New Ash Cloud Threatens To Disrupt Air Travel Recovery

I don't think the volcano cares a whit about the concerns of human ants. Remember when Mount Pinatubo kicked the mighty US Military out of Clark Airbase and Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines after a 90 year stint there? This volcano could continue erupting for days, weeks, months or years, and if it puts the European Airlines out of business that's just the breaks. I wouldn't risk my life or that of my loved ones flying anywhere near that ash cloud.
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Is Jerry Brown the California John McCain?

California is in real trouble, with real problems. Jerry Brown has experience to be Governor, because he WAS Governor. Meg Whitman lucked out as the CEO of a boutique website that took off. The choice is clear in California.



If you are sick do you go to a doctor (Brown) or do you go to someone who SAYS they're a doctor (Whitman)? That's the choice before California voters despite Whitman's war chest.
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Shorting The Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime

Arianna, I know there is a tremendous focus on the plight of the Middle Class now, but as pressure was building upon poor Americans in the preceding decades the Middle Class blamed them for their condition the same way some quarters are blaming the Middle Class for its own condition now. The way I see it, we, as a Nation in the last thirty years have moved from an inclusive economy to an exclusive economy. What we are seeing economically echoes that children's song:



There were ten in the bed and the little one said,

"Roll over, roll over."

So they all rolled over and one fell out.



~and so on until~



There were two in the bed and the little one said,

"Roll over, roll over."

So they all rolled over and one fell out.



There was one in the bed and the little one said,

"Good night!"



Arianna, not to over dramatize, but the mortar that keeps our diverse society intact is the possibility of prosperity. Take that away and it's hard to see how things don't get really ugly.



We can't afford an exclusive economy which allows Americans and their families to keep rolling out of bed, we need to pull the people on the floor back into bed and recognize it isn't a "Goodnight" until everyone has a bit of bed and blanket to share.
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Gun Rally: Second Amendment Activists Swarm DC, VA Rallies (NEWS, PHOTOS)

I hate to burst the 2nd Amendment bubble, but in terms of your personal firearm protecting you from the federal government's weapon arsenal, if it came to that, you might as well be shaking a baby rattle.
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Goldman Sachs Bonuses: Bank Paying Staff Over $5 Billion For Just Three Months Work

The CMO's are just the tip of a very huge iceberg ... All forms of consumer debt were securitized through CDO's, Bond's were securitized through CBO's, even the capital that went into leveraged buyouts were securitized, leveraged and reinvested in the vast float bubble of derivatives as CLO's. Anything that wasn't nailed down, and much of what was nailed down, was securitized and pumped into the vast $750 trillion dollar derivative cloud.



These Goldman Sachs findings amount to merely trickle from a crack in a systemically failing dam.
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Simon Johnson: John Paulson Should Be Held Accountable For Goldman Fraud

"The Times report identified Tricadia as one of several firms involved in deals that some critics said had produced profits at the expense of the firms' own clients. (Tricadia responded that it has always put the interest of its clients first.)"



Back in the Cub Scout years of my life I went to a birthday party of one of the other kids in my Den. When I went into his bedroom I was awestruck by a tank with a fat snake and next to the tank a cage of four, skittering white mice.



"It's really cool your folks let you have all these pets!" I said.



To which my friend gleefully responded:



"Yeah! And I get to feed one to the other!"



And in unison from the members of my Den packed into the birthday boy's bedroom rose a solemn.



"Wow ...."
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Jim Cramer Insulted By Sylvian Raynes On CNBC, Erin Burnett Kicks Raynes Off Show (VIDEO)

Again, how many fortunes were saved when the talking heads of CNBC sounded the warning of the imminent economic crisis in the months and weeks leading up to the tailspin of 2008? These guys and gals were all front and center chanting "Danger Will Robinson!!!" ... right?



Folks, all of these convincing, well spoken, seemingly sincere and honest individuals on CNBC are just carnival barkers working to get the nickles out of the rubes pockets before allowing them into the sideshow to glance at the Investment equivalent of the painted lady or puppy with two heads. Oh, they will all argue that money was made in the market in the last decade and that they helped a lot of people do well with their fancy schmancy online trade software. Meh. Of course money was being made ... in an unregulated Ponzi scheme powered through the kiting of worthless securities money will definitely be made, especially when government officials are providing cover for the floating crap game that Wall Street devolved into. But every con runs its course, and the Friedman, Rand, Reagan, Greenspan, Rubin, Gramm fiscal fantasy has nuked the proverbial fridge. Thirty year run, but now it's done.



I appreciate Raynes gave the CNBC clowns the treatment they deserved, unfortunately it won't put any money back into their viewers or the taxpayer's pockets.
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How To Survive The Apocalypse: Some Things You Need To Know Before The World Ends

I think I'd be partial to the Sasquatch costume, and I might even consider the Survivaball if it came in a blue "Violet Beauregarde" edition.



A can opener might be nice as well.
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Kathy Griffin Has Public Pap Smear, Shows Off Vagazzling (PHOTOS)

Well, if I looked like Kathy Griffin in a bikini I would probably televise my poolside gynecological procedure as well ... if course, I'd probably have to consider being female in order to pull it off.



Details, details.
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Goldman Sachs FRAUD Charges Filed By SEC Over Subprime Mortgage Securities

I'm sure this will be received like a pitcher of ice water on the genitalia of the denizens of Wall Street. Wait until foreign governments whose economies have been hobbled by Wall Street practices start bringing their grievances against the United States to the WTO ... that's only a matter of time.



"Financial services Instability in the banking system affects the whole economy. The financial services annex gives governments very wide latitude to take prudential measures, such as those for the protection of investors, depositors and insurance policy holders, and to ensure the integrity and stability of the financial system. The annex also excludes from the agreement services provided when a government is exercising its authority over the financial system, for example central banks’ services. "



http://www.wto.int/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/agrm6_e.htm



I believe that nations like Iceland, Portugal, Greece, etc could bring a case to the WTO that the unwillingness of the United States to responsibly regulate its domestic financial services industry put its trade partners at undue risk of loss.
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Holder Picks Wrong Crowd For Defense Of Military Commissions

Where the Administration and the United States has a huge problem with the trials of Gitmo Detainees is in the probability that most of them were innocent, picked up in sweeps in Afghanistan and deposited under the title of "Worst of the Worst" in Gitmo to be tortured. Think a second, who would have first hand knowledge that the detainees are nobodies, without terrorist affiliation? That would be the US Lawyers assigned by the Government to defend them ... the one's that Liz Cheney is fond of referring to as the "al Qeada 7".



Where the Obama Administration has a problem is they approached the trials from the legal position, rather than as a National Security issue, probably because they weren't aware of the scope of the problem at the beginning. National Security not in terms of a threat of terrorism to the US, but to the United State's position as a world leader. The Bush Administration seizing innocent foreign nationals, and transporting them to an isolated location where they are tortured and murdered turns the United States into the textbook definition of a Rogue State.



War Crimes have obviously been committed by the Bush Administration, and bringing that information to light in a public trial would require the United States to prosecute the Administration figures involved, or risk the complete loss of credibility of the United States as anything but a imperialistic predator.



That reality puts Holder in a difficult position.
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Tea Parties Protest Tax Day 2010 (PICTURES, VIDEO)

I would imagine Karl Rove's proper place in the Fox "News" stable is as a smelly lump in the corner attracting flies.



Reality Check. How many American jobs were shipped abroad by US Corporations that were gifted with a tax break for doing so by the Bush Administration? Let's talk about jobs, Karl.
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Tax Day Fact Check: Most Americans Got A Tax Cut This Year

I really think that the Tea Party protesters are little more than a prop for the Conservative Establishment, very much the same way the Gitmo Detainees were used as props by the Bush Administration to further their WOT agenda.



In terms of the Tea Party, there are always aimless drifters of life you can coagulate into a chanting clot of sign wielding vitriol. Give them a funny hat and a reason to leave their couch and "Voila" you have the illusion of of a grass roots political movement. Since the majority of Tea Baggers stand for nothing more than a reason to be angry in public, they are a White Board for the Political establishment to write upon. You can have Corporate Pundits in the press interpret the meaning of the Tea Bag Rorschach in anyway that suits the narrative of the Conservative Organizations they are affiliated with. I think the biggest threat to the Tea Bag Movement, and the greatest concern for the Conservatives that are counting on them, is boredom setting in on the part of the participants to the point that reruns of "Hogan's Heroes" prove more enticing than going to a rally.
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Sarah Palin's Boston Tea Party Speech: Obama Agenda 'Un-American'

"I'm not calling anyone un-American, but the unintended consequences of these actions -- the results -- are un-American."



Sort of like being the wife of a member of the Alaska Separatist movement, I guess.
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Mark Zandi: 'It Would Be Counterproductive' To Offset Unemployment Benefits Now

It would be a huge mistake to interfere with unemployment payments in anyway. With the current condition of the economy everyone knows someone who is struggling without a job. If you want working consumers to tighten their spending habits all you need to to is send a message there is no safety net. People start putting money into savings instead of spending and the economy hits the skids once more.



This is not the time for politics ... the unemployment crisis requires commonsense.
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Eric Holder Denounces Liz Cheney's Ad Campaign As 'Reprehensible'

I am confident that the Bush Administration had a far more intimate relationship with al Qaeda, than the so-called "al Qaeda 7" that Liz Cheney is ranting about, and benefited profoundly from that relationship.
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Was Bernie Madoff the Exception or the Rule?

Mr. Borosage, I think we have to all remember that Bernie Madoff is in prison right now because he admitted that his operation was a Ponzi to members of his own staff and someone outed him. No SEC, FBI or other agency's investigation uncovered what he was doing. Individuals who had suspicions about Madoff's activities over the years were stonewalled. Bernie Madoff was made Chairman of Nasdaq (although the claim is now it was only a "ceremonial position"), so his approach to the business certainly didn't make them an outlier. As soon as the Gramm deregulation legislation was signed into law by Clinton at the end of his Presidency the Wall Street fraud Gold Rush was on. Given all the regulatory freedom they ever could have desired, the best Wall Street "geniuses" could arrive at was a Global Institutional Ponzi Scheme fed by the kiting of leveraged, inherently worthless, securities. To empower this massive institutional fraud, we had Al Capone style Accounting Practices in place, we had Rating Agencies that were rigging bad paper with triple A ratings, and we had, as noted in your piece, Corporations expecting their associates to engage in fraud for the benefit of the bottom line.



Furthermore, the stakes could never be higher to the Wallstreeters and the Government Officials who empowered this fraud ... for when it collapses, as it surely will, their futures couldn't be more indoubt.
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Our False Recovery: Why Wall Street Is Up and Everyone Else Is Down

"Since Americans believe that the New York Stock Exchange represents the national economic thermometer, they have been seduced into thinking hat we have fixed our financial problems, and we are on the road to a real recovery."



Reality check. I recently saw a letter from a school Principal asking for contributions for groceries for a family within the school that has been adversely impacted by the economy. This is in the San Francisco Bay Area. It really doesn't matter what the media spin on the economy is when reality confronts you like this. This Principal's request for aid for one of the school's families carries more weight than any news conference or article by economic experts. I'd add, that the same people trying to convince us that the economy is better are trying to convince of the perception of the American People on the economy. I'd say, people have eyes. People may watch television or read the paper, but at some point they leave their homes and interact with the real world, and that's when reality trumps spin.
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JPMorgan Chase Argues Against Mortgage Modifications, Citing Sanctity Of Contracts

Well, the Banks aren't thinking clearly here. The properties are no longer worth the fraudulently inflated prices they were originally sold for. The desire of the mortgage holder to renegotiate the mortgage, even by reducing principal, indicates a desire to continue paying on what was a Bank backed con to start with. The only logical alternative for the underwater mortgage holder, if the Bank refuses to negotiate, is to abandon the property, and leave the Bank to deal with it. What is it now? One out of four American Mortgage holders is underwater? It was an Institutional Fraud that put these individuals into their homes in the first place. If the Banks don't want to renegotiate the mortgage, I see nothing immoral about the homeowners just walking away. A contract is just a glorified piece of paper, and lawyers make as much money breaking contracts as making contracts.



For those with sympathy for the Banks, I'm sure they will recover the original value of the properties in 40-50 years or when hyperinflation renders a million dollar mortgage a bargain.
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Don Blankenship: Investors, Politicians Begin Calling For Massey Head To Resign

Finally someone is showing some common sense and humanity. We need to eliminate miners dying as part of the "just one of those things" management mentality of the mining profession.
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