hinged on one thing - banks had used depositor capital and loans to speculate with.
Exactly like the practices going on before and since last fall's financial calamity.
The result of that speculation gone wrong tanked the economy. Glass-Steagall logically sought to ensure this wouldn't happen again. It divided up the banking landscape into two parts, commercial banks and investment banks. The federal government would back commercial banks and consumer deposits through establishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). But, it wouldn't be Wall Street's investment bank bookie and bitch.
Over the decades, the financial sector, armed with cunning lobbyists and overpaid lawyers, took many swipes at Glass-Steagall, but none as devastating as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Since then, the banking sector's powerful ate its weak, amidst a wave of massive consolidation. Nearly half of the nation's biggest bank mergers took place just before or since that Act was passed. All these mega banks can thus churn deposits and loans into debt or capital to fund speculation, risk, and create a roller coaster of an economy that is defined simply on whether those bets, or asset creations, work or not, at any given moment.
Heads they win, tails we lose.
Last fall, the Federal Reserve, and to some extent the Treasury Department, not only blessed, but subsidized the mergers and moniker changes (like seriously, if Carrie Prejean's title can be stripped, certainly Goldman's behavior warrants removal of the bank holding company title), helping too big to fail to become even bigger with riskier profiles than ever before. Only this time they are floated on public assistance. This is not progress. It's expensive insanity. And, it will blow up again.
It is a matter of when, not if.
Meanwhile, as reform bills from Senator Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) to Representative Barney Frank's (D-MA), to the plans from the Treasury Department and the White House, make their way from concept to draft to vote, we've got to keep one thing in mind. The beast that is today's complicated, convoluted, risk taking, federal capital sucking, and bonus paying mega-bank is still roaming around free.
As long as it remains out of its cage, creating plans to slow its movements are always going to be much harder, than putting it back in a stronger cage. Though, it's important to have a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, better derivatives regulation (if only that were on the table for real), and 'funeral plans' as Dodd's bill calls them, to put too big to fail banks to bed just before they keel over, it doesn't change the nature of the beast.
And though one way to keep some of our money out of the mouths of the most rapacious banks, would be to reduce leverage limits and increase capital requirements for the riskiest banks, or as Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke like to call them, 'the systemically important' ones so they can pay for their own clean-up - this too has a catch.
The more capital banks are required to hold, while being allowed to operate as investment banks that use hoarded capital as collateral for increasing their own borrowing and trading businesses, the less lending they will provide to ordinary citizens and small businesses. Without splitting up the banking structure to avoid the hoard to trade, not to lend, scenario, we are creating legislation to help banks bloat on risk - they will have less than no incentive to do much else.
And as far as regulatory bodies are concerned? I dare any regulator, or for that matter human-being in Washington to come up with one single consistent risk parameter that can be used to determine exactly what percentage of each of the big bank's profits comes from speculative vs. customer driven business. Because, by virtue of how complex they all are, and have been allowed to remain, no two balance sheets are remotely similar - and I'm not talking about accounting terms, I'm talking about risk clarification ones.
Thus, whether we merge all regulators into one ginormous one, or have a council of them to deal with the hard issues of mega-collapse and crisis, or even place one inside the office of every top bank CEO, shadowing him like a probation officer (no that's not in one of the bills, it would just be fun to watch unfold), the beast remains out of the cage.
That's why we need to reinstate Glass-Steagall. Now. ...
Continued at:
http://sites.google.com/site/thecatbirdsnest/home/glass-steagall-act-time-to-bring-back
November 13, 2009
Marsh & McLennan to pay
$435M under settlements
Associated Press
NEW YORK --
Insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos. said Friday it will pay $435 million to settle two class-action lawsuits filed in the wake of allegations of bid rigging and price fixing.
The suits were filed on behalf of three retirement plans that experienced steep losses after the charges were made against the company in 2004. The company's stock dropped precipitously after Eliot Spitzer, then New York's attorney general, announced the charges.
Marsh and McLennan said it does not admit to any wrongdoing under the latest settlements.
Under one settlement, March & McLennan will pay $400 million to pension funds in New Jersey and Ohio. About half that will be covered by insurance, and the remainder will be paid for by cash on hand.
The company also settled for $35 million another class-action suit filed on behalf of a Marsh & McLennan retirement fund. Insurance will cover $25 million of the cost.
In 2005, Marsh and McLennan agreed to pay $850 million to end an investigation into charges it took payoffs from insurance companies to steer clients their way. The company also agreed at the time to change its practices and issue a public apology calling its conduct "unlawful" and "shameful."
"After more than five years of litigation, MMC believes these settlements to be in the best interest of the company and its stockholders," the company said in a statement. "While the company continues to deny all of the claims in these lawsuits, the resolution of these matters puts the litigation arising from the events of 2004 largely behind us and reduces the company's ongoing legal costs."
Shares of Marsh & McLennan slipped 13 cents to $23.86 in afternoon trading.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Lou Dobbs Says He's Leaving CNN | |
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November 11, 2009  CNN's Lou Dobbs, a lightning rod for criticism following his transition from a business journalist to an opinionated anchor on such issues as illegal immigration, told viewers on Wednesday that he was quitting his nightly show to pursue new opportunities. "This will be my last broadcast," Dobbs said after giving the day's headlines. Dobbs, who hosts a daily radio show unrelated to CNN, said the network had allowed him to be released early from his contract. Dobbs was a CNN original, signing on when the cable network started in 1980. For much of that time, he hosted a nightly business broadcast that became one of the most influential shows in the corporate world, and CNN's most profitable show for advertising revenue. But Dobbs said his world view changed after the 2001 terrorist attacks and corporate corruption scandals, and he began to more freely express his opinions. He was particularly persistent in bringing the immigration issue to the fore, winning him both higher ratings and enemies. Latino groups had an active petition drive seeking his removal. His presence became awkward for CNN, particularly as it began emphasizing reporting and non-opinion shows. He angered management this summer by pressing questions about President Barack Obama's birth site after CNN reporters determined there was no issue. Dobbs said the decision came after many months of discussion with CNN U.S. President Jon Klein. Dobbs said he wanted to concentrate on his role as a commentator and on advocacy journalism. Klein hailed Dobbs' "appetite for big ideas, the megawatt smile and larger than life presence he brought to our newsroom." "With characteristic forthrightness, Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere," Klein said. "We respect his decision." Dobbs said he was proud of his role in helping to build the first cable news network. He said some leaders in media, politics and business "have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving." Seated at an anchor desk in front of a screen with a fluttering American flag, Dobbs mentioned his interest in issues such as health care, jobs, immigration, climate change and the wars. "Unfortunately, these issues are now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than rigorous empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion," he said. "I will be working diligently to change that as best I can." His resignation was hailed by activists who were seeking his ouster. "Our contention all along was that Lou Dobbs — who has a long history of spreading lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants and Latinos — does not belong on the most trusted name in news," said Roberto Lovato, co-founder of Presente.org. "We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has the legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate." Tom Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the leading Latino legal organization, said, "I think the Latino community can and should celebrate that Lou Dobbs is no longer on CNN." Dobbs did not immediately return telephone and e-mail messages to talk about his critics. Although he joined CNN in 1980, Dobbs left the network for two year in 1999, after angrily complaining on the air about a decision by then-CNN President Rick Kaplan to switch away from his show to a live news event. An Internet venture failed and when Kaplan left CNN, Dobbs returned. A decision on who will replace Dobbs is expected to be announced on Thursday. © 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/lou_dobbs_quit_cnn/2009/11/11/285104.html CONTINUED AT...
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November 01, 2009 Issue 
Copyright © 2009 The American Conservative
Who’s Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?
The gagged whistleblower goes on the record.
Sibel Edmonds and Philip Giraldi
Sibel Edmonds has a story to tell. She went to work as a Turkish and Farsi translator for the FBI five days after 9/11. Part of her job was to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their American contacts. She was fired from the FBI in April 2002 after she raised concerns that one of the translators in her section was a member of a Turkish organization that was under investigation for bribing senior government officials and members of Congress, drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, money laundering, and nuclear proliferation. She appealed her termination, but was more alarmed that no effort was being made to address the corruption that she had been monitoring.
A Department of Justice inspector general’s report called Edmonds’s allegations “credible,” “serious,” and “warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI.” Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee members Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have backed her publicly. “60 Minutes” launched an investigation of her claims and found them believable. No one has ever disproved any of Edmonds’s revelations, which she says can be verified by FBI investigative files.
John Ashcroft’s Justice Department confirmed Edmonds’s veracity in a backhanded way by twice invoking the dubious State Secrets Privilege so she could not tell what she knows. The ACLU has called her “the most gagged person in the history of the United States of America.”
Congress set to act to
keep abuse photos hidden
Pierre and Pam Omidyar give $50M
to Hawaii nonprofit
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Janis L. Magin
EBay founder Pierre Omidyar has given the Hawaii Community Foundation a $50 million gift, believed to be the largest single gift from a living donor in the state’s history.
The money will be used to start several community initiatives over six years, as well as support Pierre and Pam Omidyar’s ongoing interests through the foundation’s Omidyar Ohana Fund.
Omidyar, who attended Punahou School in the eighth and ninth grades from 1979 through 1981, moved back to Honolulu with his family in 2006. They live in Kahala.
“Pam and I are privileged to call Hawaii home,” Omidyar said in a statement. “Given the economic crisis and hardships throughout the state, we felt it was especially important at this time to expand our philanthropy in the islands.”
Earlier this month, Omidyar made Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans. Omidyar was No. 40 this year but his net worth went from $6.3 billion in 2008 to $5.5 billion this year.
The couple has supported several local causes and organizations in the Islands. They helped to launch Kanu Hawaii, backed the expansion of Mao Organic Farms in Waianae and most recently launched the Ulupono Initiative, which makes nonprofit grants and for profit investments aimed at sustainability.
“Our family was warmly welcomed by old friends and new acquaintances when we decided to make Hawaii our home,” said Pam Omidyar, who grew up in Hawaii Kai and attended Iolani School. “That experience was a strong reminder of the important role community plays in every aspect of life here in the islands.”
The Hawaii Community Foundation said the first $16 million of the gift will go toward three initiatives.
The Omidyar Ohana Fund will provide a $4 million grant toward the Community Stabilization Initiative, an $8 million, six-year plan to help families and individuals get through the recession through use of government resources, credit counseling and mortgage prevention services. The balance of the cost must be matched by other donors, foundations and government agencies over the next six years.
The couple is also committing $6 million over six years to the Omidyar Innovation Fund, a grant program to be launched next year that will seek to spur innovation in Hawaii’s social sector and will provide matching funds for qualifying organizations.
The third initiative is $6 million, six-year challenge grant, to be matched by other donors, for building a sustainable complex at Punahou School to be named the Omidyar Kindergarten-First Grade Neighborhood.
All three of the first initiatives have a matching component. Punahou School will do its own fundraising for the K-1 campus, while the foundation will work on raising donations to match the others.
The innovation fund will be open to any nonprofit, said Kelvin Taketa, the foundation’s president and CEO
“The intention is to not be limited to a particular field but to find ... organizations that are being really innovative about trying to meet their mission,” he said.
The foundation will work with the Omidyars on the disbursement of the remaining $34 million over six years, he said. The foundation will also receive a portion of the funds for administration, Taketa said.
“Like with all other public charities, this has been a tough year in terms of the number of new funds and contributions by our clients and donors to their funds at the foundation,” Taketa said.
Omidyar, who founded eBay in 1995, and his wife have also founded the Omidyar Network, Humanity United and HopeLab as part of their philanthropy work.
In September, the Omidyar Network said it would spend $30 million over three years to support global entrepreneurship, especially in India and sub-Saharan Africa.
The Hawaii Community Foundation, a statewide grantmaking organization that works with local nonprofit organizations, has provided more than $160 million in grants and contracts between 2000 and 2008.
“We’re the steward of funds that are established by families or companies or individuals,” Taketa said. “In some cases, the donors will leave it up to the foundation to determine the best use of the funds; in other cases, like with the Omidyars, they are deeply engaged and working with us on their philanthropy.”
The foundation’s largest gift until now came from the estate of local businessman Robert E. Black, who left more than $60 million after his death in 1987. Actor Jack Lord, star of “Hawaii Five-O” and his wife, Marie, left more than $40 million to the foundation after Marie Lord died in 2005....
http://sites.google.com/site/cozyrelationships/home/pierre-pam-omidyar
Billions in US aid never reached Pakistan army
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The United States has long suspected that much of the billions of dollars it has sent Pakistan to battle militants has been diverted to the domestic economy and other causes, such as fighting India.
Now the scope and longevity of the misuse is becoming clear: Between 2002 and 2008, while al-Qaida regrouped, only $500 million of the $6.6 billion in American aid actually made it to the Pakistani military, two army generals tell The Associated Press.
The account of the generals, who asked to remain anonymous because military rules forbid them from speaking publicly, was backed up by other retired and active generals, former bureaucrats and government ministers.
At the time of the siphoning, Pervez Musharraf, a Washington ally, served as both chief of staff and president, making it easier to divert money intended for the military to bolster his sagging image at home through economic subsidies.
"The army itself got very little," said retired Gen. Mahmud Durrani, who was Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. under Musharraf. "It went to things like subsidies, which is why everything looked hunky-dory. The military was financing the war on terror out of its own budget."
Generals and ministers say the diversion of the money hurt the military in very real ways:
_Helicopters critical to the battle in rugged border regions were not available. At one point in 2007, more than 200 soldiers were trapped by insurgents in the tribal regions without a helicopter lift to rescue them.
_The limited night vision equipment given to the army was taken away every three months for inventory and returned three weeks later.
_Equipment was broken, and training was lacking. It was not until 2007 that money was given to the Frontier Corps, the front-line force, for training.
The details on misuse of American aid come as Washington again promises Pakistan money. Legislation to triple general aid to Pakistan cleared Congress last week. The legislation also authorizes "such sums as are necessary" for military assistance to Pakistan, upon several conditions. The conditions include certification that Pakistan is cooperating in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons, that Pakistan is making a sustained commitment to combating terrorist groups and that Pakistan security forces are not subverting the country's political or judicial processes.
The U.S. is also insisting on more accountability for reimbursing money spent. For example, Pakistan is still waiting for $1.7 billion for which it has billed the United States under a Coalition Support Fund to reimburse allies for money spent on the war on terror.
But the U.S. still can't follow what happens to the money it doles out.
"We don't have a mechanism for tracking the money after we have given it to them," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Wright said in a telephone interview.
Musharraf's spokesman, retired Gen. Rashid Quereshi, flatly denied that his former boss had shortchanged the army. He did not address the specific charges. "He has answered these questions. He has answered all the questions," the spokesman said. Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and resigned in August 2008.
The misuse of funding helps to explain how al-Qaida, dismantled in Afghanistan in 2001, was able to regroup, grow and take on the weak Pakistani army. Even today, the army complains of inadequate equipment to battle Taliban entrenched in tribal regions.
For its part, Washington did not ask many questions of a leader, Musharraf, whom it considered an ally, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last year.
Pakistan has received more money from the fund than any other nation. It is also the least expensive war front. The amount the U.S. spends per soldier per month is just $928, compared with $76,870 in Afghanistan and $85,640 in Iraq.
Yet by 2008, the United States had provided Pakistan with $8.6 billion in military money, and more than $12 billion in all.
"The army was sending in the bills," said one general who asked not to be identified because it is against military rules to speak publicly. "The army was taking from its coffers to pay for the war effort — the access roads construction, the fuel, everything. ... This is the reality — the army got peanuts."
Some of the money from the U.S. even went to buying weapons from the United States better suited to fighting India than in the border regions of Afghanistan — armor-piercing tow missiles, sophisticated surveillance equipment, air-to-air missiles, maritime patrol aircraft, anti-ship missiles and F-16 fighter aircraft.
"Pakistan insisted and America agreed. Pakistan said we also have a threat from other sources," Durrani said, referring to India, "and we have to strengthen our overall capacity. "The money was used to buy and support capability against India."
The army also suffered from mismanagement, Durrani said. As an example, he cited Pakistani attempts to buy badly needed attack helicopters.
Pakistan asked for Cobra helicopters because it knows how to maintain them, he said. But the helicopters were old, and to make them battle-ready, the Pentagon sent them to a company that had no experience with Cobras and took two years, he said.
As a result, in 2007, Pakistan had only one working helicopter — a debilitating handicap in the battle against insurgents who hide, train and attack from the hulking mountains that run like a seam along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
The army was also frustrated about not getting more money. Military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said the U.S. gave nothing to offset the cost of Pakistan's dead and wounded in the war on terror. He estimated 1,800 Pakistani soldiers had been killed since 2003 and 4,800 more wounded, most of them seriously.
The hospital and rehabilitation costs for the wounded have come to more than $25 million, Abbas said. Pakistan's military also gives land to the widows of the dead, educates their children and provides health care.
"These costs do not appear anywhere," he said. "There is no U.S. compensation for the casualties, assistance with aid to the grieving families."
Even while money was being siphoned off for other purposes on Pakistan's end, the U.S. imposed little control over or even had specific knowledge of what went where, according to reports by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The reports covered 2002 through 2008.
The reports found that the Pentagon often ignored its own oversight rules, didn't get adequate documents and doled out money without asking for an explanation.
For more than a year, the Pentagon paid Pakistan's navy $19,000 a month per vehicle just for repair costs on a fleet of fewer than 20 vehicles. Monthly food bills doubled for no apparent reason, and for a year the Pentagon paid the bills without checking, according to the report.
Daniyal Aziz, a minister in Musharraf's government, said he warned U.S. officials that the money they were giving his government was being misused, but to no avail.
"They both deserved each other, Musharraf and the Americans," he said.
"INHUMANE" CIA TERROR TACTICS SPUR CRIMINAL PROBE.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration launched a criminal investigation Monday into harsh questioning of detainees during President George W. Bush's war on terrorism, revealing CIA interrogators' threats to kill one suspect's children and to force another to watch his mother sexually assaulted.
At the same time, President Barack Obama ordered changes in future interrogations, bringing in other agencies besides the CIA under the direction of the FBI and supervised by his own national security adviser. The administration pledged questioning would be controlled by the Army Field Manual, with strict rules on tactics, and said the White House would keep its hands off the professional investigators doing the work.
Despite the announcement of the criminal probe, several Obama spokesmen declared anew — as the president has repeatedly — that on the subject of detainee interrogation he "wants to look forward, not back" at Bush tactics. They took pains to say decisions on any prosecutions would be up to Attorney General Eric Holder, not the White House.
Monday's five-year-old report by the CIA's inspector general, newly declassified and released under a federal court's orders, described severe tactics used by interrogators on terror suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Seeking information about possible further attacks, interrogators threatened one detainee with a gun and a power drill, choked another and tried to frighten still another with a mock execution of another prisoner.
August 12, 2009
"When you have a problem, if you tell the truth, the problem becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your future."
- University of Louisville Coach Rick Pitino
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Ex-Knicks coach Rick Pitino cops to sex with accused blackmailer Karen Sypher, paid $3G for abortion
BY Leo Standora
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, August 12th 2009, 7:56 AM
Antonelli/News
Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino admitted to having sex with Karen Cunagin Sypher.
Bohannon/AP
Karen Cunagin Sypher is charged with blackmailing Rick Pitino for $10 million.
Former Knicks head coach Rick Pitino admitted having sex with and paying for an abortion for a woman charged with trying to blackmail him for $10 million, it was reported on Tuesday.
But the 56-year-old Pitino, the University of Louisville's head men's basketball coach, denied allegations he raped Karen Cunagin Sypher at Louisville's popular Porcini Restaurant after closing hours and then again a few weeks later somewhere else.
He admitted paying $3,000 for an abortion.
Pitino's admissions and denials were found in Louisville Metro Police reports obtained by The Courier-Journal of Louisville. Prosecutors who have reviewed Sypher's claims say Pitino, who coached the Knicks from 1987 to 1989, won't be charged.
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August 4, 2009
GE Settles Accounting Fraud Charges In a blow to its reputation as a finance paragon, GE settles SEC fraud claims related to hedge accounting and revenue recognition.Marie Leone and Tim Reason, CFO.com | US
Some members of the General Electric accounting staff worked hard to figure out ways to hide the negative accounting impacts of transactions booked in 2002 and 2003, according to court documents released by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In fact, the SEC complaint relates several instances of round-robin email discussions among GE accountants, internal auditors, executives, and the company's external auditor, debating whether aggressive accounting would past muster with regulators.
Ultimately, it didn't.
Today, after a four-year investigation, GE settled accounting fraud charges with the SEC for allegedly misleading investors with improper hedge accounting and revenue recognition schemes. Specifically, GE was charged with violating accounting rules when it changed its original hedge documentation to avoid recording fluctuations in the fair value of interest rates swaps, which would have dragged down the company's reported earnings-per-share estimates.
In addition, the SEC charged GE with concocting schemes to accelerate the recognition of revenue from its locomotive and aircraft spare parts business, to make the company's financial results appear healthier than they actually were.
Without admitting or denying guilt, GE paid a fine of $50 million, and agreed to remedial action related to internal control enhancements. "GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point," noted Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, in a statement....
CONTINUED AT: http://www.kycbs.net/GE.htm
STILL FLYING (NOT!):
CONTINUED AT...
A-LO-O-O-O-HA! ~ o ~ MANY MORE SIGHTINGS IN
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