Wall Street bonusfest 2008: 6th largest haul on record

Investors may not be happy with the performance of bank executives and their top employees these days, but, apparently, compensation committees are satisfied.The NYT kicks off its business coverage today with some numbers that are hard to swallow. New York's financial institutions paid out a gaudy $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008

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Keith Olbermann: Former NSA analyst, Tice, talks a/ illegal spying

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Russell Tice, a former analyst for the National Security Agency, appeared on last night's MSNBC "Countdown" and revealed a massive and targeted domestic spying program has been in effect for the last several years. While the Bush Administration vigorously maintained all spying was done legally and only on international communications involving suspected terrorists, Mr. Tice noted the eavesdropping program was much broader and alleged specific domestic, non terrorist groups were targeted. Here's a video of the interview:

Rachel Maddow Show/ NSA spying with Carl Bernstein

Russell Tice, a former analyst for the National Security Agency, appeared on last night's MSNBC "Countdown" and revealed a massive and targeted domestic spying program has been in effect for the last several years. While the Bush Administration vigorously maintained all spying was done legally and only on international communications involving suspected terrorists, Mr. Tice noted the eavesdropping program was much broader and alleged specific domestic, non terrorist groups were targeted. Here's a video of the interview:

How The Republican Party Has Conned America for 30 Years

Reality will continue to sink in with the American people and the massive fraud perpetrated by Wanniski, Reagan, Laffer, Graham, Bush(s), and all their "conservative" enablers will be seen for what it was and is. And the Obama administration can get about the business of repairing the damage and recovering the stolen assets of these cheap hustlers

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The Dirty Dozen: 12 People to Blame For the Financial Crisis

Who and what got us into this financial mess? Here's my far-from-exhaustive list of the guilty.

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This Land is Your Land FORBIDDEN VERSES Sung at Inauguration

The inclusion of 3 verses rarely heard under any circumstances and never heard in the corridors of power, much less in front of a world wide audience and in the presence and in honor of someone about to ascend to the Presidency of the United States, were included at Pete Seeger's request at the pre-Inaugural concert on January 20.

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Vowing transparency, Obama OKs ethics guidelines

Promising "a new era of openness in our country," President Barack Obama signed executive orders Wednesday relating to ethics guidelines for staff members of his administration.

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Study Busts Antarctica's Chill On Global Warming

The world makes more sense today for some scientists: New data show Antarctica is warming up after all. Researchers had been at a loss to explain why the rest of the planet is heating up, but not the southern continent. The new study has filled in the holes.

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Warming map for Artic Winters from 1954-2003

Recent observed surface air temperature changes over the Arctic region are the largest in the world. Winter (DJF) rates of warming exceed 4 degrees C. over portions of the Arctic land areas (shown left). We provide Arctic temperature trends and changes of other primary surface variables (e.g., sea level pressure, precipitation, sea ice cover) archived in this climate summary, portions of which are published each year in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/

’92 Ponzi Case Investigation Missed Signals About Madoff

Seventeen years ago, federal investigators questioned for the first time whether Bernard Madoff was connected to a Ponzi scheme. They didn't get far.

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"The End of Banking as We Know It" - from NYTimes

Clearly, the entire financial industry is in the midst of a makeover. And while no one wants to call it nationalization, perhaps we can agree on this much: The money business as we have come to know it over the last two decades — with its lush salaries, big-swinging risk-takers and ultrathin capital cushions — is a goner.

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"The End of Banking as We Know It" - from NYTimes

Clearly, the entire financial industry is in the midst of a makeover. And while no one wants to call it nationalization, perhaps we can agree on this much: The money business as we have come to know it over the last two decades — with its lush salaries, big-swinging risk-takers and ultrathin capital cushions — is a goner.

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2008 U.S. Foreclosure Heat Map

RealtyTrac reported this week that in 2008, the U.S. had a total of 3,157,806 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — on 2,330,483 U.S. properties. This was an 81% increase over 2007, and a 225% percent increase from 2006.

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Coal ash dumps a ‘time bomb’ for Michigian water

Landfills of coal ash are leaking toxic metals into Michigan's groundwater.

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Hot Button - Red State Indiana

I live in the reddest county in Indiana. I didn't think I could make a difference here until I started wearing an Obama/Biden campaign button everywhere. I've had enough interesting conversations since then -- and enough stony glares, that I've decided to start trying to blog the more interesting. It doesn't take much, sometimes, to spread hope.

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Widening Gap: Republican / Democratic View on Climate Change

The proportions of Democrats agreeing that global warming is already happening, that most scientists believe it is occurring, and that it poses a serious threat have increased substantially over the past decade. In contrast, the proportion of Republicans agreeing that global warming is already happening has declined.

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Two Pics of Freeway Blogging

Bill: Contempt of Congress pursued against Bush's Chief Stff

One nice goody buried in the new House Rules package: the House will authorize the Judiciary Committee to continue its lawsuit seeking to enforce its subpoenas and contempt of Congress citations against Bush White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

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Obama, Rick Warren, Africa, AIDS, abstinence only

Rick Warren's Africa Problem, by Max BlumenthalTeam Obama likes to cite Warren’s work on AIDS in Africa to combat criticism about the controversial pastor. But how does burning condoms in the name of Jesus save lives?

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Conyers: Obama Should Not Nominate Sanjay Gupta

Rep. John Conyers has written a letter to Democratic colleagues urging them to join him in publicly opposing the nomination of Dr. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General.

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Conyers introduces bill to investigate Bush war powers

In a little-noticed move Tuesday, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. introduced legislation aimed at creating a commission to investigate the "broad range" of "unreviewable war powers" enacted under the presidency of George W. Bush.

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Sneaky Senate resolution on Gaza and Code Pink

(from CODE PINK)
Dear xxx,
Yesterday, the Senate passed a secretly drafted and fast-tracked resolution co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell by unanimous voice vote (meaning there will be no written record of who voted yes or who abstained) "recognizing the right of Israel to defend itself against attacks from Gaza and reaffirming the United States' strong support for Israel in its battle with Hamas, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process." (You can read the full text of the bill here)

There was nothing in this one-sided legislation, which was familiarly referred to by Senate staffers we spoke to as "The AIPAC bill," that will help the 1.5 million Gazans who are currently under siege. And there is nothing in this bill that will do anything to support "the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."

Congress is expected to vote on similar legislation within the next few days. Please call your Representative TODAY to ask him or her to vote no on any legislation that fails to call for an for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire -- as well as for unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into Gaza and a lifting of Israel's blockade.

If you don't know who represents you in Congress, then you can find out at Congress.org (enter your zip code in the upper right corner of the website). Once you know who represents you call 202-224-3121 and the operator will connect you to your Representative*.

Please amplify your impact on Congress by forwarding this email to your friends.

Calling for Peace,

Gael, Jodie, and Medea
PS. Today, CODEPINK, along with Jewish and Muslim women, will deliver a flood of white roses to Obama's Washington, DC hotel, with the message, "Please do not be silent. The children of Gaza need your help." For $5, you can add a white rose to the bouquet and a voice to the chorus of those who speak out!

* When you are connected to your Representative's office, keep your message short and to the point. Tell them:

Congress should be calling for an immediate, unconditional, comprehensive ceasefire. The assault on Gaza must stop and Hamas's firing of rockets into Israel must stop. The blockade of Gaza must be lifted so that medicine, food, fuel and other necessities can flow freely into the territory. With close to 800 killed and over 3,000 wounded, the carnage must end before any diplomatic settlement can be achieved.

It is vitally important that Congress hears from us! A Representative's voting choice can be swayed by as few as 20 phone calls. Your call WILL make a difference -- call 202.224.3121 NOW

Open Left:: Letters from Wingnuttia - New Deal Edition

David Sirota shares letters from right wingers that were written in response to his article on how the FDR really did get the New Deal right. He wrote the article in response to recent attempts by conservative pundits to say the New Deal prolonged the depression is revisionism at its worst.

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Natl Security, Dennis Blair - the Military-Industrial Complex

Blair is president of a Defense policy think-tank - supposedly non-profit, IDA, which has been very lucrative for the people who involved in this think tank. It seems top heavy with Air Force types (like Blair) and is involved in weapons procurement.


Quoting from Wikipedia:


As early as 2002, the President of IDA, Retired U.S. Air Force General Larry Welch, was being paid an annual salary of $323,979, according to IDA’s Form 990 for the year beginning Sept. 29, 2001 and ending Sept. 27, 2002.

At least ten other IDA executives were also paid annual salaries of over $140,000 in 2002. For instance, the IDA Vice-President for Administration and Finance, Ruth Greenstein, was paid an annual salary of $261,212, while the IDA Vice-President for Planning and Evaluation was paid $212,554. Annual salaries of between $196,889 and $231,076 were also paid to the directors of IDA’s five weapons research divisions in 2002.

In addition, the chairman of the IDA board of trustees, former University of South Carolina President John Palms, was paid an additional $27,100 in 2002 by IDA for his work as IDA board chairman. MIT Professor Sheila Widnall, a former Clinton Administration Secretary of the Air Force, also was paid an additional $10,800 in 2002 by IDA for apparently representing MIT on IDA’s board of trustees in 2002.

Although IDA is a non-profit, from its Pentagon weapons research contracts in 2002 it earned total revenues of $145 million that were $4 million more than the $141 million it had to spend on its weapons research think-tank activity. These funds are spent on internally-initiated research projects.

Ac

Think Again: Climate Change

The science is settled, and the damage has already begun. The only question now is whether we will stop playing political games and embrace the few imperfect options we have left. Bill McKibben debunks the conventional "wisdom" on climate change.

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SPECIAL PROSECUTOR #1 TOPIC AT OFFICIAL OBAMA WEBSITE

FORWARD:

SPECIAL PROSECUTORQUESTION NUMBER ONE NOW ON THE OBAMA SITE

Thanks to your valiant participation, the question we told you about, asking about a special prosecutor for the gravest crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration is now NUMBER ONE on the official Obama site. And as of last check they are still open for voting. So if you have not voted already, the easiest way to find the question is

1. Sign in at http://change.gov/openforquestions and remember you have to set up a login for yourself at that site to vote

2. Click on "Additional Issues" under "Pick a Topic" on the left

3. The special prosecutor question started by "Bob Fertik" should be the one leading the top of that section (and now leading all questions over all topics with 16,000 votes).

4. Look right for the checkbox, mouseover it so it goes from white to dark, then click to cast your vote

Please cast your vote as soon as possible, as the voting may close at any time. They may not work straight through holiday weekends, but we DO,

What this means is that Obama will now have to ANSWER this question on his official site, just as if he had accepted this question at a real press conference. And we're going to keep the heat on in every other possible way, just stay tuned.

THEN GET YOUR NEW CONVICT DICK & W CAP TO DEMONSTRATE WITH

As we in the White House accountability movement look forward, whether it's impeachment, federal prosecution, or state by state prosecutions as a last resort, the key work is "convict". And that is why we are introducing a new cap to wear to continue to carry the ball with that says "CONVICT DICK & W" in red, white and blue. If you want to be one of the first to get one of these new caps please submit the page below.

New Convict Dick & W Cap: http://www.usalone.com/convict_cap.php

We are not setting a price for these. You can have one for a contribution of any amount. We just want to put as many out there as possible. And we will have much more news for you soon about planned actions to pressure prosecutors at all levels to step up to the plate and do their duty.

We are in this thing for the long haul, folks. The criminal dictators of the future can only be constrained by pursuing prosecution NOW of the criminal dictators of the present and past. In some cases it has taken many years of work by dedicated activists to bring criminal former heads of state to justice.

We the people will never forget the crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration. How can we? Their willful disasters will cripple our economy, our military, every aspect of our government and our own personal lives for many years to come. But if we just continue to speak out, someday soon enough there WILL be prosecutors at some level who will have the integrity, backbone and determination to do what Congress to their eternal shame did not.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

Senator Reid calls Bush a liar - Meet The Press

MR. GREGORY: Before you go, do you have any regrets about the way you have publicly battled with President Bush? Over the years you've called him a liar, a loser, and you've described him as "our worst president ever."

SEN. REID: I wrote a book and I said that in the book several times. David, I am who I am. I'm going to continue being who I am. I think you just have to call things the way you see them. I really do believe that President Bush is the worst president we've ever had. I think his efforts to destroy Social Security were very bad. That brought about one of those statements. I think as we've looked now at what's happened to the stock market, wouldn't that have been an awful thing to do, to privatize Social Security? Medicare, he's done, he's done his very best to destroy Medicare. Medicare, a wonderful program. Perfect? Of course not. But one of the best programs ever developed to take care of sick people. So...

MR. GREGORY: You said that the war is lost. Today, in 2009, that's no longer your view?

SEN. REID: David, listen, someone else will have to determine that as the years go on. What has the war done? It's brought about--it's destabilized the Middle East. We have a civil war going on in Israel. We have a civil war in Iraq, as indicated today, more than 50 people killed with a bomb in Iraq today. We have Lebanon, a civil war there. We have Iran thumbing their nose with every, everyone. And if that weren't bad enough, our standing in the world community is so far down as a result of this war, so--and that doesn't take into consideration the tens of thousands who have been injured...

SEN. REID: ...and the thousands have been killed in the war. So it's, it's--historians will have to talk about what the war in Iraq did. But I think historians today indicate, as I have, the outline that I've given.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608

The N.Y. Developement Project & the $100,000 donation to Clinton

A picture of DESTINY USA - developement in Upstate New York; heavily financed with tax breaks and subsidies etc.. The chief developer gave $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2004. Hillary Clinton pushed a bill through the Senate which helped this developement.

Survey: Oil May Lose Top Rank as Cheapest Energy

Over the next 20 years, oil and natural gas will lose top ranking as the world's most affordable energy sources, according to a survey of energy executives released Wednesday. Deeper wells in more inhospitable places, both political and geological, have altered presumptions of doing business in the oil patch.

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