Social Seppuku

Welcome Home

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:04:00 +0000

I took this photo before I left Texas.
This is from Liberty Hill, TX not far
from Killeen where Fort Hood is.

(click to see the Christian love up close)

I am so sorry than the Fort Hood murders
were done by a Muslim.
It makes these assholes even more so...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Loathe Thy Neighbor

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

A Vision Within

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:22:00 +0000

He is a camera, the film and the print

Read it and Weep...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash

The full article from McClatchy here
some excerpts below:

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.

Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.
"The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who's proposed a massive overhaul of the nation's banks. "This is fraud and should be prosecuted."
(snip)

The firm benefited when Paulson elected not to save rival Lehman Brothers from collapse, and when he organized a massive rescue of tottering global insurer American International Group while in constant telephone contact with Goldman chief Blankfein. With the Federal Reserve Board's blessing, AIG later used $12.9 billion in taxpayers' dollars to pay off every penny it owed Goldman.
These decisions preserved billions of dollars in value for Goldman's executives and shareholders. For example, Blankfein held 1.6 million shares in the company in September 2008, and he could have lost more than $150 million if his firm had gone bankrupt.
With the help of more than $23 billion in direct and indirect federal aid, Goldman appears to have emerged intact from the economic implosion, limiting its subprime losses to $1.5 billion. By repaying $10 billion in direct federal bailout money — a 23 percent taxpayer return that exceeded federal officials' demand — the firm has escaped tough federal limits on 2009 bonuses to executives of firms that received bailout money.
Goldman announced record earnings in July, and the firm is on course to surpass $50 billion in revenue in 2009 and to pay its employees more than $20 billion in year-end bonuses.
(snip)
For decades, Goldman, a bastion of Ivy League graduates that was founded in 1869, has cultivated an elite reputation as home to the best and brightest and a tradition of urging its executives to take turns at public service.
As a result, Goldman has operated a virtual jobs conveyor belt to and from Washington: Paulson, as Treasury secretary, sent tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars to rescue Wall Street in 2008, and former Goldman employees populate some of the most demanding and powerful posts in Washington. Savvy federal regulators have migrated from their Washington jobs to Goldman.
On Oct. 16, a Goldman vice president, Adam Storch, was named managing executive of the SEC's enforcement division.
~~~~~~

This excellent article shows how the game is fixed from the inside.
Read the rest of this truly maddening story here.

A Pound of Flesh

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:48:00 +0000

Too bad fraud does not have the same penalties for felonies

Torture charged in L.A.-area mortgage rescue case

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As Los Angeles housing advocates launched a campaign warning of mortgage rescue scams, a couple hit by foreclosure are charged with torturing two loan-modification agents they suspected of fraud, authorities said on Monday.

The couple, Daniel Weston and Mary Ann Parmelee, and three other people are accused of luring their two victims to an office where the men were tied up, held for hours and beaten, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney said.

Police were called after one of the victims managed to escape, said the spokeswoman, Shiara Davila-Morales. The incident occurred on Wednesday in the town of Glendale, just north of Los Angeles.

Weston, Parmelee and the three other defendants each were charged with two counts of torture, two counts of false imprisonment by violence and two counts of second-degree robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed against them.

Weston, 52, and Parmelee, 51, both arrested last week and jailed on $1 million bond, shared a house in the suburb of La Canada-Flintridge that is in foreclosure, authorities said.

"The two allegedly sought loan modification assistance from the victims but believed that nothing was being done and wanted their money back," a statement from the district attorney's office said.

Davila-Morales added that the couple, according to investigators, believed they had been swindled.

Weston and another man, who previously served time for assault, are accused of carrying out the beatings in front of their three co-defendants, who prosecutors say had prior business ties with the two victims by having funneled loan-modification referrals to them.

Each count of felony torture, defined as inflicting "great bodily injury" for the purpose of "revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose," carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Defense lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

The case became public as Los Angeles officials and community groups kicked off a national public-awareness effort urging homeowners to beware of bogus loan-modification programs and to report suspicious activity to authorities.

Los Angeles was selected to launch the campaign because the metropolitan region ranks among areas with the highest foreclosure rates nationwide, organizers said.

"mmm, now with more Truth!"

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:57:00 +0000

Saint George speaks the Gospel

How Sweet!

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Having troubles with Health Care?

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:23:00 +0000

Vultures insurance has a plan for you...

Don't be tied up with paper work!

Our Agents can help you!

We make sure we have everything we need,

to give you the coverage you deserve.

Vultures Insurance, where we care enough to strip the last scrap.

Death for Profit

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Buy or Die

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:06:00 +0000

I'll bet the American Wal-Mart managers are jealous

from AFP and RS

China Wal-Mart employees beat woman to death:Police

BEIJING — A woman in eastern China was allegedly beaten to death by five employees of a Wal-Mart store who accused her of shoplifting, a police report and state media said Tuesday.
Police have arrested two employees from the store in Jiangxi province, while three others are being investigated, Jingdezhen city police said in a report on their website.

According to the report, the woman was beaten outside her home near the Wal-Mart on August 30 and died in a city hospital on Wednesday last week from injuries suffered during the beating.

Police said the five Wal-Mart employees had stopped the woman in the street and demanded to see her receipt, but she refused because she could not verify their identities, it said.

Following an argument, the five Wal-Mart employees began beating her, it said.

The English-language China Daily on Tuesday identified the victim as Yu Xiaochun, 37.

“They started to hit her because she didn’t do what they said,” the paper quoted her husband Chen Baolin as saying.

“I got there and tried to stop them but they kept beating her.”

It was not immediately known if the woman had shoplifted, the paper said.

The beating intensified as she tried to telephone for help using her mobile phone, it added.

In a statement, Wal-Mart said it was “fully cooperating with the relevant authorities and will release further details as it is appropriate”.

“We extend our condolences to the family of the deceased…. The incident and cause of death is the subject of an investigation.”

Eat the Rich

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Obey! Commit Social Seppuku

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:24:00 +0000

Stephen understands how things are,

they are like this...

Screw you...

Got Balls?

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:50:00 +0000

The women who clear Sudan's minefields

By Peter Martell
BBC News, Bungu

Jamba Besta had planned to be a secretary, hoping to find work in an office as her homeland of South Sudan emerged out of a 22-year long civil war.

Instead, the pregnant mother heads an all-female team of de-miners, removing dangerous explosives from former battlefields.

"I never thought I would be doing this," says Ms Besta, welcoming her six-woman team back from the danger zone they are clearing.

Many people have died or had their legs shot off because of a mine

Tabu Monica Festo Mine clearer

"But it shows those people who think that women can't do jobs like this that they are wrong."

The team's members say they work better as an all-women team - supporting each other against often critical comments that de-mining is work only for a man.

"We live and work away from home all as one team, so it is good we are all women together," she says.

Sudan's north-south war - fought over ideology, religion, ethnicity and oil - ended more than four years ago.

Some two million people died in the war, and its bitter legacy of landmines and unexploded ordnance continues to kill and wound.

Warning signs

In Bungu, where Jama and her Sudanese team working for Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) are clearing mines, the community want to rebuild a school abandoned during the war.

The small settlement, some 30 miles from the southern capital Juba, was a northern government outpost on a key rebel supply line from neighbouring Uganda.

Soldiers ringed the outpost with mines against the surrounding southern guerrilla forces, while unexploded ordnance is left from the battles between the two sides.

"It will take a long time to clear," says de-miner Tabu Monica Festo, waving at the waist high grass and tangled bushes.

"We don't know where there may be something hidden."

Only a narrow passage has so far been cleared through the ruins of the old school, a jumbled pile of rocks covered in thick shrubs.

The path is clearly marked with warning sticks tipped with red, to show the rest remains unsafe.

"We have to be very careful to check all the ground is clear," Ms Festo added, resuming her slow sweeping of the ground with a metal detector.

A solid squeaking sound indicates hidden metal - and the risk of a mine or unexploded bomb.

Some were designed to maim people, others to take out an armoured tank.

"It's a job that is important to do - many people have died or had their legs shot off because of a mine," Ms Festo adds.

Read the rest of this article about the bravery of these women here

We think we have racial tensions...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:31:00 +0000

(from Reuters Photos)

How's this for Riot Police?

Racial hatred on a Chinese scale

The Chinese can be brutal on ethnic peoples. In this case it was the civilian population who ran amok before the riot police arrived. Then it got worse from there.

The unspoken of after effects of these incidents, the ones never printed, the ones of imprisonment, torture and brutality are often more heinous than the original event.

We never hear about the revenge and retribution of the State and those in power.

Finks...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:47:00 +0000

From Derf's, The City

click for full Fink flavor

No...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:34:00 +0000

...Fucking comment

Why...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:41:00 +0000

This is unprecedented!!!

Ahhh, the Memories...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:13:00 +0000

A time to remember and savor...

Those days are alive and well, but now
they have video, Kevlar, pepper spray and Tasers.

Greedy MF'ers

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:39:00 +0000

Doctors’ Group Opposes Public Insurance Plan

Gee, I wonder why they don't like it?

I live in the NW now...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I have been away on a move but
the Texas law enforcement folks
never take a break

Bless their hearts...

Repeat...Repeat...Repeat...

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:21:00 +0000

by The Flying McCoys

Seppuku by SUV? or MURDER????

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Another one bites the dust!

Ponzi scammer dies in drive off cliff
before Hawaii sentencing

By Peter Boylan and Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writers

A former Kaua'i mortgage broker who admitted to defrauding more than 50 people out of $30 million drove his truck off a cliff into a ravine in Washington state, killing himself yesterday, the day he was due in federal court in Honolulu for sentencing, according to law enforcement officials.

The body of James W. Lull, 60, was pulled from the wreckage of a white, 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac at the bottom of a ravine at about 1:30 p.m. yesterday, according to Sgt. Ed McAvoy of the Washington State Patrol. That was half an hour before Lull was to appear in federal court in Honolulu where he was likely to be sentenced to jail time.

Lull's attorney, Peter Wolff, a federal public defender, said he spoke by phone with Lull on Wednesday. Lull, who was in Seattle, indicated that he would be flying to Hawai'i in time for yesterday's 2 p.m. hearing.

Instead, his body was being pulled from the ravine.

"Where Mr. Lull left the roadway it was about a 200-foot drop," McAvoy said. Officers did not find a suicide note from the wreckage of the truck, McAvoy said.

Lull declared bankruptcy in 2006 and moved to the Seattle area, where he was living when he was indicted in Hawai'i on charges of operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of tens of millions of dollars.

The wreckage of Lull's white pickup truck was reported to the Washington State Patrol at 1:15 p.m. by a trucker driving over the Fred Redmon Bridge on Interstate 82, about eight miles north of Yakima, Wash.

Lull's failure to show in court in Honolulu prompted the issuance of a bench warrant and spurred a manhunt by U.S. Marshals and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Both agencies received word yesterday afternoon that Lull was dead.

Showed 'deception'

After crossing the Fred Redmon Bridge, Lull apparently drove into an open field and then through a barbed wire fence and onto property maintained by the U.S. Army Yakima Training Center. Lull then apparently drove his truck off a 200-foot cliff into the ravine where it tumbled and flipped until coming to rest on its wheels.

Lull, who maintained a residence in Kirkland, Wash., was under federal investigation for possible new crimes in Washington state and showed "deception" when asked in a March lie detector test if he had hidden assets from his victims, according to federal court papers.

Lull, a former Kaua'i mortgage broker, pled guilty last September to defrauding dozens of victims out of $30 million.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway was originally scheduled to sentence Lull April 14 but ordered a month's delay after hearing from some of Lull's victims and saying she wanted more information about the extent of Lull's cooperation in recovering their money.

The rescheduled hearing in Mollway's court yesterday ended after less than 25 minutes, when Lull's status changed from defendant to fugitive.

News of Lull's death was not reported until after the hearing.

More here

It's True, Man

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Speed Bump by Dave Coverly

Don't Let Socialism Ruin Your Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Vesak Day

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:14:00 +0000

Peace

Celebrate Vesak Day with Compassion and Love

A Reason to Sit

Blind to Blood

noreply@blogger.com (M.Yu) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Media: If you are not covering
Sri Lanka right now, why not?

21 Apr 2009 21:50:00 GMT

Written by: Andrew Stroehlein

from Reuters AlertNet
more details here

"A mass slaughter of civilians will take place Tuesday at noon. And everyone knows it." These are the words my colleague used to describe what is happening in Sri Lanka today in his new article for Foreign Policy's online magazine. It is not an exaggeration: what's happening in Sri Lanka is a massacre in progress.

There are over 100,000 civilians trapped in a tiny area, squeezed between the Sri Lankan government forces, who are shelling them, and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) who shoot them if they try to escape. The Army is advancing, and the death toll is rising rapidly. The situation has been compared to Srebrenica -- which many journalists reading this will remember first hand -- but the number of dead already exceeds that Balkan tragedy.

Just because journalists are not allowed into the Sri Lankan conflict zone doesn't mean we don't know what's going on there. We have satellite imagery showing large concentrations of people caught in the fighting, and we have information from reliable sources on the ground. Recent reports that significant numbers of civilians have escaped have not changed the overall figures: independent sources on the ground continue to report 100,000 people or more remain trapped, exhausted, with limited access to food and medicines, and many under fire.

The recent information from the ground -- fresh this morning -- is that as many as 1000 persons were killed in yesterday's operations. The Sri Lankan Army (SLA) have pushed into the No Fire Zone from the north by about 2 or 3 km, and they are currently trying to consolidate their positions around Pokkannai before attempting the next bloody push, which may happen in 2 or 3 days time.

The LTTE are trying to get people to move to the town of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal, which will become the final battle ground. People are trying to resist the LTTE's demands to be moved, saying they have no bunkers in the south and that they have already had to move too many times.

What can be done? Crisis Group outlined a number of specific steps for the international community in a statement yesterday. Journalists should have a look and try to cover this story not just as some inevitable humanitarian tragedy but as a political problem that political pressure can put an end to.

Of course, some media outlets have been doing an excellent job of covering this crisis: Al Jazeera English, BBC World Service radio and BBC World News come immediately to mind. But other major media outlets have ignored the emergency or given it a ridiculously low priority.

All individuals and institutions with power have responsibility, and the international media are no different. Journalists covering foreign affairs have a duty to ring all available alarm bells when situations get to this level of seriousness and so many human lives are at stake. I urge you to ask relevant officials of your government and of the EU and the UN, what they are doing about it. And ask yourself as a journalist: "If you are not covering Sri Lanka right now, why not?"

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.