Pessimistic executives cash out of shares

via FT:

Growing pessimism about the prospects for a global economic recovery sent stock and commodity prices tumbling yesterday while new data showed that leading US corporate executives were cashing out of their share holdings at a rapid pace.

US government bond yields followed equity prices lower, confounding analysts who had expected that Treasury rates would rise this week as the federal government auctioned off a record $104bn of debt.

Analysts said the market mood was captured by a World Bank report that said the global economy would contract 2.9 per cent this year, compared with a previous estimate of a 1.7 per cent fall. A White House spokesman said later in the day that the US unemployment rate was likely to rise to 10 per cent in the next couple of months.

The downbeat commentary reinforced the view that investors should be more worried about the impact of economic weakness on corporate profits than the possibility of higher inflation and interest rates.

"We have had a great run in equities, emerging market currencies, credit and other risky assets, now people are struggling to justify lofty valuations," said Alan Ruskin, strategist at RBS Securities. He added: "The 'green shoots' argument for the economy was very tentative to start with."

Executives in charge of the largest US companies sent a signal of their concerns by selling far more shares than they bought this month, according to data based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Share sales by so-called company insiders are outstripping purchases so far this month by more than 22 times. TrimTabs, the investment research company, said insiders of S&P 500 listed companies have unloaded $2.6bn in shares in June, compared with $120m in purchases.

"The smartest players in the US stock market - the top insiders who run public companies - are not betting their own money on an economic recovery," said Charles Biderman, chief executive of TrimTabs.

The S&P 500 index fell 3.06 per cent to 893.04 - its first close below 900 this month. Analysts noted that the index closed below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. "This is evidence that the rally since March has been a correction and not necessarily the start of a meaningful multi-year rally," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 10 basis points to 3.68 per cent. Crude oil prices fell $2.62, or 3.77 per cent, to $66.93 a barrel.

Earlier, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index slid 2.6 per cent while London's FTSE 100 index fell 2.3 per cent. Emerging market equities also fell sharply, with Russia leading the retreat.





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Mark Jacoby - Head of CA GOP Voter Registration Firm Pleads Guilty to Voter Registration Fraud

Mark Jacoby, another convicted Republican who received nothing more than a slap on the hand.


Read this juicy nugget from Brad Blog:


What's perhaps most interesting here is what isn't mentioned in this story, as written on the Los Angeles Times' "L.A. Now" blog. First, here's their entire blog item...

The owner of a voter-registration company pleaded guilty Tuesday to voter-registration fraud, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Laguna Beach resident Mark Jacoby, who collects signatures for petition drives, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to three years' probation and 30 days of service with the California Department of Transportation.

Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors, registered to vote at Los Angeles addresses that were not his own. State law requires petition circulators to be qualified voters. Jacoby will also be required to show proof he is registered at his correct address.

And what they didn't bother to mention in that story?...Amongst other things, the fact that Jacoby and Young Political Majors were hired by the California Republican Party to head up their voter registration efforts in the state. Jacoby had been arrested for Voter Registration Fraud last October, smack dab during the media's orgasmic heights of last year's phony GOP ACORN "Voter Fraud" hoax, even as Fox "News" (and the other news outlets who similarly fell for the scam) was going wall-to-wall with unsupported insinuations about voter fraud by ACORN, Democrats, and Obama.

I heard the news about the arrest of Jacoby just as I was heading out for an appearance on Fox "News," so I was able to break the news on-air in my own "Fox 'News' Alert." (Video originally posted here, reposted at bottom of this item.)

Given the way the LA Times blog "covered" the story of Jacoby's plea --- not even mentioning the fact that this guy and his group were hired by the California state Republican Party --- I'd say it's a fair bet Fox wouldn't even have bothered to mention the original arrest at all had I not been on air and forcing them to do so myself. Much as they are unlikely to bother reporting Jacoby's plea today.

Ya think if the head of ACORN had made such a plea (or even been arrested at all) it might have been covered just a bit on Fox "News"?

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Here's the video from my appearance on Fox with inveterate GOP voter fraud hoaxster John Fund, on October 19, 2008. I broke the news of the arrest of the head of the CA GOP's voter registration outfit, which I had just received from the CA Secretary of State's office, in my own "Fox 'News' Alert"...

youtube fox/brad video

UPDATE: I hadn't noted it originally (though it's available in a number of the links in the story above), but though Jacoby pleaded guilty to the most benign offense, in fact, his company is alleged to have changed thousands of registrations from Democratic to Republican, assuring that those voters would not be able to vote, as expected, in the Democratic primary. When they didn't outright fake voter signatures on change of registration forms, they used tricks to get voters to give their signature, fooling them into thinking they were signing a petition against child molesters or for cancer hospital funding.

And since it's not clear to so many of the wingnuts linking into this post, allow me to underscore again that this was the head of the firm, which is also under investigation in three other states for similar activity. That all, of course, is a very different situation from ACORN where it was a handful of workers who were accused of registration fraud, and defrauding ACORN themselves, before being turned into official by ACORN themselves! Clear on that now, wingnuts? In the meantime, while voters were unable to cast votes at all thanks to Jacoby and YPM, there is not a single allegation of any actual voter fraud having been committed by, or at the behest of ACORN. They are, however, guilty of registering thousands upon thousands of low to middle income voters, who tend to vote Democratic, and thus, they continue to be the target of phony, baseless attacks from the desperate rightwing.

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Here's another good take on this from Paul Lehto at Alternet:

Here's What Vote Fraud Really Looks Like

California Republican Party's sponsorship of the firm YPM is a voter fraud oak tree compared to the innocent ACORN.

Extensive national media coverage of alleged voter registration fraud by ACORN has fanned fears of "voter fraud" by Democratic forces. Given this fact, it's more than a little remarkable that the media has not seen fit to present more balanced coverage. The media could easily do so by reporting, at the same level as ACORN, the far more serious, documented and provable story of election fraud by Young Political Majors, LLC (YPM). YPM's owner Mark Jacoby was recently arrested in California on two felony counts of voter registration fraud and two counts of perjury, as reported in the LA Times October 20. But these 4 charges are the tip of the YPM iceberg. The omission of YPM from the national debate is helping to set the general election on a course of confusion and disfranchisement -- consistent with YPM's undisputed record of disfranchising voters in primary elections earlier this year. As with the case of Tiffany Hofstetter, YPM's activities even include wholesale forgeries of real voters' registration affidavits, that results in them losing their right to vote.

Unlike ACORN's issues (which are almost exclusively the rejection of submitted registration applications that never actually make it onto voter rolls), YPMs frauds are not scrutinized, remain on the rolls, and are therefore far more serious. YPM also differs from ACORN in the following other respects:

(1) YPM usually works directly for the Republican Party, usually in late summer and fall after the primaries are over, even though its main activity seems to be switching Democrats and Independents to Republican status;

(2) The California Republican party admits it knew of YPM's sordid history of alleged fraudulent practices when it hired them, which is available on the internet;

(3) YPM's un-scrutinized frauds continue to impact the voting rights of perfectly legal voters, limiting the ability of Democrats to Get Out the Vote of their own supporters.

(4) YPM in California has twice as many registrations accepted (70,000+) as ACORN has merely submitted (39,570 in California)

(5) YPMs registrations still affect the registration rolls, erroneously listing some voters as absentee who are not, changing addresses, and altering party statistics which influences fundraising for candidates, whether districts are considered "competitive" and influencing what election results mean or whether they are considered suspicious.

read more

a comment from alternet puts it into perspective:

"Why haven't we heard of this organization before? Why haven't we heard of this allegations (and prosecutions) before?

ACORN was completely vilified for incomplete and inaccurate voter REGISTRATION but they haven't been formally accused (as in, by any government law agency) of voter fraud.

Yet, verifiable examples of voter fraud by the republicans is covered up? Way to drop the ball, liberal media. Too bad it's this late in the game to really make a difference.'

:snort:

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Mission Accomplished!

Iraqi Oil Minister accused of mother of all sell-outs

To public fury, the country is handing over control of its fields to foreign companies

Furious protests threaten to undermine the Iraqi government's controversial plan to give international oil companies a stake in its giant oilfields in a desperate effort to raise declining oil production and revenues.

In less than two weeks, on 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain Shahristani, will award service contracts to the world's largest oil companies to develop six of Iraq's largest oil-producing fields over 20 to 25 years.

Senior figures within the Iraqi oil industry have denounced the deal. Fayad al-Nema, the director of the South Oil Company, which comes under the Oil Ministry and produces most of Iraq's crude, said on the weekend: "The service contracts will put the Iraqi economy in chains and shackle its independence for the next 20 years. They squander Iraq's revenues." Mr Nema is reported to have since been fired because of his opposition to the contracts, which he says is shared by many other officials in Iraq's state-owned oil industry.

read on

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The jokes are writing themselves...again.

Judge to review Cheney interview in CIA leak case


WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Thursday that he wants to look at notes from the FBI's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney's interview from the public.

Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.

"If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate," Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith said during a 90-minute hearing. "I don't want a future vice president to say, `I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for 'The Daily Show.'"

Sullivan said the Justice Department must give him more precise reasons for keeping the information confidential than they had in previous court filings.

Cheney agreed to talk to FBI agents in June 2004 as they were investigating the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters the year before. Her name was revealed after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.

The leak touched off a lengthy inquiry that led to Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, being convicted on charges of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. During his trial, jurors found that Libby lied to the FBI and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, and he never served prison time.

Libby was the only person charged in the case. No one was charged with leaking Wilson's name.

read more



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Great Pic!

We can learn a lesson from the freedom loving Iranian people and ...d r i f t g l a s s





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UPDATE!

06/19/09 ...all reports agree...

tomorrow there will be blood.



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Following the Iran news through "Andrew Sullivan's - The Daily Dish."



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Bill O'Reilly 'Goes Nuts' On Joan Walsh of Salon.com Over Dr. Tiller Controversy

That's the way ya do it Joan.

Watch till the end where he admits and apologizes for the Tenn. church shooter.

a little background on Dr. McHugh via hufpo blogger DrJulienArbor:

Joan may have a difficult time challenging Dr. McHugh, but I'd be glad to do it... and I also don't care how prestigious of a position he held or what university he was affiliated with. The following links are some examples of Dr. McHugh's work...

http://www.psycom.net/mchugh.html

http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.php/tag/paul-mchugh-md/

http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13798

http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/paul-mchugh.html

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/McHugh/McHugh%20on%20Transsexualism.htm

This are some of the most outrageously irresponsible claims that I have ever seen by someone in the "mental health care" system. Not only is his agenda blatantly obvious... but he's DEAD WRONG regarding dissociation, repressed memories, the epidemic of child sexual abuse including ritualized abuse. And when it comes to Charcot... he either doesn't read French, is ignorant of Charcot's history... or he IS lying!

He's correct about one thing though... the number of psychiatric diagnosis in DSM should be reduced. As a matter of fact... the entire DSM should be ELIMINATED!




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Krugman on CONservative Driven Hate and Murder

Back in April, there was a huge fuss over an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security warning that current conditions resemble those in the early 1990s — a time marked by an upsurge of right-wing extremism that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Conservatives were outraged. The chairman of the Republican National Committee denounced the report as an attempt to “segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration” and label them as terrorists.

Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.

Exhibit A for the mainstreaming of right-wing extremism is Fox News’s new star, Glenn Beck. Here we have a network where, like it or not, millions of Americans get their news — and it gives daily airtime to a commentator who, among other things, warned viewers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might be building concentration camps as part of the Obama administration’s “totalitarian” agenda (although he eventually conceded that nothing of the kind was happening).

But let’s not neglect the print news media. In the Bush years, The Washington Times became an important media player because it was widely regarded as the Bush administration’s house organ. Earlier this week, the newspaper saw fit to run an opinion piece declaring that President Obama “not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself,” and that in any case he has “aligned himself” with the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

And then there’s Rush Limbaugh. His rants today aren’t very different from his rants in 1993. But he occupies a different position in the scheme of things. Remember, during the Bush years Mr. Limbaugh became very much a political insider. Indeed, according to a recent Gallup survey, 10 percent of Republicans now consider him the “main person who speaks for the Republican Party today,” putting him in a three-way tie with Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich. So when Mr. Limbaugh peddles conspiracy theories — suggesting, for example, that fears over swine flu were being hyped “to get people to respond to government orders” — that’s a case of the conservative media establishment joining hands with the lunatic fringe.

read on

via a hufpo blogger:

"You don't see Democrats wanting to invade countries under false pretenses, diverting our national wealth to cronies at Haliburton, Big Pharma, the oil companies, trashing the constitution, corrupting the Department of Justice, demanding unrestrained capitalism that threatens our democracy.
To suggest that responsible government involvement, a return to its rightful place in governing is a move to Marxism is insane."

another:

"I was heartened to learn that 3 of the indictments of Rwandan war criminals in the Hague were for radio broadcasters. Not only did they gin up hatred toward the Tutsis, they coordinated the attacks by telling Hutus it was time to go and kill their neighbors. They were all convicted on various counts of genocide and conspiracy, though I don't know what happened on appeal.

Read about the convictions here:
http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/5622?show=full

The article below, about the original indictments, also mentions the fact that Streicher, publisher of Der Sturmer, which incited hatred of Jews in 1930's Germany, was sentenced to the gallows at Nuremberg.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/163/28824.html

It appears that something awful -- not just one murder here and there -- has to happened before people get called to account. It would be nice to nip it in the bud, for a change."




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RIGHT-WING VIOLENCE....

via Political Animal

...In light of the shootings at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. this afternoon, allegedly committed by white supremacist James Von Brunn, Matt Yglesias noted, "I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feel appropriately ashamed of themselves."

It's hardly an unreasonable point. Two months ago, Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist, allegedly gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban." A few weeks ago, Scott Roeder, another right-wing extremist, allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. A few hours ago, Von Brunn, another right-wing extremist, allegedly opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

There are other recent examples that bear similar characteristics. This story out of Tennessee from last year continues to haunt.

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical. [...]

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of "the liberal movement," and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his "hatred of the liberal movement," Owen said. "Liberals in general, as well as gays."

Obviously, we're dealing with sick individuals here. There are key differences between violent right-wing radicals and mainstream Americans who happen to be conservative. Indeed, I'm not suggesting that conservative activists are necessarily dangerous, violent people.

I am suggesting that it makes sense of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate and communicate with law enforcement agencies about potentially violent extremists -- of every ideological stripe -- to help prevent tragedies like the ones we've seen lately.

The DHS report specifically addressed the possibility of violence from anti-abortion radicals and anti-Semitic extremists. And in the last two weeks, Tiller was assassinated and a white supremacist opened fire at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today.

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Sean Hannity interviews Sarah Palin

Via...

d r i f t g l a s s

bottled water spit

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