Say Anything Blog

July 1, 2008: IndyMac denies that it’s close to collapse

July 11, 2008: IndyMac seized by feds

Freddie and Fanny bailout?

Bear Stearns bailout

Economic Stimulus Package

Bank of America’s proposed $739 bailout

Raygun/Voodoo Economics coming home to roost

(CNN) — It turns out that John McCain made an off-the-mark error when he launched at Barack Obama this week over Iran’s missile tests.

In a statement criticizing Obama’s positions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the organization claiming credit for the missile launches, McCain wrote, “This is the same organization that I voted to condemn as a terrorist organization when an amendment was on the floor of the United States Senate. Senator Obama refused to vote.”

The problem with the critique? McCain also missed that vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment on September 26, 2007. Records show that Obama was in New Hampshire and McCain was in New York instead of being in the Senate chamber for the vote in question.

FAIRBANKS—Alaska state Sen. John Cowdery, was indicted on federal bribery and conspiracy charges Wednesday, according to a news release.

The charges came out of a federal investigation into public corruption in the state of Alaska, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich for the Criminal Division announced today.

The indictment by the federal grand jury alleges that Cowdery and his co-conspirators, including Bill J. Allen, the former chief executive officer of VECO Corp. and Richard L. Smith, VECO’s former vice president, corruptly offered and agreed to give financial benefits to another state legislator, who agreed to perform official acts as a member of the Alaska Legislature.

If convicted, Cowdery faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the bribery count and a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the conspiracy count, as well as a maximum $250,000 fine for each count.

To date, there have been seven criminal convictions arising out of the ongoing investigation into public corruption in the state of Alaska.

In an interview with the Washington Times, Phil Gramm, a former Texas senator who is now vice chairman of UBS:

“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. “We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet.”

“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.”

In related news:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home foreclosure filings jumped 53 percent in June from a year earlier, although they were down 3 percent from May, and foreclosures are expected to rise further, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Foreclosure filings rose on an annual basis in 39 states to a total of 252,363 properties during the month, with Nevada, California, Arizona and Florida posting the highest foreclosure rates.

One out of every 501 U.S. households received a notice of default, auction sale or bank repossession in June, RealtyTrac said.

“June was the second straight month with more than a quarter million properties nationwide receiving foreclosure filings,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “We have not yet reached the top of this foreclosure cycle.”

The endorsement could hardly have been stronger. On Monday, John McCain’s campaign released a statement signed by 300 economists who “enthusiastically support” his “Jobs for America” economic plan, providing a heavyweight testimonial to the presumptive Republican nominee’s “broad and powerful economic agenda.”

There’s just one problem. Upon closer inspection, it seems a good many of those economists don’t actually support the whole of McCain’s economic agenda. And at least one doesn’t even support McCain for president.

In interviews with more than a dozen of the signatories, Politico found that, far from embracing McCain’s economic plan, many were unfamiliar with — or downright opposed to — key details. While most of those contacted by Politico had warm feelings about McCain, many did not want to associate themselves too closely with his campaign and its policy prescriptions.

Last week, Media Matters pointed out that Fox & Friends, the Fox News program hosted by Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, had aired doctored photos of two New York Times reporters who had dared to write semi-critically of Roger Ailes’s right-leaning cable network. See for yourself

H/T HuffPo

2 Supervisors Are Arrested After Sweep at Meat Plant

Two supervisors at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa where hundreds of illegal immigrants were rounded up in May were arrested Thursday on criminal immigration charges.
Federal prosecutors said they had also issued an arrest warrant for a third man described by workers as a plant manager.

...“The arrest of two low-level supervisors, while a start, barely scratches the surface of this company’s bad behavior,” said Scott Frotman, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried to organize the plant. “What about the allegations of worker abuse? Does anyone really believe that these low-level supervisors acted alone without the knowledge, or even the direction, of the Rubashkins and other senior management?”

On Thursday in Houston, five senior managers of another company that was recently raided, Action Rags USA, made their initial court appearances. Those arrested on Wednesday included Mabarik Kahlon, 45, the owner of the company, an exporter of used clothing, and his partner Rasheed Ahmed, 58. About 160 workers were arrested on June 25 at the company’s plant in Houston.

7 immigrants in military posthumous US citizens

What a great country.
I love America so much… makes me well up when I hear the Star Spangled Banner or read about our great forefathers sacrifice to forge a new nation.

We are all quite lucky to be born/live here.

Wal-Mart broke Minnesota labor law more than 2 million times over six years by forcing some employees to work without breaks and without full pay, Dakota County District Court Judge Robert King Jr. ruled Monday in Hastings.

The violations carry a penalty of up to $1,000 each, adding up to a potential $2 billion fine, according to plaintiff’s attorney Jon Parritz in Minneapolis.

The suit was filed in 2001 on behalf of 56,000 current and former Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club employees in Minnesota. In addition to the penalties, Wal-Mart owes workers at least $6 million in back wages, said Parritz, an attorney at the Maslon law firm.

“We think this sends a loud message to Wal-Mart that compliance with wage and hour law is important, and employees will have their day in court,” he said.

A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.

The onetime undercover agent, who has been barred by the CIA from using his real name, filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.

The former operative alleged in a 2004 lawsuit that the CIA fired him after he repeatedly clashed with senior managers over his attempts to file reports that challenged the conventional wisdom about weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Key details of his claim have not been made public because they describe events the CIA deems secret.

The consensus view on Iran’s nuclear program shifted dramatically last December with the release of a landmark intelligence report that concluded that Iran halted work on nuclear weapons design in 2003. The publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran undermined the CIA’s rationale for censoring the former officer’s lawsuit, said his attorney, Roy Krieger.

“On five occasions he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all,” Krieger said in an interview.

In court documents and in statements by his attorney, the former officer contends that his 22-year CIA career collapsed after he questioned CIA doctrine about the nuclear programs of Iraq and Iran. As a native of the Middle East and a fluent speaker of both Farsi and Arabic, he had been assigned undercover work in the Persian Gulf region, where he successfully recruited an informant with access to sensitive information about Iran’s nuclear program, Krieger said.

Sound familiar?:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

ANCHORAGE — Former state Rep. Vic Kohring turned himself over to federal marshals Monday morning in Anchorage after spending three hours waving goodbye to rush-hour commuters along the side of the Glenn Highway.



Kohring’s surrender begins a transfer process that will shuttle him from Anchorage to a federal facility in the Seattle area, said Randy Johnson of the U.S. Marshal’s Office. From there, he will stay in federal custody as he is transported to his final destination, a federal prison in Taft, Calif., about 120 miles north of Los Angeles, to serve his 42-month sentence.

Johnson said Kohring will be shackled whenever he is moved as any other prisoner would be. He will also travel with other prisoners while en route to Taft.

ANDREW WELLNER/Frontiersman Former state House Rep. Vic Kohring waves goodbye to Mat-Su Valley commuters Monday morning prior to surrendering himself to federal authorities to serve a 42-month prison sentence.

ANCHORAGE — Governor Sarah Palin responded today to the announcement that the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down its decision in the Exxon Valdez case. The Court awarded no more than $507.5 million in punitive damages to the plaintiffs, or about 10 percent of the jury’s original award.

“I am extremely disappointed with today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Palin said. “While the decision brings some degree of closure to Alaskans suffering from 19 years of litigation and delay, the Court gutted the jury’s decision on punitive damages.”

She added, “It is tragic that so many Alaska fishermen and their families have had their lives put on hold waiting for this decision. My heart goes out to those affected, especially the families of the thousands of Alaskans who passed away while waiting for justice.”

Palin noted that the decision today undercut one of the principal legs of deterrence for those engaged in maritime shipping in Alaska waters. She called on state and federal agencies to be vigilant and firm in regulating such activities.