Mad In The Middle

BoA Whistleblowers

2013-06-18T19:13:00.001-04:00

Bank of America whistle-blower’s bombshell: “We were told to lie” - Salon.com:

Bank of America’s mortgage servicing unit systematically lied to homeowners, fraudulently denied loan modifications, and paid their staff bonuses for deliberately pushing people into foreclosure: Yes, these allegations were suspected by any homeowner who ever had to deal with the bank to try to get a loan modification – but now they come from six former employees and one contractor, whose sworn statements were added last week to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

“Bank of America’s practice is to string homeowners along with no apparent intention of providing the permanent loan modifications it promises,” said Erika Brown, one of the former employees. The damning evidence would spur a series of criminal investigations of BofA executives, if we still had a rule of law in this country for Wall Street banks...

No, Fetus Mastrubation Is Not Too Low

2013-06-18T17:54:00.001-04:00

Rep. Michael Burgess Says 15-Week-Old Male Fetuses Pleasure Themselves - ABC News:

At what age do young boys begin sexual self-exploration? As early as 15 weeks in utero, according to Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former obstetrician-gynecologist. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

The tea party congressman, 62, made the awkward argument during a House Rules Committee hearing today about H.R. bill 1797, which would ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization...

Afghan Tunnel Light

2013-06-18T11:05:00.001-04:00

Taliban Signal Readiness to Begin Peace Negotiations - NYTimes.com:

In a potentially groundbreaking move, the Taliban announced on Tuesday they were prepared to take the first step toward peace negotiations with the Afghanistan government after 12 years of war. The announcement was welcomed by the United States...

Clinton Gets Endorsement

2013-06-18T11:03:00.001-04:00

Missouri Sen. McCaskill backs Clinton for president in '16 - First Read:

She's not a presidential candidate yet but Hillary Clinton is already starting to pile up the endorsements.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill Tuesday added her support to a growing roster of Democratic activists pushing the former secretary of state to make another bid for the White House in 2016. The nudge gives Clinton a marquee, swing-state backer and could be an early glimpse at a major source of support for any potential campaign -- Democratic women in the U.S. Senate...

Another Medical Horror Story

2013-06-17T17:29:00.001-04:00

Chicago Hospital Accused of Cutting Throats for $160,000 - Bloomberg:

...Based in part on surreptitious tape recordings, an FBI affidavit lays out allegations that a Sacred Heart pulmonologist kept patients too sedated to breathe on their own, then ordered unneeded tracheotomies for them -- enabling the for-profit hospital to reap revenue of as much as $160,000 per case...

This is what you get when the profit motive rules the medical industry.

Stunner From SCOTUS

2013-06-17T12:31:00.001-04:00

Supreme Court: Arizona law requiring citizenship proof for voters is illegal | Fox News:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot on their own require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier.

The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona's voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "Motor Voter" voter registration law...

Tax Cheaters Database

2013-06-16T22:36:00.001-04:00

Offshore Tax-Haven Data Made Public As Companies Brace For Scrutiny:

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Friday made public what it calls the most extensive collection of records on offshore accounts in history, encouraging sleuths to ferret out possible tax evasion.

The online portal, called the Offshore Leaks Database, contains hundreds of thousands of records showing corporations set up in so-called "tax-haven" countries, gleaned from the contents of about 2.5 million emails and financial documents that ICIJ said it received in early 2012. Over the past year, the data have been used by journalists around the world to detail alleged tax evasion by billionaires, oligarchs, emirs, princes and multinational corporations on nearly every continent...

Darth Plays Pot And Kettle

2013-06-16T18:41:00.001-04:00

Dick Cheney Calls Edward Snowden a 'Traitor' and Possibly a Chinese Spy | Video Cafe:

...Coming from the man who lied to the American people about WMD's. If old Deadeye Dick really thinks that this NSA leak is "one of the worst occasions [...] of somebody with access to classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the United States," I've got a mirror he needs to go take a look in.

I've got plenty of questions about what Edward Snowden is doing in China as well, but this is the last guy on earth that I want to hear weigh in on it.

Perry's West Hypocrisy

2013-06-16T18:31:00.001-04:00

Rick Perry Now Begging For Government Handouts (VIDEO):

...One must ask a question that few are asking. Why should the federal government and taxpayers be liable for the explosion of a private plant? Should not that plant be liable for rebuilding the damage caused from the company storing that quantity of explosive chemicals in an unsafe manner? This is a classic case of privatization of profits and socialization of losses/expenses. Perry fighting for a government handout for a private company explosion while refusing government subsidies to provide healthcare to the poor in his state is the height of immorality.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is more than a hypocrite. He is dangerous. While he claims to hate regulation, he systematically passes laws/regulations that infringe on women’s rights but refuses regulations to equalize their pay. He refuses government money that would go to the poor and needy even as he provides billions in incentives for business. He has become a conduit to move middle class taxes to the powerful.

Crazy In NC: Bully Edition

2013-06-16T18:23:00.001-04:00

Moffitt, Ramsey engage in shameless bullying | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com:

...They also used to frown upon bullying, but no one seems to be putting the brakes on Moffitt, Ramsey and others who’ve decided to punish Asheville and other cities.

The people of North Carolina seem to be catching on to this, though, and we’re not going to sit down and shut up while these folks bully and intimidate those they should be representing.

ACA Plus Works For Sweden

2013-06-16T17:48:00.001-04:00

What Sweden Can Tell Us About Obamacare - NYTimes.com:

...For that to happen, however, Congressional critics must abandon their futile efforts to repeal Obamacare and focus instead on improving it. Their core premise — that greater government involvement in health care provision spells disaster — lacks support in the wealth of evidence from around the world that bears on it.

The truth appears closer to the reverse: Because of pervasive market failures in private health care markets, this may be the sector that benefits most from collective action.

Your Congress At Not Work

2013-06-16T01:19:00.001-04:00

Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home - The Hill - covering Congress, Politics, Political Campaigns and Capitol Hill | TheHill.com:

...“It’s hard to get this story out. Even now we have this big briefing — we’ve got Alexander, we’ve got the FBI, we’ve got the Justice Department, we have the FISA Court there, we have Clapper there — and people are leaving,” she said.

The Ghost Of Mitt

2013-06-15T14:44:00.001-04:00

Miners Say They Were Forced To Attend Romney Campaign Event Without Pay: 'We Knew What Would Happen' | ThinkProgress:

When Mitt Romney campaigned at an Ohio coal mine earlier this month, he might not have realized that the miners were forced to be there — without pay — by the owner, Murray Energy...

Election Surprise In Iran

2013-06-15T14:24:00.001-04:00

Moderate cleric Rohani wins Iran presidential election - Israel News, Ynetnews:

Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran's presidential election on Saturday, the interior ministry said, scoring a surprising landslide victory over conservative hardliners without the need of a second round run-off...

Comment Of The Day: San Diego Diocese Edition

2013-06-14T19:37:00.001-04:00

San Diego Diocese: Domestic Violence Victims Attract Wrong Kind Of People To Parent-Teacher Night: SorosBot 144p � 6 hours ago

I can see why Rahm Emmanuel and the educations "reformers" hate the teachers' unions so much, why were this a public school they would have protected Ms. Charlesworth from this totally justified firing.

The Devil And Fox

2013-06-14T16:31:00.001-04:00

Murdoch Divorce Stuns Satan : The New Yorker

Congress Leads...

2013-06-14T12:36:00.001-04:00

...in the Scum of the Earth Sweepstakes.

Gallup: Congress hits rock bottom - Hadas Gold - POLITICO.com:

...“This is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record,” according to a statement by Gallup’s Elizabeth Mendes and Joy Wilke...

Congress did trail such luminaries as the clap and the Kardashians

Issa Fails Again

2013-06-13T23:07:00.001-04:00

Darrell Issa's IRS Investigation Is Falling Apart - Businessweek:

...“We’re not anywhere near being able to jump to conclusions,” Camp told reporters, including Bloomberg’s Richard Rubin, on Wednesday. So the IRS investigations will continue. But it’s getting harder to imagine that they’ll turn up evidence of a Nixonian plot, and if they don’t, Issa will have failed again.

Amazing Gun Facts, 1

2013-06-13T16:23:00.001-04:00

Toddlers Killed More Americans Than Terrorists Did This Year:

... Listed below are the 11 gun fatalities I found where a preschooler pulled the trigger (from Jan. 1 to June 9, 2013). Starting with a list of five toddler shooting deaths The Jewish Daily Forward published in early May, I unearthed six additional cases. This tragic, unthinkable event has happened every month, like clock-work...

Racist Snooping?

2013-06-13T12:26:00.001-04:00

Simply Left BehindThe Non-Rapturist's Guide To The Galaxy: Big Whoop:

...Oh. Well. I see now. The program doesn’t track terrorists per se. Only brown-skinned ones. Well, that’s much better. We white people are free to bomb marathons, abortion clinics, and murder Arabic and Arabic-looking folks to our hearts content.

Terrorism is terrorism, whether it’s 19 Saudis flying planes into buildings, a couple of lunatics with rifles picking off passersby, or the NRA threatening your daughter with rape if you don’t buy her a gun. Period. It’s only security theater to think that only Muslims mean us harm.

Big Pharma Loses One

2013-06-13T12:19:00.001-04:00

Supreme Court says human genes cannot be patented - CBS News:

The Supreme Court says companies cannot patent human genes, a decision that could profoundly affect the medical and biotechnology industries.

In a unanimous decision, the court struck down patents held by Myriad Genetics Inc. on two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer...

More GOPer Biology

2013-06-12T17:10:00.001-04:00

Another Republican in hot water for claiming ‘very low’ pregnancy rate from rape | Toronto Star:

...Trent Franks, an Arizona congressman, made the comments at a House of Representatives committee meeting that was exploring a measure that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks without exception.

“The incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks, who authored the bill, said as he argued against a Democratic amendment to the legislation that would allow exceptions for rape and incest...

Speaking Lies To Power

2013-06-12T12:26:00.001-04:00

Seeking to tamp fears, confusion, intelligence officials defend spy programs as safeguards - The Washington Post:

Dogged by fear and confusion about sweeping spy programs, intelligence officials sought to convince House lawmakers in an unusual briefing Tuesday that the government’s years-long collection of phone records and Internet usage is necessary for protecting Americans — and does not trample on their privacy rights.

But the country’s main civil liberties organization wasn’t buying it, filing the most significant lawsuit against the sweeping phone record collection program so far. The American Civil Liberties Union and its New York chapter sued the federal government Tuesday in New York, asking a court to demand that the Obama administration end the program and purge the records it has collected....

Speaking of that...

Mansur Gidfar says:

Two months ago, in a Senate Integlligence Hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden asked the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" His response: "No, sir."

Apparently the man who openly lied to Congress is a hero, but the 29-year-old who upended his life to tell the truth is a traitor. Funny how that works.

Crazy In NC: Clergy Bustin' Edition

2013-06-11T10:02:00.001-04:00

RALEIGH: Clergy lead Monday protests at General Assembly | State Politics | NewsObserver.com:

Despite tornado warnings across the state, several thousand demonstrators gathered Monday under rainy skies to continue the weekly protests of the new policies and laws coming out of the General Assembly.

This week, religious leaders from around the state led the rally that resulted more than 80 arrests, according to Jamie Phillips, an state NAACP attorney. A reporter with The Charlotte Observer, who was interviewing demonstrators, was among those detained.

Many arrested were clergy...

What We All Want

2013-06-11T09:45:00.001-04:00

All That I Ask - Esquire:

...Please, if it's not too damn much trouble, can you tell me what's being done in my name?

That has been the essential plea of the citizen of a democratic political commonwealth for going on 70 years now, since the war powers and their attendant influence detached themselves from -- or were abandoned entirely by -- the constitutional authority in which they were supposed to reside. That was the plea that was answered, officially, by the incredibly brave Frank Church and his committee, and by the House Committee on Assassinations (the case of the murder of a president in broad daylight is still open, by the way). That was the plea that has been answered, unofficially, by Ron Ridenhour about My Lai, and by Sy Hersh about a lot of the things the Church committee opened up, and by those guys in Lebanon with the mimeograph machine concerning Iran-Contra, and by Bob Parry and so many others during the era of Reagan triumphalism, and by people like the invaluable Charlie Savage and Jane Mayer and others when the country lost its mind after 9/11, and, yes, by Jeremy Scahill and whoever he talks to, and, yes, by Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, too...